Real Food Challenge Utah State University Introduction Results Juliana Plucinik Reed Hepler Abigail Bentley Keith Wilson Hailey Hampton Cassidy Gummersall Introduction The Real Food Challenge is a national movement that works with over 300 colleges and universities nationwide. Schools who commit to the Real Food Challenge pledge to shift 20% of their food spending to Real Food sources by 2020. Our study found that minor changes in the food purchasing at Utah State University could have a major impact on reaching this goal. 250 Mile Radius Results For the indexed data, 7% of the food purchases were locally sourced. Utah State University currently purchases Real food from several locations located in Cache Valley, Utah Central Milling – Locally milled and sourced Café Ibis – Locally brewed, but not locally sourced Johnson Family Farms – Grown and sold locally Recommendations Local Partnership Benefits Reduce Waste Buy foods in recyclable containers Compost food (If it has ever lived you can compost it!) Reduce high water consuming foods Beef - 106.28 gallons per ounce Pork – 41.3 gallons per ounce Lamb – 84.7 gallons per ounce Support Cache Valley Farmers Cache Valleys Gardeners' Market – Grown or made within 50 miles Purchase Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) such as USU’s Soup Connections, Johnson Farms, Bountiful Baskets, and Appenzell Farm (Produce and Meat) Ease of Access Electronic invoices Larger team of researchers Concentrated restaurant qualifiers Pilot program for on-campus dining The research team developed a plan to research and evaluate the food that had been purchased by Utah State University’s Dining Services to determine what percent of said food was “Real Food”. The food venues include: Artist Block Café, The Skyroom, Luke’s Café on the Quad, The Quick Stop, The Junction, The Marketplace, The Hub, Concessions, Catering, & The Bakery.   Methods A nationwide, non-profit organization that aims to “to create a healthy, fair and green food system”. The central campaign goal is to shift $1 billion dollars away from industrial food to “Real food.” The project concentrates on Dining Services at Utah State University in an effort to qualify 20% of food purchases at the university as “real food.” Utah State University Dining Service’s is commitment to improving sustainability by examining purchasing shifts. The team analyzed 27%  of invoices of September's food purchases at Utah State University.  After dedicating over 100 hours the research team transcribed over 2,000 line items of invoice data from photocopies gained from Dining Service’s purchases. Variables Used Month Year Description Category Label/Brand Vendor Rating Version Local Local Description Ecological Ecological Description Humane Humane Description Disqualifier Disqualifier Description Cost Ahearn, D. (2016). “RFC - Real Food Calculator” Guide to Uploading, <www.realfoodchallenge.org> (April 19, 2017). References Disqualifiers Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) Guilty of Criminal Charges of Forced Labor Labor Violations Ultra-Processed Foods Acknowledgements: Utah State University Dining Services coordinator, Alan Anderson, and project mentor, James Wirth