Real Food Challenge | UC Irvine

The UCI Food Systems Working Group is a collection of students, faculty, and staff dedicated toward implementing more "real" food on campus. We plan to meet regularly throughout the 2009-2010 school year to share updates, brainstorm ideas for sustainability projects, and track our progress toward our goals. Now that the UC Policies on Sustainable Foodservice have passed, our first project is to draft goals and metrics for reaching 20% sustainable food by 2020. If you have ideas for sustainability projects in UCI Dining or want to join our working group, please contact Kelsey Meagher for more information.

In Progress

In Progress

We collaborated with students and dining administrators to phase out Styrofoam from the retail dining locations on campus. By eliminating Styrofoam from the eateries in the Student Center, we supported the health of consumers, marine animals, and the environment.

We encouraged UCI Dining to implement trayless dining in the residential dining halls in order to reduce student food waste. In fall 2008, UCI Dining & Aramark went trayless in Mesa Commons, Brandywine, and Pippin, and we've seen a huge reduction in food waste. Because students are wasting less food, we're sending less waste to the landfills and we're saving money on food preparation & dishwashing that we can spend on new sustainability projects.

Each quarter, RFC partners with UCI Dining to host educational events about waste reduction in the residential dining halls. We weigh all the waste generated by dining patrons in one night, distribute educational materials about waste reduction, and encourage students to adopt more sustainable eating habits. Since UCI Dining went trayless in 2008, we've seen a 50% reduction in food waste!