As a result of the Real Food Forum in late January, SustainaReps, student representatives working out of the Sustainability Office, have been taking the next steps to pushing more locally-grown food into dining halls.
On Feb. 9, SustainaRep Monica Everett conducted a follow-up meeting with students who expressed interest in the program in January. The group then formed a strategy for meeting its goals.
“We are planning on forming committees to target different issues related to food and sustainability, including increased student awareness and connection to food, food waste and sourcing of more local food in the dining halls,” Everett said.
Everett said there is no Real Food Challenge chapter forming at MU but that their group is considered a “sustainable food working group.”
RFC hosted a Midwest Real Food Summit this past weekend at Northwestern University in Chicago. More than 180 Midwest students attended the summit. Everett and three MU students attended.
“I attended the Real Food Summit in order to get some experience with urban food systems and to have the opportunity to discuss food issues with other students in the Midwest,” senior Rachel Brunner said.
Students received hands-on experience rather than learning in the classroom environment. They were able to choose from several different workshops and field trips to attend.
“The field trips really allowed us to invest some time in particular areas of the food system and food movements,” Brunner said. “It was also a great time to form relationships with other students at the summit and to discuss and share ideas about equitable food.”
Brunner and freshman Emmie Harcourt, who also attended the summit, agreed that networking with other students, especially from around Missouri, was the highlight of the conference.
“Seeing things that these people have already accomplished, and just the number of students interested in getting sustainable food on college campuses was really inspiring, and I left wanting to get to work on these issues here at Mizzou,” Harcourt said.
