West Coast Real Food Challenge

About

The Real Food Challenge is a national organization of students advocating for healthy, just, and sustainable food on their college campuses. The Real Food Challenge began as a partnership between the CSSC and The Food Project, and it serves as both a campaign and a network. The campaign is to increase the procurement of real food on college and university campuses, with the national goal of shifting $1 billion toward real food by 2020. Since colleges and universities spend about $4 billion on food every year, our goal translates to 20% real food by 2020. By leveraging the purchasing power of colleges and universities, we can catalyze the transformation of the larger food system. The network offers a chance for students and their allies (those working on the campaign along with those who’ve yet to sign on) to make connections, learn from one another, and grow the movement.

Get Involved

  • Contact your regional coordinator today at westcoast (at) realfoodchallenge (dot) org
  • Sign up for our email list to get regular updates, news, and opportunities to get involved
  • Attend a regional event or gathering — we host summer leadership trainings, winter regional summits, and workshops at the CSSC Fall & Spring Convergences.
  • Join one of our regional conference calls! We talk on the first Sunday of every month at 7pm PST. Sign up for our newsletter to receive information about these calls.

Resources

Contact

  • Kelsey Meagher, California Regional Coordinator - westcoast (at) realfoodchallenge (dot) org
  • Fortino Morales, Campus Garden Coordinator - fortinomorales (at) gmail (dot) com
  • Tim Galarneau, Advisor - solseeker3 (at) gmail (dot) com

History and Accomplishments

National accomplishments

Since its official launch in Fall 2008, the national Real Food Challenge campaign has made great strides toward our mission of uniting students for a just and sustainable food economy:

  • Nearly 4,000 students at 350 universities have joined the challenge by participating in regional events and trainings, planting student farms and gardens, developing campus-based food policy, and implementing sustainability initiatives within their dining halls.
  • This winter, the Real Food Challenge hosted seven regional gatherings (including our west coast Strengthening the Roots: Food and Justice Convergence) and engaged nearly 1,000 students in developing campus-based initiatives around food justice and sustainability.
  • Almost twenty colleges and universities nationwide have piloted the Real Food Calculator, our tool for analyzing institutional food procurement.
  • Vandana Shiva, Michael Pollan, Anna Lappe, and others have joined our Advisory Committee, and we’ve been recognized by The Nation, Change.org, and the Earth Island Institute.

Regional accomplishments

California students have taken the lead in implementing the Real Food Challenge on their campuses:

  • After a statewide student campaign, the University of California adopted the UC Policies on Sustainable Foodservice, which include our goal of 20% sustainable food by 2020.
  • The Real Food Challenge has hosted two intensive leadership retreats and three regional summits to train hundreds of students to launch Real Food campaigns.
  • The Real Food Calculator has already been piloted by students at UC Irvine, UC Davis, UC Santa Barbara, Pomona College, and Cabrillo Community College.
  • Students are planting campus gardens, changing their curriculum, educating their peers, implementing sustainability initiatives, and cooking (and eating!) real food.

Campuses Involved