The Real Food Challenge is an organization that trains and supports students leading campaigns demanding a shift in the food available on their campus to support local, humane farms and advocate for greater consideration of environmental consequences. Their goal is to shift $1 billion of existing university food budgets from industrial farms and unhealthy food to these kinds of foods that are better for us and our environment. This provides a framework of action that we can learn from and language that we can adapt to our own food choice campaign.

“Home.” Real Food Challenge, www.realfoodchallenge.org/.

 

Fort Lewis College of Durango, Colorado has signed on with Real Food Challenge, what has a set of food standards for lower environmental impact and healthier food products. On Fort Lewis College’s Environmental Center blog, a particularly interesting post describes the result of the most recent Vote Real campaign, a vote held for the student body to decide between two options that their dining services should implement. The choice was between buying from an organic yogurt producer and a farm that produces humanely-raised pork, the pork coming out on top. This is a fantastic system, and will provide insight on how student-led campaigns can produce change in a college’s dining services.

Thorne, A F. “Fort Lewis College Environmental Center Blog.” Fort Lewis College Environmental Center Blog, Fort Lewis College, 21 Feb. 2018, http://blogs.fortlewis.edu/ec/category/teams-projects/real-food-challenge/.