Carolina Dining Services recently reported reaching its goal of 20 percent sustainable food eight years sooner than expected — but some criticize the achievement’s legitimacy.
CDS partnered with the student organization Fair, Local, Organic (FLO) to participate in the Real Food Challenge, which encourages universities to have 20 percent of their dining hall food to be sustainable year-round.
The University did not sign an official commitment to the Real Food Challenge. However, CDS still strove for this goal unofficially, using the Real Food Calculator to track progress.
Sophomore Blair Crumpler, a FLO member and CDS intern, said FLO members agree that the Real Food Challenge goal of 20 percent has not officially been met, as the purchasing period sampled by CDS that reported 20 percent sustainability was only for a five-week period.
“If we had done that for the entire year, most likely CDS wouldn’t have been at 20 percent,” Crumpler said.
In addition, FLO members would also like to see more of the real food percentage meet two or more categories of real food, which currently only about five percent of the dining hall food meets.
Group members said this is a step in the right direction for CDS, but is not an end.
“It doesn’t mean we’re done now, that we can give up,” Crumpler said. “We are not done working with the Real Food Challenge or trying to improve.”
Senior Suzanne Fleishman, a leader of FLO, said that while it’s important to keep improving, the success of last year should not go unappreciated.
