Partnering for Real Change

While school may be out for the summer, the Real Food Challenge hasn't taken a break.  We're gearing up for an intense fall campaign.  We're offering trainings across the country where students can make connections to strengthen the campaign.  We're working with other leaders in the food movement for meaningful change.

In June, the Real Food Challenge joined a litany of individuals and organizations leading the charge for real food by signing a letter that calls on Chipotle to reverse gross injustices suffered by farmworkers in the tomato fields of Immokalee, FL.  Check out the letter here.  Chipotle's refusal to improve farmworkers' working conditions and wages is the focus of a campaign promoted largely by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and the Student Farmworker Alliance.  The campaign has gained widespread attention over the past month after it targeted Chipotle's unsubstantiated claim to support "food with integrity" and the company's hypocritical sponsorship of Food, Inc. screenings.  More on fair food, Chipotle, and Food, Inc.  

By signing the open letter, RFC and our partners for fair food showed our solidarity to stand up to corporate abuse of basic human rights.  If you want to reinforce our collective charge of students for real food, consider attending the Student Farmworker Alliance's Encuentro convergence in Immokalee, FL, from Sept. 10 - Sept. 13.  For more details, contact Meghan at organize@sfalliance.org. Deadline for applicants: August 1st.

Meanwhile, Real Food Challenge leaders recently joined our partners at the Sustainable Agriculture Education Association to strategize for a future where the movement for real food not only happens in our dining halls, in the streets, and in congress, but in classrooms nationwide.  Connecting with professors, researchers and students from around the country, we discussed how to develop new food systems-focused academic programs, how to integrate experiential, hands-on education into the classroom, and how to harness the power and resources of our nation's land grant universities for the purpose of building a truly healthy, just and sustainable food system.  Check out previous years' conference proceedings and other great resources here.  Have you participated in a great course on sustainable ag or related issues?  Written a curriculum yourself?  Upload it to SAEA's new database.  For more, contact Damian at dmparr@ucdavis.edu

In order to achieve the change we desperately need, we all must seek out partners and allies.  What groups--labor, environmental, health and nutrition, food justice--in your area could you get down with?