Local Seafood Student Ambassadors

New England is home to 200 college campuses with dining services and this represents an important marketplace for our region’s seafood. These higher learning institutions have an opportunity to foster a love of a broad range of local seafood in their dining halls that will be critical for our region’s future food security and economy. To that end, this initiative focuses on peer-to-peer awareness-building to increase local seafood consumption at Boston College, Bowdoin College, Southern Maine Community College, the University of Maine at Presque Isle, and the University of New Hampshire.

Teams of two student ambassadors on each campus are collaborating with their dining services to design marketing tools to encourage their peers to choose local seafood in their dining halls. Student preferences drive what is purchased by dining services, so engaging with students to create change amongst their peers can help push the needle towards more local seafood served on campus.

As the Gulf of Maine experiences climate change impacts, including shifts in the distribution and abundance of different fish, encouraging flexibility among consumers will be even more important. When consumers are open to what is abundant and choose a variety of seafood, they ensure that coastal communities can diversify and continue to depend on the water for their livelihoods. Over time, increased demand for seafood from institutions will give local fishermen more diverse opportunities.

Bowdoin students Alexis Mullen and Mattie Thomas talked about their experiences with the program so far, as they work to make real changes on their college campus.