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.
CDS is continuing its progress with 26% Real Food! The break down follows:
Real Food Breakdown Percentages Percentage of Total Real Food Purchased, Spring 2014 Real Food A 9% Real Food B 17% Total 26% Real Food Percentages, Fall 2010-2013 and Spring 2014 Year Percentage Fall 2010 12.70% Fall 2011 9.90% Fall 2012 20.10% Fall 2013 23.10% Spring 2014 26% We will be presenting all of our work and findings this semester and you are invited! We will be presenting on May 1st at 2 PM in Lenoir 109! We will analyze our real food percentage for this semester, discuss how we compare to other schools and offer suggestions for future growth. We hope you can make it! We have a Facebook event too!
Check us out, we got in the paper! Click on the picture to read the whole story! We shared our real food percentage and a bit of what has been happening in the dining halls this past semester and the past couple of semesters. We are so thankful for the publicity and would love to take the opportunity to again commend the Dining Halls on all of their progress over the past years. While there is always room to grow, and we certainly will, we would like to stress the growth that has already occurred and our very positive standing, especially compared to other large Universities in the country. With the support of CDS and all the support we've heard over the semester we are feeling very positive for the coming years! Another notable product transfer, Albert's Organics. This company connects any buyer with produce and meat, you guessed it, that is all USDA certified organic through QAI. Within the real food criteria this means that all of the produce that CDS buys through Albert's Organics is ecologically sound! This product change helped to greatly improve the amount of produce that is considered Real Food. During non-harvest months such as February one would expect a decrease in the produce that is real food since it is far more difficult to buy local during this time. However by purchasing from Albert's Organics, despite the non-harvest month, real food in produce increased in the month of February compared to September. (Photo courtesy of Albert's Organic website) Some information we learned while researching Albert's Organics is that the USDA sources other companies to complete organic certifications in many cases. To be considered organic by the Real Food Challenge criteria the food must be certified by the USDA so when we saw that all of Albert's produce was certified by Quality Assurance International we had to do some more research. After talking with a representative from Albert's Organics and researching QAI we quickly found that their accreditation falls under the jurisdiction of the USDA. You find out something new everyday here! Excited to say have made 96.67% progress on the Real Food Calculator and are almost finished inputting all the data! This semester working on the RFC has seemed to fly by! Carolina Dining Services has been awesome to work with and we are excited to see what the real food percentage will be for the month of February.
Keep checking our blog and Facebook later this month for our final results! -The Interns We posted earlier about our wonderfully local Maola Milk which is still so true and we are so pleased with our support of local North Carolina farmers. But there is more good news from Maola Milk. It's certified Animal Welfare Approved! That's right, the milk served in our dining hall is not only local but also humane, resulting the much deserved Real Food A category. Companies that continue to improve their standards certainly deserve our finical support. (Photo courtesy of imagesci.com) |
Past Interns:
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