Lehigh Takes the Real Food Challenge

The Lehigh University Office of Sustainability has been working with Dining Services and Sodexo for the past year to improve the quality of food served on campus by working to complete the Real Food Challenge.  Real Food Challenge, or RFC, is an organization committed to helping universities alter their dining spending to include more locally sourced, sustainably grown, humane, and fair trade products.  There are currently 27 colleges and universities across the country that have made the RFC Commitment, pledging to purchase 20% or more "real food" by 2020.  Lehigh hopes to become the next university to take the pledge!

The creators of RFC had many reasons for starting their organization, but a big reason is something that they quote in their full commitment to real food (read the entire commitment here).  They found that "the youngest generation of Americans today will be the first in our nation’s history with a shorter lifespan than their parents, thanks in part to the food they eat."  Another is the current state of climate change and the impact it is having on the planet.  The goal of RFC is to change the American obsession with fast food chains and processed products into a passion for local, sustainable, and healthy food that nourishes the consumer, the producer, and the planet.  They have chosen to start making that change by working with colleges and universities to get young adults on a healthier path.  

RFC defines "real food" by placing products into one or more of the following 4 categories: 

• Local: Food that is sourced within a 150-250 mile radius.

• Fair: Food that has the Fair Trade Certified logo or similarly approved certifications that prove the producers of the food received a fair wage for their work and product, and that their working conditions were safe.

• Ecological: Food that has been grown in a way that is safe for the consumer, the producer, and the planet.  This comes with many certifications like USDA Organic and Rainforest Alliance Certified.

• Humane: Food that has been collected from animals that were treated humanely, including chickens that were allowed to be free range and eat a natural vegetarian diet, and cows that weren't raised in mass-cattle farms with no grass or space.  There are certifications for this as well including Animal Welfare Approved and Certified Humane by Humane Farm Animal Care.

Students working for the Sustainability Office have committed to this ideal and have been working closely with Kristin Piazza, the Director of Dining Services and the Sodexo representative here at Lehigh.  Along with aiding our students with the Real Food Challenge, Kristin is working hard to bring sustainable options into all areas of dining on campus.  Over this past summer, an initial baseline survey was completed of all of the food purchased for Rathbone Dining Hall in October 2013 and February 2014.  Each item on every invoice was compiled into a master list, which students used to research all of the source companies to determine if the products could be placed into any of the 4 real food categories listed above.  The master list of products, along with the company-specific research, was entered into the Real Food Calculator.  This online tool took the data and calculated that Lehigh purchased 2-3% 'real food' for Rathbone last year.  

This number may seem low, but over the past year Dining Services has been hard at work trying to provide a multitude of local and sustainable options, both in existing dining halls and by providing new options like the Pizza Oven (1865 House of Pie) on Memorial Walkway a few days a week. Sustainability staff members are currently in the process of completing another survey for the 2014-2015 academic year that will expand to include other food venues including Rathbone, Common Grounds in Rauch, Concessions at Stabler Arena, and Catering.  The Sustainability Office plans to keep a close relationship with Dining and Sodexo as we move forward and try to increase our percentage of real food. 

The entire survey process took over 100 hours of work between 3 students and that may seem like a large thing to commit time to.  However, supporting real food is very easy and doesn't have to involve entering data!  Here are a few ways you as a student, faculty member, or other member of our campus community can help to support real food and all that it stands for.

1. Look for signs in the dining halls marking which products are locally sourced and choose them over other alternatives

2. If you are having coffee or tea in a dining hall, use the Aspretto option to support a fair trade certified brand 

3. If you shop for yourself, buy products at the local farmers markets to help local farmers and the local economy

4. If you need to go to Wegmans or another grocery store, look for organic, fair trade, and humane options

5. When buying fish, use the Seafood Watch app by the Monterrey Bay Aquarium  to choose fish that are labeled “Best Choice” for your region

And most importantly: 

• Ask where your food comes from.  Ask chefs in dining halls, ask staff at the grocery store, at the meat and fish counter, in the produce section, ask local farmers at the farmers market, ask the barista at Starbucks or Saxbys.  The more you ask about your food source, more information will become available and the general awareness will rise around you. 

So take the Real Food Challenge and commit to a healthier life for you, those that produced your food, and the planet we all live on.