Colleges and universities have always been a breeding ground for change. Active minds, looking firmly toward a future that will bring better things to our society, all concentrated in groups still fervent in the enthusiasm of youth—these are the people on whom we pin our hopes for a better tomorrow. If it’s up to a rapidly growing college-based movement called Real Food Challenge (RFC), that tomorrow will include sustainably grown food being served on campuses—as well as everywhere else.
“Real Food Challenge was founded by students, recent graduates and other young people who were really committed to creating a just and sustainable food system,” Real Food Challenge co-founder David Schwartz, a recent graduate of Brown University, explained to Organic Connections. “We’re talking about food that is ethically produced, with fair treatment of workers, equitable relationships with farmers—locally and abroad—and humanely treated animals. It’s food that is environmentally sustainable, grown without chemical pesticides, large-scale monocropping or huge carbon footprints.
“Choosing the term Real Food was our effort to find some common ground. There are just so many names and titles out there that people often get confused. There’s slow food, organic food, local food and many others. Often you’ll hear debates about which is more important. In talking about real food, we’re saying that all of these things are important to us and actually not in conflict with one another.”
Formally launched in the fall of 2008, Real Food Challenge is growing rapidly. Their network comprises over 3,000 students on more than 300 campuses around the country, including 55 locations that are worked with intensively to promote real food research projects and real food advocacy and educational campaigns on their campuses.
RFC events are constantly happening and three major ones are planned in the next month alone: a Southeast Youth Food Activist Summit, a regional gathering in California of 200-plus students called the Food and Justice Convergence, and another convergence in the northeast.
“For our summits, college students and high school students from a particular region can all get together and discuss these issues,” said Schwartz. “We bring in experts from that region who are on the ground working in communities with farmers, farm workers, and everything in between to get real food activities off the ground. There’s incredible learning and also action planning. Students are able to leave and actually go back to their campuses with some great project ideas and opportunities to put them into action.”
For their Advisory Committee, the RFC has pulled in some heavy hitters from the sustainable-food movement, including acclaimed authors and activists Michael Pollan and Anna Lappé.
At the hub of Real Food Challenge is their website (www.realfoodchallenge.org), containing all the vital information about their activities, a multitude of resources, and opportunities for interested people to get connected to each other and to RFC.
A major part of the initial spark for the creation of Real Food Challenge came about when Schwartz and some others realized how much food purchasing power colleges actually had. “When we started to analyze what our biggest impact could be, we recognized that our colleges participate in what is a $5 billion food economy,” said Schwartz. “The college food service sector purchases $5 billion worth of food a year. That’s an incredible market segment that we as students have a great deal of influence over as customers, as constituents. So we thought, what if students really spoke up in a big way about shifting over that money? The impact on small and beginning farmers, on more mid-size sustainable farmers, and on socially responsible businesses of all sorts, including processors and distributors, could be really enormous.”
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Of course, that means getting colleges and universities dedicated to integrating sustainably and fairly grown and manufactured food into their food systems—and RFC is making great progress. “We’ve set a goal of getting $1 billion worth of food shifted from whatever it is now to sustainable production methods and socially responsible businesses by 2020; it’s a `20 percent by 2020’ pledge,” said Schwartz. “Just in our first year, we have gotten 13 colleges and universities to sign on. The entire University of California system, representing about $88 million worth of food purchases annually—just in its dining halls and cafeterias—has signed on to the pledge. Folks at Iowa State University, Brown University and Sarah Lawrence College have also committed to it, and I think many more are on the way.”
One might think it would be primarily private and more affluent schools that would become involved in such a program—but Schwartz has found this very much not to be the case. “I had an inkling that it wasn’t just the ‘Ivy League’ types of schools that were interested, and I was right. If you look at our network, there are a number of community colleges that are involved and are implementing some truly ambitious and impressive programs. The Southeast Summit is upcoming, and I was just talking with folks from University of South Florida, University of Central Florida, University of North Florida, and University of Memphis; it’s really all over.”
To find out more about the Real Food Challenge, or to become involved, visit their website at www.realfoodchallenge.org
