The purpose of food is to nourish: nourish our bodies, our communities, and our earth. However, our food system is broken. The foods we are growing, distributing, and eating are not nourishing us and our communities. From the food riots abroad to the rising rates of diabetes and obesity at home; from the carbon emitted by agriculture to the human rights abuses in the fields; it’s clear our food system is in need of a major change. Governments and big businesses have failed to step up to the challenge of fixing our food system, with business-as-usual prevailing over the health of our bodies, our communities, and the Earth.

So, what needs to be done to fix this problem? Real Food UGA is a part of a national organization, called the Real Food Challenge, whose goal is to get universities across America to make the Real Food Commitment. This commitment is part of the solution: shift 20% of existing university food budgets away from industrial farms and junk food and towards local/community-based, fair, ecologically sound and humane food sources—what we call “real food”—by 2020.

That’s where we come in—as community members, students, and citizens of the United States, it is our responsibility to be aware of these issues in our global and national food system and help fix the broken agricultural industry. Colleges and universities in the United States spend over $4 billion each year on food. This figure represents a significant portion of the national food system – one that we can directly influence.

Join us in urging President of the University of Georgia, Jere Morehead, to lead UGA in this fight for real food. Tell him that we, students, community members, and future world leaders, want REAL FOOD in our dining halls. We propose that President Morehead sign the Real Food Commitment to commit our university to dedicating 20% of the budget for food in the dining halls to go to real food: food that nourishes producers, consumers, communities and the earth. Once UGA makes the commitment to 20% real food in the dining halls, universities across the South will no doubt follow, leading to huge advances in the food movement. As President Morehead said in his 2016 State of the University Speech: “As society goes, so goes the university; but as the university goes, so goes society.” We CAN make a difference in the big picture.

This is not just a “food” fight. This is an everyone fight. This is a fight for students, environmentalists, foodies, and social activists; this is a fight for farmers and farm workers, educators and healthcare workers, adults and children, and economists and businesspeople alike. After all, where would any of us be without food? Imagine where we could go with real food.