Co-owners of The Wonderful Company Lynda and Stewart Resnick have promised $50 million to UC Davis. This gift is the largest ever received by the university from individual donors. This pledge will support sustainability research at the land grant university as well as establish the Lynda and Stewart Resnick Center for Agricultural Innovation on UC Davis campus.
“Thanks to this historic gift from Lynda and Stewart Resnick, UC Davis will further expand its global reach, helping to shape the future of sustainable food production,” said Gary S. May, chancellor of UC Davis, in a news release. “This gift demonstrates a continued commitment to innovative environmental stewardship and allows us to create science-based solutions that can be rapidly deployed while mitigating the impacts of climate change.”
The center is slated to begin construction in 2022 and, once built, the new 40,000-sq.-ft., LEED-certified facility will house classrooms, research spaces and a student career space.
$10 million of Lynda and Stewart Resnick’s donation to UC Davis will be allocated to fund competitive research grants through a Resnick Agricultural Innovation Research Fund. The research grants will be awarded annually to UC Davis faculty and Cooperative Extension specialists focused on identifying value-added properties in pistachio, almond and pomegranate byproducts.
“Many specialty crop byproducts are treasure troves of compounds that can promote health, improve soil quality, influence microbial ecology or be converted into valuable products,” said Helene Dillard, dean of the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, in the release. “This transformative gift will help increase the potential of these byproducts, enhance sustainability and create new markets.”
This research initiative is set up to unite experts from across UC Davis focused on five thematic areas:
- identifying innovative solutions for agricultural byproducts
- maximizing water and energy efficiencies
- developing next generation technologies
- making crops more resilient and sustainable in the face of a changing climate
- expanding access to nutritious food
The Lynda and Stewart Resnick Center for Agricultural Innovation center will also provide student advising for more than 60 Wonderful Scholars enrolled at UC Davis. The Resnicks first created the Wonderful scholarship program almost three decades ago to provide college scholarships to the children of Wonderful employees from the Central Valley. Since its inception, the program has expanded to award college scholarships to other Wonderful Company affiliated education centers and neighboring schools, according to the release.
The new center at UC Davis’s goal is to explore new ways of balancing food production with innovative sustainability practices while advancing global agriculture with scalable solutions to current challenges.
The Wonderful Company is one of the largest privately held companies in the U.S., with brands that include POM Wonderful, Wonderful Pistachios, Wonderful Halos and Wonderful Seedless Lemons. This pledge is one example of the Resnick’s investment in education, community development and health and wellness initiatives in California’s Central Valley.
