Lehigh University and Sodexo are working diligently to hold up their respective ends of the Campus Sustainability Plan 2020 by participating in the Real Food Challenge (RFC). The RFC is a national campaign to encourage campuses to increase the ratio of food purchased from "conventional" to "real" food. The Office of Sustainability has been working with Lehigh Dining Services and Sodexo to take on this challenge for the last four years, with one major goal in mind: purchase 20% of their food aligning with at least 1 of 4 categories (local, humane, fair trade, organic) by the year 2020.
Since first pursuing the Real Food Challenge in 2013, Lehigh has continued to increase the percentage of its food expenditures on “real” food. "Real" food can be defined by four categories:
- Local: Food sourced from a 150-250 mile radius of campus.
- Fair: Food that can be certified as Fair Trade which confirms that employees of the company have living wages, right to benefits, equal pay etc.
- Ecological: Food that is grown in a way that is safe for the consumer, producer and planet. This includes certifications such as USDA Organic, Rainforest Alliance, etc.
- Humane: Food sourced from animals that have been treated in a humane fashion. This includes certifications such as Animal Welfare Approved by Animal Welfare Institute.
To derive this data, the Office of Sustainability collects data two months out of the year, one per semester: Metrics & Reporting students from the Office of Sustainability work closely with Dining Services to acquire food expenditure reports on a weekly basis. The students that work to collect data for the RFC require several hours of training to determine which foods meet the minimum qualifications.
From this data, we can determine which purchases qualify as “real” food, and calculate the percentage purchased. Finally, the percentages we calculate can be used as an estimate for the other months of the semester (in which data was not collected).
When the Office of Sustainability analyzed data for food purchasing in 2016-2017, Sodexo had purchased roughly $20,000 of “real” food in Rathbone for the examined month. Last academic year, the Office of Sustainability acquired data for the Real Food Challenge in October and February, in which Lehigh Dining purchased an average of roughly $37,813 on “real” food per month!
From 2013 to 2016, Lehigh went from purchasing 2 to 10 percent “real” food. In the last academic year, Lehigh increased that number to 13 percent “real” food! This continued progress is symbolic of the university’s ongoing commitment towards providing the most responsibly-sourced and high-quality foods for its students.
“This program is a commitment by Lehigh University, the students on campus and Lehigh Dining to support a healthy food system that strengthens local economies, respects human rights, ensures ecological sustainability, and facilitate community involvement and education.” -Lehigh University Dining Services
Preparing every meal for several thousand students is a colossal responsibility; the acquisition of food from several sources is only a fraction of the workload. Lehigh’s decision to transition food expenditures towards more sustainably-geared vendors and products will further the expansion and demand for foods that fall under “real” food categories. It is the hope that Lehigh’s achievements will serve as motivation for other large organizations to set their own Real Food Challenge goal!