The Real Food Challenge is a truly unique organization. Few national social change organizations put youth and students in such prominent leadership positions.
Our National Team--the group ultimately responsible for coordinating the campaign (and the one writing this blog!)--is comprised of half professional staff and half student leaders. This model of leadership has proven a powerful one--combining fresh ideas, bold thinking and a deep understanding of our constituent base, with experience, historical experience, and solid organizational knowhow.
As our next round of summits and trainings approaches (register here, if you haven't already!) we want to expand our leadership base and invite new student members onto the National Team.
Who do you know? Take a moment today to think about your friends, club-mates, and other students in your life who might fit the criteria below. Nominate them today!
Submitted by Real Food Challenge on Mon, 12/21/2009 - 23:03
Take part in the Go Live: Real Food Tour!
This spring promises to be huge for the Real Food Challenge. Between January and July, members of the Real Food Challenge are taking part in the Go Live: Real Food tour, a nationwide concert series put on by Go Live and the Real Food Alliance (read on for descriptions of both groups).
The Go Live: Real Food tour is the first step in a major public education campaign about real food. We're focusing on booking tour dates at colleges and universities across the country and we need your help. If you're interested in bringing unforgettable performances to your school for a good cause, please be in touch with Marissa - mgrossman@thefoodproject.org.
This is an incredible opportunity to bring great talent to your school and to take part in a tour with a big impact--all proceeds from the Go Live: Real Food tour will benefit a major concert and campaign kick-off in July!
Submitted by Real Food Challenge on Mon, 12/21/2009 - 21:27
Calling all Presenters! Farm to Cafeteria Conference needs your help!
Interested in sharing your ideas, skills, and knowledge about institutional food purchasing? Want to engage and interact with a diverse group of people working to change the food system?
The planning team for the 5th National Farm to Cafeteria Conference is looking for dynamic proposals for workshops and poster presentations at the conference, which will take place in Detroit from May 17 to 19, 2010.
The team is currently accepting proposals for workshops and poster presentations on a wide variety of suggested topics. To be considered, proposals MUST BE RECEIVED BY January 15, 2010.
Read on or click here for more information about the conference, the suggested proposal topics, and the proposal submission form!
This February and March, the Real Food Challenge is gonna be blowin' up once again! At any of FOUR regional summits and THREE leadership trainings, you'll get the opportunity to connect with other student and community food activists, explore new tools and resources for campus food change, and lay out BIG action plans for the future of food on your campus and in your region--all in one weekend! These gatherings are being created BY young people, FOR young people, so be sure to mark your calendars and dive right in!
Southeast Southeast Youth Food Activist Summit 2010
Place: UNC - Chapel Hill
Date: February 5-7
Midwest
Midwest Real Food Summit
Place: Macalester College
Date: March 5-7
Northeast Northeast Real Food Leadership Training Places: Vermont (Univ. of Vermont), Boston (Boston College), New York (City College of New York)
Dates: February 12-14 (Vermont), February 19-21 (Boston), February 26-28 (New York)
Students from all regions welcome. And Northeasterners: don't fret. You'll get your big summit in fall 2010! Click here for more information. And don't forget to tell us what YOU want to do at these gatherings by taking our poll!
To learn more about ways to get involved with the planning process, contact your Regional Field Organizer. Help us make these summits the most fun and galvanizing events of the year!
Submitted by Real Food Challenge on Tue, 11/17/2009 - 15:55
In one short year, the Real Food Challenge has gone from an idea of a few to a campaign of many.
One Month of Action. Three Leadership Trainings. Five Regional Summits. Over 300 schools taking action and nearly 3,000 students in the Network.
We are a new tide of young people equipped with the tools, knowledge and soul force to transform the world into a place that, in the words of the campaign, supports "a food system that truly nourishes ourselves, our communities, and the earth."
But a campaign led by student food activists is by definition strapped for cash. We've got tuition, room and board, student loans, and books to buy, let alone a Real Food Challenge to fund! We need the support of people like you--people gathering, people growing, people eating, people working together to catalyze powerful, lasting change on our campuses and in our communities.
On Saturday, October 24, students and activists around the country took part in 350.org's international day of climate action, the largest day of international political action ever. They rallied their peers to come together and send a message to policymakers that we need aggressive climate policy now.
People from 181 countries took photos of their event, which will be delivered to decision-makers at the 2009 UN Climate Change Conference in December. We are calling for policy that limits atmospheric carbon to 350 parts per million (ppm), its highest sustainable concentration. We're currently at about 390 ppm, so reaching this goal will require sustained action from all of us AND meaningful policy from world leaders.
At left: Students at Southern Oregon University rally for 350.org.
By divesting $1 billion from unsustainable and greenhouse gas-intensive agricultural practices and investing it in a real food economy, the Real Food Challenge is curbing climate change. Our Regional Field Organizers took the charge to rally students and community members around the link between climate change and agriculture, which contributes about 1/3 of all greenhouse gases. And their efforts paid off: in each of 5 regions throughout the country, students took part in 350.org actions. Student leaders held picnics, rallied, coordinated flash mobs, and petitioned to make real change to our food system. Read on for examples of these actions!
"There's nothing more intimate than the relationship between humans and food," says Hai Vo, 2009 graduate of UC Irvine, Real Food Challenge student leader, and winner of the 2009 Brower Youth Award. Hai's experience with real food has been extremely successful: he co-founded the Real Food Challenge at UC Irvine, piloted the Real Food Calculator for his senior thesis, and helped create a sustainable food policy that now governs the entire UC system, comprised of 10 campuses, affiliate hospitals, and contracted food vendors. Thanks to the work of Hai and his peers, the UC system will procure 20% real food by 2020. Read more about Hai's work at UC Irvine.
Yet real food has had a profound personal impact on Hai, who grew up eating school lunches through a program for low-income families. Poor nutrition in this food negatively affected his health, which led Hai to become an outspoken activist for food that truly nourishes. Hai's passion for real food also stems from his family's stories, which use food to trace his parents' experiences as Vietnamese refugees.
On Tuesday, October 20, Hai received the Brower Youth Award in recognition of his tremendous impact on real food in colleges and universities. The Brower Youth Award honors young people who demonstrate innovative activism and advocacy for environmental and social justice. The award supports winners' work through a stipend, mentors, and other resources. Learn more about Hai's award.
This award honors Hai's commitment to transforming our food system through grassroots organizing and his impact on the Real Food Challenge. Fueled by his "mission to understand the dynamic relationships between food and youth," Hai continues to propel the Real Food Challenge through his work as an alumni leader.
Get out your cameras, grab an apron, and start baking!
The Real Food Challenge is teaming up with Slow Food to take part in 350.org's international day of action on October 24. 350.org is inviting people around the world to take action to curb climate change by submitting a photo petition to leaders before UN meetings in Copenhagen. We're urging policymakers to recognize that levels of atmospheric carbon are dangerously high: life on Earth can be safely sustained at levels lower than 350 parts per million. Right now, we're over 385. We're telling leaders to set 350 ppm as the target for reducing atmospheric carbon.
The Real Food Challenge is participating in this historic day of action because curbing climate change requires international solidarity--we can't limit carbon emissions without a collective effort. And we're highlighting that food is central to this: agriculture is a major contributor to climate change.
To show support on your campus and demonstrate the link between climate change and agriculture, here's a suggested action that's fun AND edible:
Burnt to a Crisp: A Real Food, Slow Food, & 350.org Collaboration: Round Pies, Real Action and a Round Table.
Ever wonder why pies (or cakes, or cookies, or really most baked goods) are baked at 350 degrees instead of 450 degrees? Ever accidentally cook a pie at a temperature that's too hot? The Earth is going to be burnt to a crisp--just like a pie baked at 450 degrees--if we don't reduce the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to 350ppm.
RFC wrapped up its summer with the Northeast training in and around Boston, MA, from August 20 to 23. The weekend was intense (literally in tents) with 25 leaders camping out on The Food Project's farm in Lincoln, MA. Despite some rain and a few mosquitoes (maybe an understatement), the crew--which included students interested in social justice organizing, sustainable agriculture, and media and communications--kept their morale high for real food and real change through a series of workshops, delicious meals, and fun fireside activities.
The training's first workshop set the weekend's tone when students created symbols of a problem with the food system that resonated with them most strongly. Discussion ensued about the importance of symbols in food activism and how we can use the RFC's Real Food Wheel as a way to conceptualize the food system. Students then tossed around a ball of yarn to illustrate the common threads that tie food activists together, creating an intricate web of problems with the food system that could be untangled only through multifaceted solutions.
In the photo: Students passed around a ball of yarn while discussing the Real Food Wheel.
The workshops that followed helped the group come up with such solutions. Through workshops like media and messaging, meeting facilitation and leadership, and overcoming oppression, the group generated ideas and actions to push for real food on their campuses.
The Real Food Challenge, in cooperation with the Bioneers Youth Initiative and Just Us for Food Justice, will be leading a food and farming focus track for young people at the 2009 Bioneers Conference. This is going to be an awesome opportunity for Real Food representatives to work and network with other young leaders in the food justice and sustainability movement from around the country. The program will take place from October 15th through the 19th. For more information regarding the Bioneers Conference and the Youth Program go to the Bioneers website (http://www.bioneers.org/).
Partial scholarships and free housing are available for all who attend this event- however, space is limited to 10 people! You’ll only have to pay $65 for registration plus travel to the event!
If you have any further questions please email Anand Parikshak (pariksha@reed.edu) or Alli Reed (alli.a.reed@gmail.com) and they'll get back to you asap!
People from 181 countries took photos of their event, which will be delivered to decision-makers at the 2009 UN Climate Change Conference in December. We are calling for policy that limits atmospheric carbon to 350 parts per million (ppm), its highest sustainable concentration. We're currently at about 390 ppm, so reaching this goal will require sustained action from all of us AND meaningful policy from world leaders. 
"There's nothing more intimate than the relationship between humans and food," says Hai Vo, 2009 graduate of UC Irvine, Real Food Challenge student leader, and winner of the 
In the photo: Students passed around a ball of yarn while discussing the Real Food Wheel. 
