One of the most important goals for us in this project and the entire Real Food Challenge campaign is transparency. We believe it is a persons right to know where their food is coming from. We work to know just that and share it with the public. There is often large push-backs from companies though about making this information available. And many consumers never stop to ask.
Real Food Calculator at UNC
The Real Food Calculator is a tool used to track an institution's dining purchases over time. Developed by The Real Food Challenge, a national group of student food-activists, the Calculator is utilized within this internship to approximate the amount of real food served in the residential dining halls of UNC-Chapel Hill. To learn more about the criteria click here.
We've been stating how excited we are about reaching 83% of our data input, but what does that mean? This means that out of the thousands of purchases that CDS made within the month of February to feed all of our hungry stomachs, the three of us interns have inputted 83% of those purchases into the Real Food Calculator! Quite a significant amount of data! So what next? Seems like we're almost done. Not quite. Once we input that last 17% we move towards researching those purchases, understanding if they are local, fair, ecologically sound, and/or humane. This involves a great deal of calling vendors and recording information. A lot of hours are invested in this element of the project. After that we have a real food percentile for this month! HOORAY!! But the work is not done, Jill, Jessie, and myself, will then analyze the data, create our report, and offer alternative purchases to further increase our real food percentage. That's the end goal, to increase the real food percentage for CDS next semester. We are trucking right along and we are very excited about what the data will reveal very soon! A recent purchasing switch, in the fall of 2013, has brought Firsthand Foods to CDS. The sustainably raised and local beef and pork that you see in the dining halls is courtesy of this wonderful meat cooperative. Firsthand sources from farmers in the area who use sustainable and ethical practices, as well as no antibiotics or hormones. One of the qualities that makes Firsthand so effective, and why we are able to use them in our dining hall, is their consistency. Because Firsthand sources from so many different local farmers they are able to consistently supply their retailers with the best products year round. Their large inventory also allows them to purchase more expensive insurance that is required when sourcing to such large customer bases, such as the UNC population. We are very ecstatic to have them in our dining halls and we hope that you have been enjoying their products. You may have also seen their table at the past FLO-CDS Farmer's Market where Jennifer Curtis (One of the CEO's) was frying up some delicious sausage. If you missed them, no worries, they will be at the coming Farmer's Market on April 17th! |
Past Interns:
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