Best of CASE District VII Award
 

Institution: University of California, Davis

Title of entry: Spice it up! The 22nd Annual Shields Society Member Luncheon

About this entry: The Shields Society recognizes the thoughtful generosity of those who have made planned gifts to UC Davis or UC Davis Health. We thank our donors each year with a luncheon at the university, but with the COVID-19 pandemic still looming, we decided to get creative with the concept of a virtual luncheon by crafting an innovative way to bring UC Davis into the homes of our donors and still give them the luncheon they have grown to love. To turn our brainstorming sessions into reality, we collaborated with multiple areas that exude excellence at UC Davis: UC Davis Student Farm, UC Davis Health, UC Davis Honey and Pollination Center and UC Davis Olive Center.

The multidisciplinary collaboration resulted in the “Spice it up!” virtual event that not only brought a farm to table experience, but actually brought the UC Davis Student Farm and UC Davis chefs into kitchens across the U.S. We featured the inner-workings of the farm by showcasing the produce planted, grown, and harvested by students, followed by a cook-a-long and question & answer segment with world-class UC Davis Health chefs, Santana and James. Options of seasonal produce that would be available were provided and our chefs rose to the challenge to create a unique recipe for our donors. For those who wanted to cook-a-long, we filled baskets of produce and flowers hand-picked by students, olive oil, honey and special takeaways to leave our donors feeling empowered to stay healthy, think creatively and stay connected to UC Davis.