The Sustainability Initiative handed out a variety of food items, ranging from freshly grown tomatoes to ice cream produced in Hadley in the Student Union on Thursday to celebrate National Food Day. The goal was to raise student awareness about the benefits of supporting community grown food.

The initiative works to inform, educate, and promote sustainable practices to the campus community.

“We’re here not only to let the campus taste some great food, but to also raise sustainability awareness,” said Rachel Asfari, a junior eco-representative in Southwest. “This is a great event where students can find out about the eco-friendly projects on campus and how they can do their part to live sustainably on campus.”

For nearly five years, the University of Massachusetts Sustainability Initiative has explored numerous ways to enhance the University’s recycling practices by developing ideas and investing in new technologies. In 2011, a team of students and staff received a gold rating on a report they submitted to the Association for Sustainability in Higher Education on a campus-wide sustainability assessment.

Senior Billy Gravelle, a political science major, said the University has been doing an excellent job in promoting environmentally-friendly practices.

“We live in an environmentally conscious area here in western Mass,” he said. “The UMass recycling program has made significant strides. We’ve seen bins across campus that separates trash, bottles, and biodegradables – but we can always do more.”

Thursday’s event fostered an open house atmosphere. Visitors were welcomed to walk around to each table and learn about the several aspects of the initiative. At one table was the UMass Student Farm raising awareness about locally grown food. Student resource guides were published as a direct means of teaching students about how they can do their part.

The event also featured the live band “Melodeegos,” whose goal is to increase public awareness about green energy, the members said. Melodeegos’ equipment was powered in part by the “Pedal to Power” station, where students could pedal stationary bikes that provided direct power to the instruments.

Following the massive BP Gulf oil spill in 2010, the band decided to change its energy consumption by rejecting oil, gas, and coal corporations by producing its own energy. The members are activists for a green movement towards increasing eco-friendly practices across the country, they said.

Melodeegos has traveled across the country, bringing with it its bike powered concerts to events such as Occupy Wall Street, Boston and Washington, D.C. In addition to fighting against government’s fossil fuel policy, Melodeegos has performed for numerous state house rallies, colleges, and activist groups.

“We want to stay away from those detrimental fossil fuels, the ones that pollute our air and water. By using outlets and electricity, we are saying that it is okay to burn coal for energy,” said lead singer Peter Malagodi. “We know that every person we reach has the courage to take on the greatest challenges in history, an enough to change the world.”

The Sustainability Initiative implemented campus permaculture gardens as a means of offering natural and locally grown food items. The nationally-acclaimed UMass Permaculture Garden is one of the first student-led permaculture gardens on a public university campus in the nation.

It supplies food directly to the dining commons on campus. Since its start in 2011, it produced more than 1,000 pounds of vegetables a year. Currently, 30 percent of all food consumed by students in the dining commons is grown in the gardens.

John Conlin can be reached at [email protected].