Leadership Trainings

Want the coming school year to be your student group's best ever?

Looking to attract new members and recognition on campus?

Ready to take on a real food campaign--and get your school to support more local farmers and fair food?

This summer, the Real Food Challenge will hold intensive regional trainingsaround the country. At each, about 25 students and veteran real food organizers will converge for a powerful weekend of workshops, cooking, skill-shares, storytelling, strategizing and all-around fun. These retreats are geared for students who want to take on (or strengthen an existing) real food campaign on their campus.

SAVE THE DATE and click below to access more information!

Ames, IA - July 26-29

Boston, MA - August 16-19

College Park, MD - August 16-19

Spokane, Washington - August 23-26

St. Paul, MN - August 23-26

Chapel Hill, NC - Aug 30 - Sept 2

Santa Cruz, CA - September 6-9

Chicago, IL - October 18-21 --Registration now open!!

Each event will feature a unique series of workshops ranging from storytelling as an organizing tool and "power, privilege and oppression in the food system," to ones on campaign planning and how to shift campus food systems. All participating teams will leave with a full action plan for the school year.

These trainings are much more than workshops: we will cook and eat delicious meals together, visit and work with local food justice organizations, and play all sorts of games and outdoor activities. Everyone walks away with new friends, allies, concrete skills, and the real tools needed to revolutionize our food system!

 

 

 

As one student from Florida put it:

"Informative. Empowering. This training has taught me so much: That it can be done; How to use the tools to get it done; And that I am not alone in this struggle. Everyone was awesome and supportive, which inspires hope that the world can change for the better."

REGISTER TODAY! We hope to see you this summer!

 

What can you expect from an RFC Leadership Training?

 
  • RFC and Movement 101: Introductions to the history of the Real Food Challenge and the larger food movement, including conversations on oppression and privilege in the context of food systems & avenues for mobilizing community power for positive social change.
  • Leadership Development: Workshops on strategic campaign planning, story telling, group facilitation, creative event planning, dining service contracts, and engaging community stakeholders.
  • Field trips to local farms and real food organizations
  • Community: Connect with new partners in this national student movement! Enjoy group meals, late-night jam sessions and dance parties with new friends!
  • Plans for the future: Students leave with new friends, concrete skills, and action plans, equipped with REAL goals for REAL change on campus come September.
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Check out highlights from some of our past training!

 

Want to host the next leadership training at your school? Contact us!
 
Check out our other programs too!
 
Highlights from Past Trainings

 AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2011

(coming soon!)
 
AUGUST 2010
 
Where:
  • Northeast: Stoughton, MA. Recap.
  • North Carolina: UNC Chapel Hill; Chapel Hill, NC
  • Florida: Orlando, Florida. Recap.
  • West Coast: Atascadero, CA
Who: 100+ campus leaders looking to take their commitment to real food to the next level!
 
Highlights:
 
In the Northeast, participants from over 10 colleges and universities cooked up some seriously real meals to share together, including peanut butter tofu, vegetable and rice stir fry, and watermelon gazpacho.
 

Northeast training participants share a home-cooked real food meal together.
In Florida, participants met with representatives from the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and the Student/Farmworker Alliance to discuss the social injustices within food system supply chains and the role of universities in righting those wrongs.
Florida training participants engaged in interactive workshops.
 
 
AUGUST 2009
 
Where:
  • Northeast: Lincoln, MA. Recap.
  • Midwest: Ames, IA. Recap.
  • West Coast: Santa Cruz Live Oak Grange, Santa Cruz, CA. Recap.
Who: Almost 100 real food leaders attended the 3 trainings. Some were seasoned veterans but many were introduced to RFC for the first time.

Highlights:

 
In the Northeast, participants rolled up their sleeves in between workshop sessions and dug up potatoes on The Food Project’s farm. They also cooled off in nearby Walden Pond after long days of discussing, harvesting, and cooking real food.
 

Northeast training participants passed around a ball of yarn
while discussing the Real Food Wheel.
 
 
In the Midwest, participants made two trips: one to nearby Onion Creek Farm where students got their hands dirty weeding Farmer Joe Lynch’s fields, and another to a meatpacking plant in nearby Marshalltown, IA, where they heard testimony from former employees about the plant’s inhumane work conditions and the resulting health problems in the local community.
Midwest training participants listen to Ramona Lopez (center) – a former employee of the Marshalltown, IA meatpacking plant – explain her vegetable garden.
 
On the West Coast, participants spent four days together in the Santa Cruz Live Oak Grange, the first organic grange in the country, and during that time they visited the Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems at UC Santa Cruz where they learned about the university’s successful farm-to-college program.
 
West Coast training participants volunteered at the
Homeless Garden Project in Santa Cruz, CA.
 
 
Check out our other programs too!