No, I don’t think it would, so probably not worth the effort.
My kid went to UMass Amherst. It’s a large flagship state U in western Mass, part of the 5 college consortium with 4 other schools, all highly respected small liberal arts colleges. There is a beautiful new honors campus with great dorms, and the food is consistently ranked the best in the country. It’s in a beautiful, safe area. I loved visiting my kid there. I think your daughter would be offered honors college and possibly the max OOS merit aid, currently 16K/yr, bringing overall cost to about 35K/yr.
I really think that she should look at U Md College Park, also. It has an excellent reputation. I would say that overall, as a flagship state U, it’s a notch below UNC, U Mich, and UVa, but it’s still a very good school,and probably overall a bit higher ranked than UMass Amherst.
And I think that you should have her apply to U Missouri, too, as a safety, both financially and academically, that has a good program, even though she wants to go away. The reason is that it’s cheap tuition for her, and they have a good food science department. The fact is, a lot of our nation’s food is produced and processed in the Midwest.
I love to hear about students who have intense interests in fields of importance to the world. Maybe someday she’ll be the head of the USDA Food and Nutrition subsection. BTW, that is another EXCELLENT reason for her to consider College Park, Md. It is on a commuter rail line into Washington, DC, and she is the type of kid who should intern for the USDA’s programs to reduce food waste, both nationally and internationally. She might be able to get a semester internship from another school, but she could possibly get an ongoing internship, one day a week, all through college, at the USDA in Washington, DC. I’m sure that would be just as much an education as school would be. In terms of proximity to DC, George Washington U has Nutrition Science, but it sounds more about nutrition, than about food science.
Illinois Urbana Champaign pops up at the top of the list for Food Science on a number of lists.