Strategic Initiative Fund (SIF)

The Wolverine Kitchen Lab

The Michigan Kitchen Lab transforms the kitchen into a shared academic space where students practice interdisciplinary problem-solving at the intersection of food, culture, science, sustainability, and health. Rather than treating cooking as a demonstration or extracurricular activity, the Kitchen Lab frames the kitchen as a working laboratory where students learn by doing, becoming a practical bridge across sustainability, health, humanities, social sciences, STEM, democracy, and community engagement.

Located in Wolverine Village, the Kitchen Lab will provide a dedicated space for courses and co-curricular programming, where faculty, students, and researchers translate abstract concepts into embodied practice. By connecting classrooms with communities, the Lab advances Michigan's mission of life-changing education and public scholarship.

The Kitchen Lab will establish shared academic infrastructure across multiple units, generate more than 6,000 student credit hours annually, create or revise 15+ interdisciplinary courses, support more than 30 co-curricular and community events annually, and produce peer-reviewed scholarship on kitchen lab pedagogy. Long term, it aims to become self-sustaining through Michigan Dining support, participating course budgets, campus partnerships, and external funding, demonstrating how universities can engage communities as collaborators rather than passive audiences.