Experiential Learning Project

THE OPPOSITE OF MARKETING – NUTRITION EDITION

Food & Nutrition Innovation Institute

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Halo Lasso

Directed Study course, Experiential Learning project, and/or Extracurricular Portfolio piece

About the Food & Nutrition Innovation Institute

The Food & Nutrition Innovation Institute (FNII) at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science & Policy exists to convene, connect, and collaborate at the intersection of nutrition and food tech innovation. Among other initiatives, the FNII hosts the Seeding the Future Food Systems Innovation Lab.

The STF Food Systems Innovation Lab is training the next generation of leaders through skills such as human centered design and entrepreneurship. Climate change, nutrition inequities, and increasing urban populations are driving an urgent need for impactful solutions. Established by Dr. Bernhard van Lengerich, the Seeding the Future (STF) Foundation seeks to seed and accelerate innovative, multidisciplinary, and scalable approaches that sustainably and equitably improve the global food supply.

As part of this effort, the STF Food Systems Innovation Lab hosts an Innovators in Residence program. for professionals working in food and/or nutrition innovation, food systems, foodtech, marketing, policy, the arts, and other areas of professional expertise that can be related and leveraged for food systems innovation.

Innovators in Residence leverage their expertise to create a project that engages students from the Friedman School of Nutrition and other graduate and/or undergraduate programs at Tufts University. Innovators in Residence lead the students in human-centered problem identification, and design and implementation of relevant solutions.

About this project

The Opposite of Marketing – Nutrition Edition teaching marketing for early-stage food brands and nutrition-oriented organizations. It is led by Eric Kiker, Innovator in Residence at FNII and Principal at Halo Lasso, a marketing strategy agency for food brands. This project focuses on early-stage food brands and nutrition-adjacent organizations who believe in the power of transparency, education and more respectful communication to build a better food system. The goal of this project is to connect early-stage food brands and related organizations with creatively strategic, highly engaged students who want to help create a better food system, in order to deliver valuable marketing experience to the students and a differentiating message to help the organization communicate better and win.

What you’ll do

Guided by Eric Kiker, students will work in pairs or small groups to engage a pre-identified early-stage food brand and/or organization in a semester-long project to create a differentiated messaging strategy.

Key outputs of the project include (1) brand position – the unique elevator pitch; (2) brand promise – the tag line; and (3) brand story – the expanded elevator pitch.

Following an introductory training workshop led by Eric, students will directly engage early-stage food businesses in discovery sessions and produce marketing material for their food brand. Throughout the guided and highly interactive 13-week process, students will learn about food brand and nutrition marketing, host client-facing workshops with their assigned organization, and work together to create provocative messaging.

This entire project is delivered virtually, and open to all Tufts graduate and undergraduate students enrolled in both residential and online programs.

What you’ll get

Through this project, students exercise skills and experience gained in the classroom and apply them to a real-world client-facing project. Under expert professional guidance and supervision, students deliver a body of work to a client, which can be added to their professional portfolio. Students demonstrate their skills and expertise in a professional context and network with industry leaders seeking to create a better food system.

The course can be taken as a directed study for academic credit, experiential learning credit hours, or as an extracurricular learning experience. How the course is taken is unique to each student and their academic needs. Processes for directed study academic credit or experiential learning hours may vary by Tufts school/program. It is the student’s responsibility to understand their credit requirements and complete the necessary paperwork. Please reach out to us with any questions.

Qualifications

• Enrolled in a degree-seeking program at Tufts University
• Desire to engage creatively with food brands and/or nutrition-adjacent organizations seeking to create a better food system
• Marketing and brand design or related experience is helpful, but not required
• Ability to work virtually as part of a team
• High level of professionalism in a client-facing role

To Join

The course meets on Fridays from 1-2 PM ET for the fall 2026 semester. All course activities are delivered virtually.

Email Hallie.maly@tufts.edu and include the following:

• Name and contact information
• Tufts school/program of study and prospective graduation date
• How you will be formalizing your participation (select 1)
  • Directed / independent study for academic credit
  • Experiential learning credit hours
  • Extracurricular learning experience (no formal academic or degree-related credit)