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07 January 2025 | Story Leonie Bolleurs | Photo Anja Aucamp
Food Garden
Students transport fresh vegetables from the university's sustainable vegetable tunnels for distribution to their peers. These vegetables play a role in promoting healthy eating habits and ensuring students have access to healthy meals, making a difference in their overall well-being and academic success.

“I’m writing this email to express my gratitude for what you and your office do. I don’t think you can fully understand how grateful I am for the food parcels. I’m able to go to bed with food in my stomach, all because of you and your team, and for that, I am so thankful. Before I found out about your office, I was stressed about where my next meal would come from. Now, I perform incredibly well in my studies. I honestly pray and hope that the office continues to receive the support it needs to continue being of assistance to those in need.” 

This letter is one of many received by the UFS Food Environment Office, highlighting the important role the university plays in supporting students struggling with food insecurity. 

Healthy food choices 

Five years ago, the university established the institutional Food Environment Committee (FETC) to provide guidance and recommendations to the university administration on matters relating to the food environment of the university. The aim of the FETC is to promote healthy and sustainable food choices across all three UFS campuses. 

The committee is also responsible for assessing the food needs of vulnerable groups to ensure inclusive and accessible programmes, overseeing strategy implementation, and advocating participation across the campus. Additionally, they ensure that university policies do not detract from the policies and activities of the Food Environment Strategy in order to promote a culture of health and wellness across the UFS. The committee also engages in continuous planning and budgeting to keep the strategy relevant and effective. 

Some of their key strategic objectives include strengthening sustainability through more collaborative food projects and partnerships. They also aim to improve food security by increasing affordable, nutritious meal options. These also talk to the number of students supported through food bursaries, and the quantity of food items distributed through food banks. Other goals focus on ensuring dignity and inclusivity, and activating residences, student associations, and faculty organisations in the food environment programme.  

Dr WP Wahl, Director of Student Life in the Division of Student Affairs, explains that the committee includes stakeholders from academic, support services, and student groups. Its purpose is to oversee different priority projects within the institution that speak to addressing hunger and malnutrition among students. Key members include Student Affairs, the Student Representative Council, food service providers, Kovsie Act, and faculty representatives, such as the Department of Nutrition and Dietetics in the Faculty of Health Sciences and the Department of Sustainable Food Systems and Development in the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences. These departments play a vital role in empowering and educating students, sharing information through videos, podcasts, and recipes on Facebook, the Food Environment webpage, and the Student Newsletter, as well as the Eat&Succeed page on Blackboard. 

The Department of Nutrition and Dietetics is also closely involved in research, ensuring that decisions are based on scientific data. For instance, they compiled the 2021 and 2022 UFS Food Environment Task Committee Report, revealing that only 27% of UFS students are food secure, with 74% experiencing various degrees of food insecurity. In 2022, 39% of students reported going without food for a day because they could not afford it,  and for 13%, this was almost a daily occurrence. 

This research also examined, among others, eating patterns, food purchasing behaviours, and preparation habits that guide decisions to improve the university’s food environment and inform messaging to students. 

Also playing a key role in executing the goals of the committee is the Department of Sustainable Food Systems and Development and Kovsie Act with the vegetable tunnels that were created on the Bloemfontein Campus and now on the South Campus for a sustainable flow of fresh produce that is channelled towards the food bank. 

A supportive environment 

The goal of promoting collaboration and mutually beneficial partnerships is to make a difference in the food environment at the university. Annelize Visagie, who is heading the Food Environment Office, highlights the university’s partnerships with major sponsors such as Gift for the Givers and Tiger Brands, who assist with food parcels. The No Student Hungry Programme (NSH) also has donors supporting its bursary initiative. 

Since 2011, the university has made great strides in combating food insecurity through the NSH, which has supported the graduation of 875 students. Visagie finds it particularly rewarding to witness these graduates celebrate their achievements alongside their families, who express gratitude for the assistance provided. Such moments affirm the positive impact of their efforts in creating a supportive environment for students in need. 

News Archive

UFS researchers are producing various flavour and fragrance compounds
2015-05-27

 

The minty-fresh smell after brushing your teeth, the buttery flavour on your popcorn and your vanilla-scented candles - these are mostly flavour and fragrance compounds produced synthetically in a laboratory and the result of many decades of research.

This research, in the end, is what will be important to reproduce these fragrances synthetically for use in the food and cosmetic industries.

Prof Martie Smit, Academic Head of the Department of Microbial, Biochemical and Food Biotechnology at the UFS, and her colleague Dr Dirk Opperman, currently have a team of postgraduate students working on the production of various flavour and fragrance compounds from cheap and abundantly available natural raw materials. 

Prof Smit explains that most of the flavours and fragrances that we smell every day, originally come from natural compounds produced mainly by plants.

“However, because these compounds are often produced in very low concentrations by plants, many of these compounds are today replaced with synthetically-manufactured versions. In recent times, there is an increasing negative view among consumers of such synthetic flavour and fragrance compounds.”

On the other hand, aroma chemicals produced by biotechnological methods, are defined as natural according to European Union and Food and Drug Administration (USA) legal definitions, provided that the raw materials used are of natural origin.  Additionally, the environmental impact and carbon footprint associated with biotech-produced aroma chemicals are often also smaller than those associated with synthetically-produced compounds or those extracted by traditional methods from agricultural sources.

During the last four years, the team investigated processes for rose fragrance, vanilla flavour, mint and spearmint flavours, as well as butter flavour. They are greatly encouraged by the fact that one of these processes is currently being commercialised by a small South African natural aroma chemicals company. Their research is funded by the Department of Science and Technology and the National Research Foundation through the South African Biocatalysis Initiative, the DST-NRF Centre of Excellence in Catalysis and the Technology Innovation Agency, while the UFS has also made a significant investment in this research.

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