Metropolitan State University students may soon learn how to sustainably grow food and promote health and nutrition as part of a new degree program.

The food, community and sustainability degree comes at a time when consumers are opting for local, sustainably produced food, and companies such as General Mills and Land O'Lakes are taking note of these demands.

The proposed program, which organizers hope to launch in fall 2016, aims to combine principals of healthy eating with biology, community psychology and business. Students should be prepared to find jobs in community gardens, nonprofit food banks, health and nutrition, and other food-related areas.

August Hoffman, a psychology professor at Metro State in St. Paul who is spearheading the program, said the school also will partner with Dakota County Community College, Hennepin Technical College and Inver Hills Community College to create pathways for students who want to earn a four-year degree.

Students who earn a 60- credit associate's degree from partnering colleges would be able to complete the remaining 60 credits at Metro State to complete their bachelor's degree.

"We're trying to make it a single-step process," Hoffman said.

Hoffman added that the program will also help students get experience through paid internships in St. Paul's Dayton's Bluff neighborhood at Urban Roots and Urban Oasis, which provide healthy cooking classes and operate urban gardens in the city.

The program also seeks to partner with Mississippi Market, which opened a new location on East Seventh Street this fall.

Summer Badawi, the market garden program manager at Urban Roots, said the high cost and availability of fresh produce is one of the largest struggles she's noticed with people in the community.

Before Mississippi Market opened in Dayton's Bluff, the U.S. Department of Agriculture classified the neighborhood as a food desert, an area where nutritious foods are difficult to obtain without access to a car.

"The program sits so well with the work we're already doing, and it sits with our model," Badawi said.

The popularity of undergraduate programs in agriculture and food sciences has grown over the past few years, said Julie Grossman, an assistant professor of sustainable and organic food systems at the University of Minnesota.

"We're hearing more and more from employers who want students who have food-science skills and understand how skill sets fit in school systems," Grossman said.

In May, Hoffman led a group of Metro State students to plant several fruit trees in an impoverished area of Guatemala as part of class. Hoffman said he hopes the new program adds to existing efforts to give students experience abroad.

Psychology senior Deanna Griffin went on the 10-day trip to Guatemala. She said she found teaching villagers how to grow their food source gratifying.

"Showing them what they can make in their community showed them how to make it their own," she said. "It was very cool being down there."

Griffin, an Army National Guard veteran, added that activities such as gardening offered her a sense of peace and may also be helpful for reducing the stresses some veterans have when they return from active service.

Students who enroll in the program will also have experience opportunities around Minnesota.

Earlier this fall, Metro State students harvested about 1,500 pounds of apples at Sunrise River Farm in Wyoming, Minn., that had fallen off the trees -- apples that would have been left to waste.

"We were able to make apple pies, apple jams," Hoffman said. "There's so many things you can make from food that would have gone to waste."

The new program may also push school officials to open a greenhouse behind the campus library, said Metro State Psychology Department Chair Gary Starr.

The college acquired the greenhouse from the University of Minnesota, which had used it for research. The greenhouse would need to be refurbished before it can be used, Starr said.

The school's organizers hope to launch the degree program next fall pending approval from the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system.

Youssef Rddad can be reached at 651-228-5578