Will Students Eat “Real Food”?
The new school year is underway, and students need to eat! Colleges and universities in the USA apparently spend some $4 billion on food each year. That is a sizeable amount – changing food choices at student level could have a significant impact on the national food system. Student food is normally associated with fast food, fries and pizza. Student initiative the Real Food Challenge works to bring “real food” into campus canteens – locally grown, sustainable, fair trade food, instead of everything being from industrial farming and/or junk food.
Over 350 institutions have adopted local food initiatives and made their canteens greener by starting college farms or creating farm-to-cafeteria programs.
Some have opened farm stores like the one at Cal Poly Pomona, or started programs which connect colleges and universities with local producers who provide local farm products for meals and special events.
Some institutions have on-campus farmers’ markets, including UC Davis, US Santa Cruz, UC San Diego, Stanford, Rice, Boston University, Harvard, Brown, Purdue, Portland State and the University of Minnesota.
There will always be a place for fries and junk food at university (it’s what I lived on!), but I think it’s great to offer greener options to students.
The Real Food Challenge organization seems to be well-organized with clear goals – I hope they go from strength to strength!
Photo Credit: istockphoto microsoft
I met a woman last night who is involved in a housing development for older citizens here in Costa Rica…one that will start with independent living and go to assisted living. It will have a wellness clinic and a grocery. But it will be the first ECO development of its kind here…and will provide healthy food for the hotel on site, as well the restaurants and apts. I cant wait to visit!
Sonya Lenzo
That is such a cool development!
Let me know what you think, once you have seen it!
Hi Green Goddess,
It completely makes sense that Aggies focused UC Davis in the University of California school system would have their own farm. I like this idea for produce and students and Student Unions and Cafeterias being eco-friendly. We are what we eat afterall!
Happy Dating and Relationships,
April Braswell
The On-Campus Farmers’ Markets are a great idea and I hope they work. The Real food challenge is interesting because of all the factors involved with peers as well as time constraints with school.
You’re right Kevin, it’s a huge challenge. I know when I was at university, eating healthily was the last thing on my mind, but I think many students are different now – I hope the Real Food Challenge works! I’ll have some more campus initiatives next week. Thanks!
I started going to Farmers’ Markets when I lived in Davis. Unfortunately, they didn’t have this program when I went to school at UC Davis. Too bad. Even back then, I thought the food choices close to campus left something to be desired.
That’s great Scott! Thanks for the info!
And I’ll be doing a follow-up article on other green initiatives at universities shortly.
It’s a great idea with loads of benefits, healthy food benefitting healthy minds.
[…] I blogged about the many campuses which are sourcing and offering healthy food to their students instead of the usual easy fast […]
The Real Food Challenge sounds like a great program and I hope they continue to succeed and grow.
Michael