Small purple flowers growing outside

Community Outreach Committee

Community Outreach Committee

Community Outreach Committee (COC) Mission

  1. Developing and implementing outreach programs for a range of audiences, including K-12 students and non-technical adult audiences
  2. Actively promoting outreach opportunities, especially to groups which have historically not been in contact with Cornell Food Science
  3. Promoting opportunities to department members for ways to be involved in outreach
  4. Recording and reporting on outreach activities to the department, including those not organized through the COC.
Two students from COC presenting a table at the ScienceCenter

Introduction to Food Science Program

Learn about the different disciplines of food science and what food scientists in those roles do to help create safe and delicious food products!

  • Examples of disciplines covered:
    • food microbiology
    • food chemistry
    • food engineering
    • sensory science
    • product development
    • food safety

Food Science Experiment Demos

Watch, participate, and learn the science behind some food science experiments!

  • Best for kindergarten/elementary school aged audiences
  • Examples of demonstrations:
    • Using cabbage as a pH indicator, making sodium alginate gummy worms, fermenting vegetables, creating based food emulsions, demonstrate importance of handwashing in food safety

Careers in Food Science Panel

Learn about different career paths from a panel composed of students, faculty, and/or alumni with diverse career backgrounds followed by a question and answer session.

Current and Previous Partner Organizations

We have ongoing or past partnerships with the following organizations:

  • Khuba International
  • Collegiate Directions Inc.
  • Upward Bound
  • Friendship Donations Network
  • Education Projects
  • 4-H
  • Sciencenter
  • K-12 New York Schools in Horse Heads, Watkins Glen, and Brooklyn

New Organizations

If you are interested in having an event with the Cornell Food Science Department Community Outreach Committee or want more information, please fill out our contact form so we can learn more about your organization and needs!

We prioritize events with organizations that serve people from racial and ethnic groups that have been traditionally underrepresented in STEM, people with disabilities, and people from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Cornell - How to Get Involved

We are always looking for more people to get involved with events and share new ideas!

There are many ways to volunteer:

  • logistic planning of an event
  • volunteering day of an event
  • creating educational resources (presentations, videos, pamphlets, fact sheets)
  • connecting us with relevant organizations
  • suggest a new event idea

If you are looking to get involved, please fill out our volunteer interest form!

Annual Events Schedule

These are our established Fall events:

  • Graduate School Bootcamp
    • Run workshop sessions to help undergraduate students form URM institutions learn about graduate school and the application process
      • Done in the form of presentations, question and answer panels, and workshops
  • Food Drive
    • Create flyers and advertisements for the food drive
    • Aid with collecting, sorting, and transporting the donated items

These are our established Winter events:

  • Graduate School Admissions Review Committee
    • Evaluate Cornell Food Science graduate school applicants utilizing a holistic review model

These are our established Spring events:

  • Planning and preparation for summer events

These are our established Summer events:

  • Khuba International Summer Program Volunteers
    • Perform food science experiment demos and programming at their summer program for elementary age audiences
  • Sciencenter Food Science Day
    • Provide multiple tables of food science experiment demos for elementary age audiences to walk around and visit to learn about food science
  • 4-H Summer Program
    • Run creative sessions on food science during a multi-day summer program focused on agricultural sciences education
      • Examples: foodborne illness outbreak investigation, ice cream making competition, experiment demos, etc.

These opportunities are ongoing throughout the calendar year:

  • Outreach with schools and non-profit organizations (locally and virtually)
    • See educational programming for event types
  • Creating online content and/or educational resources for food science education
    • Videos, pamphlets, fact sheets, art, etc.

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