Good food, great traditions: CFANS community celebrates at Homecoming Parade
October 29, 2026
Last Friday, nearly 400 CFANS alumni, students, staff, faculty, and supporters gathered along the University of Minnesota Homecoming parade route for the CFANS Sampler, an event that has become a fall tradition.
Attendees enjoyed brats prepared by the Meat Science Lab, which is celebrating its 125th anniversary this year. The event also featured samples of two unreleased apple varieties currently in development at the Horticultural Research Center, campus-harvested honey, puffed Kernza — a perennial grain recognized for its soil and water quality benefits — and fresh cheese from the Pilot Plant. In addition, CFANS offered parade-goers a taste of North Star Apple Crisp, a new ice cream flavor developed to celebrate the University’s 175th anniversary.
Community engagement and philanthropy were central to the gathering. The CFANS Alumni Society Board hosted a putt-putt activity to raise money for the CFANS Alumni Society New Student Scholarship Fund as part of its ongoing Harvey Jones Scholarship Fundraiser series. The Graduate Student Board snapped instant photos of graduate student attendees to create a interactive collage of the event.
The energy peaked as the Homecoming parade passed the Sampler, where the crowd brought extra enthusiastic cheers for CFANS community members marching in the parade — including Grand Marshal Pat Duncanson, Homecoming Royalty Antonio Becker, the CFANS Undergraduate Student Board, and several affiliated student organizations.
