Author(s): Christina Stucker , Amy Beller , Chloe Brewer , Brooke Cederleaf , Isabel Palmer , Shandee Tachick

Presentation: oral

The problem we are trying to address is the lack of transparency in the food system. Our motivations for researching include uncloaking supply chains and educating the campus community about our findings so that we may all become more conscious consumers. Our purpose for researching is to determine how much real food was purchased on our campus during March and September of 2014. Real Food must fit a criteria formulated by The Real Food Challenge, a nationwide student lead initiative to shift institutional food budgets toward sources of food that reflect our values. The values that are reflected in the real food criteria are locally based, ecologically sound, socially just, and humanely produced. Our process includes analyzing hundreds of products to determine their alignment to the criteria. Each product is individually researched for documentation that they meet the real food criteria. This research a crucial step in becoming the first school in Idaho to sign the Real Food Campus Commitment. By signing the Real Food Campus Commitment we commit ourselves to increasing the amount of food we purchase from sources that uphold our values of promoting a locally based, ecologically sound, socially just, and humanely produced food supply.

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