The Real Food Revolution Is On
This summer we won our Real Food Challenge campaign and Northeastern will sign onto the Real Food Campus Commitment in the fall of this year! But you probably already knew that. I’ve been blogging about the ongoing process of setting up the framework for this change, writing about the campaign in general, the class that will run the real food calculator from dining hall invoices, and the Food Systems Working Group. Even though we won a major victory this summer, we haven’t been around as a cohesive group in order to get all the necessary balls rolling with the implementation. But now the summer is coming to an end and the real work is beginning! I’m getting back into the grind of setting up meetings, sending out emails, drafting documents, making phonecalls, strategizing, and basically doing whatever else is needed to properly organize the revolution. After discussing all the next steps for the fall in various meetings and emails, I have come to the conclusion that I will not sleep for the next 4 months. Seriously though….there is so much work to be done! But I am so grateful to be doing it. We are going down in history as the first school in Boston to have signed onto the Real Food Challenge, as well as the largest private school! WOO! The work I will be doing with my fellow organizers in the fall is creating the framework for HUGE institutional change. The nitty-gritty details we’ll be working through is exactly what it takes to shift $8 million into a fair and sustainable food system. The task is not small or easy, but our vision isn’t either! We finally have the chance to put what we’ve hoped for into action next semester and I have three words for this upcoming year: Bring, It. On.
Sustainably Yours, Catherine 