Real Food Challenge Photo Petition!

Oh my goodness it seems like it's been months since I've last posted anything on here! I beg your forgiveness (because I know ALL of you were waiting on the edge of your seats all summer for this post to appear)! With the break for summer came a necessary break with the majority of my work with the EWU Sustainability Project, which serves as the main source of material for my discussions on being environmentally friendly and living a sustainable lifestyle! But, now that school has started back up again and I'm caught up enough to spend an hour or so writing I've decided to let you in on a cool event that we -the EWU Sustainability Project - did on campus last month!

For those of you who didn't already know, October 24 is National Food Day; a day which is a nation-wide celebration and movement for healthy, affordable, and sustainable food! It's a pretty cool day of the year that is beginning to gain traction, especially on college campuses and within green communities! If you forgot about it this year, or just hadn't heard of it, mark it on your calendars for next year so you can find a local farm, co-op, or market to volunteer with and help share the benefits of REAL food!

The EWU Sustainability Project definitely didn't National Food Day out this year! As a part of our on going goal to see Eastern Washington University sign the Real Food Challenge and get 20% of all food served on campus to be REAL Food by the year 2020 we partook in the Real Food Challenge photo petition.

Instead of standing around asking students to sign a paper petition showing their desire to see 20% of all campus food be REAL, we walked around campus with a whiteboard and a camera asking students, faculty, and anyone else we came across to pose with their own personal reasons for wanting REAL food on campus. The pictures we collected were sent to the President of the school with a letter indicating our desire to see him sign the Real Food Challenge as well as posted on our group Facebook page and the Real Food Challenge website! (With the participants permission of course!). We had so much fun and met so many great people with as many great reasons for wanting to see more REAL food on campus. Below are a few of the most memorable photos from the day!

What's Your Reason!?

My lovely Fiancee, "because she cares about
the environment!"

Good ol' Farmer Griffin (me)

She's real! Why wouldn't she
want her food to be too??

His tummy controls his mind!
We don't want fake thoughts running around!

By far, the best picture of the day. There reason was so that WE
could live as long as THEY are. Aren't they awesome?

Throughout the afternoon we came across a wide range of people. From freshman to senior citizens, student to faculty members, and Eagles from all different backgrounds, every person we talked to - while not always wanting their photos taken - had a reason for wanting to see more REAL food campus. Having our campus smack in the middle of one of the county's most prominent agriculture regions definitely lends itself to a heightened awareness of the need for more REAL food in all of our diets and a continued effort to see that played out on our campus, and campuses around the United States!

If you are interested in sharing your own reason for wanting to see more REAL food in your cafeteria, take a  picture of you with your reason on your campus and drop it in a comment below. I'll be sure it gets posted to the Real Food Challenge website!

Questions? Check out the Real Food Challenge FAQ section here or drop a comment and I'll answer it the best I can!