Many of my questions about the issues surrounding the corporate food system and my role in the food movement were answered last weekend at “Real Food Rising”, the Real Food Challenge National Summit. The Real Food Challenge is an organization that works with colleges and universities to promote an ethical and sustainable food system. Robbie Emmet, Florence Wong, Claire Kelloway, and I arrived in Minneapolis last Friday night to a room of 200 equally energetic and passionate college students from across the country. Over the weekend, we went to a variety of workshops and panels related to food justice and leadership, shared personal food stories and narratives, connected with other students and RFC folks, and ate some very delicious food.
Compared to many other schools, Carleton is considered a leader in promoting Real Food (food that is local, ecologically sound, fair, and humane) in our dining halls. Bon Appetit, our dining service, has concrete initiatives, ensuring that our food is locally and sustainably sourced. Schools with other dining services, especially Aramark, can’t even get access to dining invoices. Instead of improving their schools’ food procurement practices, interns at Aramark schools are employed mainly to “greenwash” students, faculty, and staff into thinking the school’s food is local, sustainable, and humane. At Carleton, we have an exciting responsibility to figure out what we want this new food system to look like, as a school with both a dining service and student body motivated to change the structure of food systems.