Real Food Road Trips

Since the first-ever Real Food Road Trip blasted through the Midwest in January 2011, we've hit the road for real food all over the country, offering workshops, trainings, and in-person support on dozens and dozens of campuses, to boost existing real food campaigns or get new ones started!

We're taking workshops & intensive trainings all over the country in 2013 --- is your campus on our map?

LEARN MORE here:

Email your regional organizer to set-up a visit to your campus!

CAMPUS VISIT & CAMPUS INTENSIVE OPTIONS

We consider the campus visit coordinating & organizing process as important as the visit itself, as it entails vital event-planning, turn-out, promotion, and fundraising skills. We work intensely with student leaders to successfully coordinate every step of the process to ensure an effective, successful, exciting visit!

See Campus Visit Planning Guides below.

CAMPUS VISIT

Real Food Challenge Get Real! workshop
+ up to 4 hours of training workshops over 1-2 days
+ one-on-one meetings with student leaders, allies, and administrators
+  class visits, meetings, presentations

CAMPUS INTENSIVE

Real Food Challenge Get Real! workshop
+ 6-10 hours of training workshops over 2-3 days
+ one-on-one meetings with student leaders, allies, and administrators
+  class visits, meetings, presentations
Sliding Scale $400 - $600 Sliding Scale $1200-$2000

The cost of a Campus Visit or Intensive directly covers the cost of travel and expenses for the facilitators, development of our robust curriculum, and funds to keep accessible our regional trainings, national summits, and one-on-one support for real food campaigns and implementation of real food policies.

PLANNING GUIDES

Use these resources to support your campus visit planning process -- but above all, be in touch with your RFO to support you throughout the process!

WORKSHOP OPTIONS

Our core workshop & training options are below. We work closely with student leaders to tailor programming to your campus & campaign.

The Real Food Challenge: Students Uniting for a Just & Sustainable Food System

A dynamic introduction to the challenges and complexities of the industrial food system as they play out in campus Dining Services, and an introduction to the Real Food Challenge, which is uniting students nationwide in organizing for a more just & sustainable food system through campaigns for the Real Food Campus Commitment. ----- 1.5 hours  Ideal for a general audience, all-campus presentation/workshop.
Intro to Organizing & Strategic Campaign Planning

Straightforward, hands-on, nuts-and-bolts action-planning for any campaign that you want to implement and WIN on your campus. The tools you need to make the change your group is striving for. Includes Community Organizing 101, goal-setting, power-mapping, the spectrum of allies, timelines, targets, and tactics. ----2 hours   Ideal for core leaders and group members wanting to dig deep into organizing skills and develop a solid campaign plan.
What is Real Food? The Real Food Calculator

What is real food? How do we assess it in our cafeterias? Dig into the complexities of labels, certifications, and standards for real food. Learn about students’ development of the Real Food Calculator tool & how to use it on your campus, to assess your cafeteria’s percentage of real food in terms of local/community-based, fair, humane, and ecologically sound standards. ---- 1 hour  Ideal for group leaders, members, and allies who want to grapple with the question, What is Real Food? and learn how to use the Real Food Calculator at your school
Food System Working Groups: Building the Real Food System on Campus

The Real Food Campus Commitment pledges a campus’ intent to commit to at least 20% real food by 2020, with a specific campus policy set by a Real Food Working Group comprised of students, faculty, staff, and other relevant community stakeholders such as dining workers, farmers, and community organization leaders. Plan how to organize a dynamic, inclusive Working Group on your campus, learning from other campus’ in the Real Food Challenge network and planning for your campus’ specific structures and needs. ---- 1.5 hours Ideal for current or future Working Group members: student leaders, Dining staff, faculty, staff, community members
Growing a Great Group: Skills and Tools for Powerful Group Leadership, Dynamics, and Facilitation

The strength of relationships, dynamics, and leadership within a group are as important as campaigns. Explore effective tools for recruitment and retention of new members in your group, how to facilitate strong, effective meetings, and structures for group leadership. Build up a great group, and never have a bad meeting again! --- 2 hours  Ideal for student group leaders and members interested in having amazing groups and inspiring meetings
Storytelling for Organizing

Why do you care about real food? Why do you want to make a difference? How do you share your interest & passion with others? Explore storytelling as a foundational experience and tool for relationship-building in community organizing. Learn models for storytelling, and develop and practice some of your own stories. ---- 1.5 hours Ideal for anyone interested in exploring their own motivation for organizing and how their stories can be tools for building power & community
One-on-One Meetings for Relational Organizing

Do you know what all of the people in your group care about? Why they come to meetings? Community organizing begins and ends with people -- so you gotta know ‘em! Learn the best tool there is for recruiting and retaining new members to your student group, and building deeper relationships amongst existing members.  ---- 1.5 hours Ideal for anyone who wants to make a difference in the world. One-on-one meetings are a core, essential organizing tool for anyone, anywhere.
Food Justice: Privilege & Oppression in the Food System

Reflect on our own identities and experiences of privilege and oppression, and ways of understanding these experiences. Dig into how oppression operates in the food system and how our student groups and campaigns can work to address and dismantle systems of racism, sexism, heterosexism, xenophobia, ageism, etc.  ---- 1.5 hours Ideal for student groups who want to critically and compassionately engage their own identities and experiences to challenge and dismantle systems of oppression in their groups and campaigns.

 

HIGHLIGHTS FROM PAST ROAD TRIPS & CAMPUS VISITS

Since our first Real Food Road Trip in 2011, we have faciliated close to 100 campus visits around the country.
 
This Fall 2012, We have already visited:
  • Macalester College (St. Paul, MN)
  • Carleton College (Northfield, MN)
  • Catholic University of America (Washington, D.C.)
  • Clark University (Worcester, MA)
  • George Washington University (Washington D.C.)
  • Haverford College -- Campus Intensive with University of Pennsylvania, Villanova University, Penn State, Temple University, University of Delaware, & Bryn Mawr College
  • Indiana University (Bloomington, IN)
  • Mount Holyoke (South Hadley, MA)
  • Northeastern University (Boston, MA)
  • Northern Virginia Community College 
  • St. Benedict's University (St. Joseph, MN)
  • St. Catherine's University (St. Paul, MN)
  • St. Thomas University (St. Paul, MN)
  • University of California - Riverside
  • University of Cincinnati (OH)
  • University of Massachusetts - Amherst
  • University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
  • Williams, MA (Williamstown, MA)
 

 

Past Road Trips and Campus Visits 

During the first-ever Midwest Road Trip in January 2011 Katie Blanchard & Katelyn Hale visited the following campuses, and kept a great blog documenting what they facilitated and learned along the way:

  • Beloit College (Beloit, WI)
  • Carleton College (Northfield, MN)
  • Knox College (Galesburg, IL)
  • Kalamazoo College (Kalamazoo, MI)
  • Indiana University (Bloomington, IN)
  • St. Olaf College (Northfield, MN)
  • University of Toledo (Toledo, OH)
  • University of Missouri (Columbia, MO)

In Fall 2012, we criss-crossed the Midwest again, and set out on the first Northeast Real Food Road Trip, visiting

in the Midwest:

  • College of Lake County (IL)
  • DePaul University (Chicago, IL)
  • Earlham College (Richmond, IL)
  • Heartland Community College (Normal, IL)
  • Joliet Junior College (Joliet, IL)
  • Kenyon College (Gambier, OH)
  • Lake Forest College (Lake Forest, IL)
  • Lincoln Land Community College (Springfield, IL)
  • Luther College (Decorah, IA)
  • McHenry County College (IL)
  • Northwestern University (Chicago, IL)
  • Oberlin College (Oberlin, OH)
  • University of Wisonsin - LaCrosse
  • University of Wisconsin - Madison
  • Wilbur Wright College (Chicago, IL)

in the Northeast:

  • Brandeis University (Waltham, MA)
  • Brown University (Providence, RI)
  • Clark University (Worcester, MA)
  • Connecticut College (New London, CT)
  • CUNY Lehman
  • Green Mountain College (Poultney, VT)
  • Hamilton College (Clinton, NY)
  • Providence College (RI)
  • Sarah Lawrence College (Bronxville, NY)
  • Siena College (Loudonville, NY)
  • Skidmore College (Saratoga Springs, NY)
  • SUNY Purchase
  • University of New Hampshire (Durham, NH)
  • University of Maine - Orono
  • University of Vermont (Burlington, VT)
  • Wellesley College (Wellesley, MA)
  • Wheaton College (Norton, MA)
  • Williams College (Williamstown, MA)
  • Wesleyan University (Middletown, CT)
  • Yale University (New Haven, CT)

Winter and Spring 2012 saw our first Road Trip through the south, and many visits in other regions.

The Southeast/Southwest Road Trip visited:

  • Arizona State University (Phoenix, AZ)
  • Colorado College (Colorado Springs, CO)
  • Lafayette College (LA)
  • University of Alabama - Tuscaloosa
  • University of Denver (CO)

Northwest:

  • Eastern Washington University (Cheney, WA)
  • Gonzaga University (Spokane, WA)

Midwest:

  • Macalester College (St. Paul, MN)
  • Carleton College (Northfield, MN)
  • Cornell College (Mount Vernon, IA)
  • Kalamazoo College (Kalamazoo, MI)
  • Scattergood Friends School (West Branch, IA)
  • St. Olaf College (Northfield, MN)
  • University of Iowa (Iowa City, IA)
  • University of Minnesota - Morris
  • University of Minnesota - Twin Cities

Northeast:

  • College of the Atlantic (Bar Harbor, ME)
  • Harvard University (Boston, MA)
  • Northeastern University (Boston, MA)
  • University of Massachusetts (Amherst, MA)

Mid-Atlantic:

  • American University (Washington, D.C.)
  • Drew University (Madison, NJ)
  • Haverford College (Haverford, PA)
  • Towson University (Towson, MD)

Southeast:

  • University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill

 

Check out our other programs too!