Since 2008, students in the Real Food Challenge (RFC) network have worked with their dining directors and other campus stakeholders to secure $48.5 million worth of pledges to purchase more local, fair, sustainable, and humane food. This work begins with the Real Food Calculator, a tool for students to track institutional purchasing over time and evaluate how much "real food" is in their cafeteria kitchens. On October 24th, 2011 (Food Day), RFC rolled out a new gold standard for campus food--a pledge for college and university presidents to sign, called the Real Food Campus Commitment. During its first seven months, seven university presidents and chancellors signed the pledge.
Students in the RFC network continue to work toward our goal of shifting $1 billion of existing university food budgets toward real food. Here are some of the successes they have contributed to so far:
St. Mary's College (IN)
Drew University (NJ)
Western State College (CO)
University of Vermont (VT)
University of California, Santa Cruz (CA)
College of the Atlantic (ME)
Wesleyan University (CT)
Beloit College (WI)
Brown University (RI)
Cabrillo College (CA)
Carleton College (MN)
Cornell College (OH)
Drew University (NJ)
Eastern Washington University (WA)
Evergreen State College (WA)
Hamilton College (NY)
Iowa State University (IA)
Kalamazoo College (MI)
Macalester College (MN)
Pacific University (CA)
Pomona College (CA)
Saint Mary's College (IN)
San Rafael School District (CA)
Skidmore College (NY)
St. Olaf College (MN)
University of Washington (WA)
University of California - Berkeley (CA)
University of California - Davis (CA)
University of California - Irvine (CA)
University of California - Santa Barbara (CA)
University of California - Santa Cruz (CA)
University of Maryland - College Park (MD)
University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill (NC)
University of Vermont (VT)
Washington University in St. Louis (MO)
Wesleyan University (CT)
Western Washington University (WA)
Whitman College (WA)
Real Food Campus Commitment Endorsements
California Climate and Agriculture Network
Community Alliance for Global Justice
Cooperative Food Empowerment Directive (CoFed)
CS Mott Group for Sustainable Food Systems
Equal Exchange
Fair Food Network
Green America
Greenhorns
Humane Society of the United States
Johnson County Local Food Alliance (Iowa City, IA)
Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Working Group (NESAWG)
Northwest Agriculture Business Center
Red Tomato
Roots of Change
Sierra Student Coalition
Student/Farmworker Alliance
UniteHERE!
Vermont Secretary of Agriculture Chuck Ross
Updated October 23, 2012
