University launches own food brand

The South’s first land-grant college, Auburn University, established its College of Agriculture in 1872, and has been on the forefront of research in animal sciences, fisheries, food production, horticulture and biosystems engineering for over a century. Glenn Loughridge, the school’s director of Tiger Dining for the past five years, has been gradually harnessing all that on-campus research and production to source more food for the dining program. To highlight that sourcing, the university has launched an Auburn Foods brand that includes a logo wherever those foods are served in Auburn dining locations. The brand officially launched April 21st with a kick-off event attended by upwards of 700 students. 

“We want to point to not only our local sourcing but to our great Auburn food programs that have been a part of our university from the very beginning,” said Loughridge of the branding that includes a fork logo and the tagline local, fresh, pure. “With a prominent brand designation, our food science students get to see the fruits of their labor served on campus, and the campus community gets a window into that part of our university.”

Auburn Foods are currently served in six of the university’s 30 dining locations; many of the locations on campus are national brands so Loughridge can’t affect sourcing. The brand includes an assortment of fresh foods such as meat and produce as well as items like trail mix and grits. “Through our partnerships with the university’s meat labs, we now get about 80 pounds of pork a day and 500 pounds of grass-fed beef a week,” said Loughridge.

The dining program is also able to source an abundance of cucumbers and tomatoes year-round because of cutting edge research by Auburn’s fisheries, horticulture and biosystems engineering departments. The E. W. Shell Fisheries Center is an on-campus, closed-loop, aquaponics system, which includes greenhouses for produce as well as a tilapia fishery that can produce 250 pounds of fish at a time. 

Part of Auburn Food is the school's tilapia farm.

As on-campus production increases to meet the dining program’s demands, new challenges emerge. For example, Loughridge says: “The fishery didn’t have a place to process the tilapia. We also needed someone skilled at cleaning fish. We didn’t want to risk losing the freshness of the fish by outsourcing, so we had to hire someone to clean the fish and created a dedicated space for that in our kitchen.” 

The Auburn Foods brand also includes items such as yogurt-covered pretzels and trail mix sold in on-campus convenience stores, a project of Auburn’s food science students who are learning about packaging. The brand also encompasses food products by Auburn alum as well as local farmers. “We sell Wickles Pickles, which is a product of two Auburn guys,” says Loughridge, “and organic grits and popcorn from McEwan and Sons, which is our current student government association treasurer’s family’s company in Birmingham.” 

Before launching the brand, Loughridge says they enlisted the help of freshman ambassadors and marketing students from the university’s business school. “They helped us zone in on what resonates with students,” says Loughridge. “It turns out freshmen, who are the highest users of our dining program, had a stronger reaction to the idea of ‘fresh’ than they did to ‘local’ even though they convey just about the same thing.” 

Part of Auburn Food is the school's tilapia farm.

“One of the difficult things with dining is connecting with students, and this generation loves a story,” says Loughridge. “They want to feel like they are making a difference. We think the Auburn Foods brand is going to generate an emotional connection and improve perceptions. Because we found that if we put an Auburn sticker on it, it’s instantly more valuable. It tells the story about where food comes from.” Loughridge said the brand’s exclusivity – that you can only buy Auburn Foods on campus – also adds value. 

With the brand now launched, Loughridge is hoping to expand chicken and egg offerings through a partnership with the school’s poultry program. He also wants to expand the greenhouses to grow more and different produce. He also has his eye on an Auburn hot sauce once pepper production is secured, campus-made honey through a partnership with a professor, and finding a local source for ice cream and coffee.

Loughridge credits the success of the program to the involvement of students. “Partner early and often with students because they will give you insights you won’t get anywhere else,” Loughridge advises those considering launching a similar food brand on campus.