1. 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 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, < (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