our history.

The Real Food Challenge (RFC) began in 2007 when it was founded by a committed group of student activists, national food movement leaders, and higher education sustainability experts. Amidst growing movements for farmworker justice, international fair trade, student farms and gardens, and local food on campus, RFC launched as a means to amplify student voices and focus our collective efforts on real change in higher education and in the food industry.

With the support of the California Student Sustainability Coalition, The Food Project, and a number of other national partners, in 2008 RFC became an independent, self-funded program of The Food Project. Hundreds of student groups formed at universities across the country to engage in the organization’s primary campaign of 20% by 2020, which challenged campus dining operations to commit to purchasing 20% Real Food by the year 2020. 80 campuses in total signed commitments for Real Food, powered by the organizing of thousands of students. Several universities went above and beyond the 20% commitment, such as the University of California Santa Cruz, committing to 40% Real Food by 2020 after a successful campaign led by student leaders.  With students at the helm, RFC has won shifts of over $80 million in campus cafeteria dollars to local, ecologically sound and humane farms and food businesses. 

In 2020 as COVID closed campuses, halting most university food procurement, our organization went into a bit of a hiatus.  As of 2024, we are reinvigorating our presence on campus and launching new procurement campaigns to challenge colleges and universities to contract long-term with regional producers.  Today, RFC operates as a self-funded, fiscally sponsored project of the Alliance for Global Justice.