Students for Sustainable Food

Overview:
Students for Sustainable Food (SSF) is an on campus club dedicated to
bringing healthier, local, eco-friendly food to campus. They work to educate
people of all ages, of the importance of food sustainability. From catering, to
education to pushing for more sustainable food in the dining halls, SSF
strives to be an easy, accessible and fun source of information about food
sustainability to any who need it.

Current Activities:
SSF is currently in the process of trying to get the campus to take the
Real Food Challenge, which is a nationwide movement to increase the
presence of real food in dining locations. The goal with this is to increase
the amount of real food on campus from roughly 10 percent, to 30 percent,
with a stretch goal of 40 percent by 2020. They are also catering the
upcoming Earth Day Bike Race, and are currently in the process of planning
the menu.

Facts:
University:

Real Food is defined as food that nourishes the producer, eater,

community and the environment in which it is made.
SSF had a deal with Sodexo, Westerns previous food supplier that got
the presence of real food on campus up to 19.5 percent, including a
real food sandwich shop outside of the dining halls.
After Aramark replaced Sodexo, the percentage of real food on campus
has decreased by about half, and the local sandwich shop was
promptly replaced by another chain.
Western briefly had a local food retailer on campus, however when
Aramark replaced Sodexo, it was promptly replaced with a second
Subway.

Local:

More than 600 businesses in the area are linked and contribute to
Sustainable Connections, a Whatcom based food sustainability
organization.
Whatcom Food Network is a local organization hosted by Washington
State University that works to increase collaboration amongst local and
regional food organizations.

National:

The Real Food Challenges goal is to move $1 billion of the food

budgets of Universities across the country from industry made junk
food to local, ecofriendly, healthier food by 2020.
Over 23 million Americans reside in low-income areas that are at least
one mile away from a market.
At least 49 million people in America reported living in households that
experienced real hunger more than once a year.

International:

Approximately 40 percent of the population of the entire world, has a

job in some way related to agriculture.
It takes 2.5 times as much labor that conventional farming to produce
organic food, but the profit margin is 10 times as much.
One in seven people in the world do not eat enough to live healthy
lives.
In general, there are four main goals for food sustainability according
to dosomething.org, Satisfy human food needs, and contribute to
biofuel needs. Enhance environmental quality. Sustain the economic
viability of agriculture. Enhance the quality of life for farmers, farm
workers and society as a whole.
Organic foods require less water and energy to produce than processed
foods, and are also healthier.
Roughly 1.3 billion tons of food are wasted every year.

Bio:
Melinda Vickers
Vickers has been involved with SSF for more than two years, before
becoming the president of the organization. She feels that the organization is
not as involved as it used to be and is working to increase the presence,
impact and cultural understanding of the organization during the rest of her
time at Western.

Boilerplate:
Students for Sustainable Food is a club at Western Washington
University that is dedicated to increasing the presence of local, ecologically
sound and healthy food on campus. The club had an agreement with
Westerns previous food provider Sodexo to bring 19.5 percent real food
(local, eco-friendly, healthy food) to campus by 2020. After Westerns food
provider switched to Aramark, this quantity of real food has dropped. It is
currently Students for Sustainable Foods goal to change this and make
Western a healthier, community supporting and agriculturally educated
environment.
https://orgsync.com/43017/chapter

Sources:
"About Real Food Challenge." About Real Food Challenge. Accessed April 15, 2015.
http://www.realfoodchallenge.org/about-real-food-challenge.
"Sustainable Food Lab Shared Approaches to Performance Measurement Framework."
Accessed April 15, 2015.
http://www.sustainablefood.org/images/PDF/performance_measurement/Framework
with Metrics and Rationale.8.11.14.pdf.
"Agriculture & Development." Agriculture & Development. Accessed April 15, 2015.
http://www.sustainablefood.org/projects/agriculture-development.
"Whatcom Food Network." Whatcom Food Network. Accessed April 15, 2015.
http://whatcom.wsu.edu/ag/foodnetwork/faq.html.
"Fast Facts about Sustainable Food - National Wildlife Federation." Fast Facts about
Sustainable Food - National Wildlife Federation. Accessed April 15, 2015.
http://www.nwf.org/Eco-Schools-USA/Become-an-EcoSchool/Pathways/Sustainable-Food/Facts.aspx.
"11 Facts About Sustainable Agriculture." 11 Facts About Sustainable Agriculture.
Accessed April 15, 2015. https://www.dosomething.org/facts/11-facts-aboutsustainable-agriculture.
"The University of Queensland." Why Consider Sustainable Food. Accessed April 15,
2015. http://www.uq.edu.au/sustainability/why-consider-sustainable-food.
"FAO: Food Losses and Food Waste: Extent, Causes and Prevention." UN NonGovernmental Liaison Service. Accessed April 15, 2015. http://www.unngls.org/spip.php?page=article_s&id_article=3405.