The CSSC Food Systems Initiative is seeking system-wide commitments to sustainable campus food systems through the creation and implementation of clear guidelines that prioritize local, organic, and socially responsible purchasing as well as waste reduction and green dining facility standards. This will support the health of consumers and workers, local economies, the environment and California agriculture.

The Food Systems Initiative campaign works to:

• Represent student voice in advocacy for designing and implementing sustainable food system practices on higher education campuses.

• Serve as a forum for sustainability in food system concerns in higher education statewide.

• Improve the freshness and nutritional quality of campus food in response to the current obesity epidemic and nutrition crisis facing the state and nation.

• Raise awareness to administration, students, staff, faculty, and the community that food issues include environmental, health, and social affairs.

• Establish and clearly define components that comprise a sustainable food system (i.e. local, green, organic, socially responsible).

• Bring together diverse constituents and concerns through organizing around food.

• Promote awareness and consumption of sustainably produced food across higher education campuses.

• Develop campus and system-wide policies for sustainably purchasing, waste reduction, and green facility standards for campus dining services.

A BITE OF UC HISTORY:

As dining service departments begin to address sustainability around the country, students on UC campuses began to collectively organize. In Fall of 2004, students across the state initiated discussions pertaining to sustainable food system activities taking place at each other’s campuses. These University of California students met at UC Santa Barbara in October of 2004 for the California Student Sustainability Coalition’s (CSSC) statewide convergence to launch the UC Sustainable Foods Campaign. Previously the CSSC has organized and collaborated with diverse stakeholders in creating statewide policies addressing alternative energy and green building, as well as transportation. Most notably, perhaps, UC Regents approved the Green Building and Renewable Energy Policy in 2003, which mandates that new buildings outperform state energy-efficiency requirements by at least 20 percent. In 2002, before the CSSC began organizing and urging the university to seek renewable energy contracts, none of UC’s electricity came from renewable sources. Two years later, 16 percent does, making UC the largest university purchaser of renewable energy in the country.

Over the course of 2004–2005, the UC Sustainable Foods group developed its mission, goals, and statewide recommendations to address our campus food systems. They engaged each other on bi-weekly conference calls, organized quarterly retreats, visited each other’s campuses to lend support and share successful strategies for campus-based initiatives, and established inter-generational support through faculty, NGO reps, and leaders in the sustainable agri-food system movement. Now the campaign is expanding to encompass higher education institutions across California, engaging youth from CSUs, private colleges and universities, as well as community colleges.

Over the last two years students from the UC Sustainable Foods Campaign of the California Student Sustainability Coalition (CSSC) have worked in partnership with their student government (UCSA), student Regent, Board of Regents, Office of the President (UCOP), and Housing Directors to seek a University commitment to sustainable campus food systems. This commitment includes clear guidelines that prioritize local, organic, humane, and socially responsible purchasing as well as waste reduction and green dining facility standards. While individual campuses continue to develop their own food service initiatives, such across-the-board UC standards would provide campuses with minimum purchasing levels and baseline indicators for a sustainable food system, as well as establish ways to measure “best practices” for both contracted and in-house food service vendors and facilities.

Statewide Activities of the Student Campaign

1. Monthly conference calls amongst campuses
2. Quarterly convergences and leadership retreats
3. Establishing and facilitating collaborative Food Systems Working Groups on campuses
4. Hosting engaging educational outreach events for our campus communities
5. Working on statewide initiatives, including:
   1. Building bridges across all systems of higher education in CA
   2. Statewide Sustainable Food Service policy developments
   3. Statewide Education Weeks of Action
   4. UC-CSU-CCC Sustainability Conference Food Systems Coordination

CSSC Foods Statewide Achievements

1. Partnering on the national Real Food Challenge initiative in 2008 for west coast regional coordination
2. Building a statewide network of youth leaders in higher education and empowering them in the process of re-envisioning our campus food systems
3. Delivering over 7,000 postcards to the UC Regents in January 2006 toward a statewide food policy
4. Launching a statewide Food Systems Working Group in conjunction with UCOP and UC Administration
5. Launching Food Systems Working Groups on UC campuses & going beyond!!!
6. Building a grass-roots network that can effectively engage with institutional food systems and local, organic, and socially just grower operations to build new market niches
7. UCSA (UC statewide student government) passes a sustainable food systems resolution and it is being adopted on individual campuses and colleges in CA