100-Mile Diet for College Students

Cheese and Apples Photo
Image source: Getty Images

So eating local and the 100-mile diet sounds good to you, but you're a college kid on a meal-plan. You don't get to choose your food any more than you got to choose that night-owl roomate of yours. Well help is on the way thanks to the Real Food Challenge.

The Real Food Challenge (RFC) provides all of the resources for how to move your cafeteria from pre-packaged frozen bagel bites to meals make from fresh veggies and healthy alternatives. According to the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, colleges and universities spend more than $4 billion on food each year. Thats also a lot of money, energy and resources devoted to shipping food all across the country to your university.

The RFC website is full of tips for how to launch the Real Food Movement on your campus, including film nights, resources, FAQs, and anything else you might need to get the student government and the school board to see it your way. Think this is too big and you'll never change their minds? Think again: there are over 300 schools with farms, fair trade initiatives, or farm to cafeteria programs.

The Real Food Challenge website is targeted at college students, and the resources are built around what other students have used and what has worked. To begin the site suggests you check out the Guide to Launch and the Action Ideas. There are also resources that are region specific, as well as a blog for up to the minute ideas.

:: Real Food Challenge

More on Local Food
10 Reasons to Eat Local Food
Freakonomists on the Merits of Local Food
TH Forums: Local Food Available in Your City?
Eat Local Food. Uhm, Except When You Shouldn't.