Student Group Brings Healthy Food to Campus

Since stepping on campus, Ivan Kumamoto always knew he wanted to do something to bring more organic, healthy, locally-grown food options to USC. He enjoyed and appreciated the Wednesday farmers markets held on McCarthy Quad. But he was often left wondering whether the produce he purchased satisfied all of the criteria he used while buying groceries as the supermarket: was the food organically grown, from a local farm, and did the farmer use sustainable agricultural practices?

The undergraduate business major had read up on the concept of community-supported agriculture (CSA), where consumers pay local farmers at the beginning of a growing season for weekly boxes of fresh produce. While on a class field trip earlier this year to an urban farm in Long Beach, he struck a deal with the local owner to start a CSA at USC.

Kumamoto launched the "SC Buyers Club" in October, and he estimates he already has between 20 and 30 members. Members can order a produce box every week, filled with chard, kale, guavas, berries, and other seasonall-dependent fruits and vegetables. The boxes cost between $17 and $25, depending on what's in them.