O&R Awards $25,000 to Ramapo College's Mobile Food Lab
Re-fitted Bus Brings STEM Program to Local Schools K-8
Orange and Rockland Utilities, Inc. (O&R) has awarded Ramapo College a $25,000 grant to help support the college’s Mobile Food Lab (MFL) program and its related STEM activities.
Ramapo’s Mobile Food Lab is a retrofitted bus that brings the “field trip” to local schools K-8, allowing students to take part in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) activities without travelling. The MFL staff has developed STEM curriculum activities focused on discovery through hands-on learning since the 2016-2017 school year. From 2018 to 2020, the MFL team provided programming to 3,780 students and members of the community.
Dr. Angela Cristini, Ramapo College biology professor and vice president of Institutional Advancement, describes the educational impact the Mobile Food Lab has on students K-8 during a demonstration for community leaders in September 2019.
Orange & Rockland made its first grant to the MFL in 2019. That funding allowed the Mobile Food Lab to provide programming to 434 students in Mahwah, Oakland, and Ramsey.
The current project will continue MFL programming in Allendale, Mahwah, Oakland, and Ramsey, and will add the districts of Ringwood, Demarest, Cresskill and Closter in the 2021-2022 school year. All are communities served by Orange & Rockland’s wholly owned, New Jersey subsidiary Rockland Electric Company.
Orange and Rockland Utilities, Inc. (O&R), a wholly owned subsidiary of Consolidated Edison, Inc., one of the nation’s largest investor-owned energy companies, is a regulated utility. O&R provides electric service to approximately 300,000 customers in southeastern New York State (where its franchise name is Orange & Rockland) and northern New Jersey (where it’s Rockland Electric Company) and natural gas service to approximately 130,000 customers in New York.