John Hopkins University announced that by 2020, at least 35 percent of the food it purchases and serve will be local, sustainable, humane and fair-trade, the Baltimore Sun reported.
The university has decided to take part in the Real Food Challenge, a collaborative effort between students and universities to create a healthy and fair green food system. Johns Hopkins not only becomes one of the largest universities in the country to accept the Real Food Challenge, but with commitment of making more than one-third of its food local, it exceeds the challenge's recommended goal of 20 percent.
The Real Food Challenge goal is to shift $1 billion of existing university food budgets away from industrial farms and junk food and towards local/community-based, fair food sources by 2020, according to their website.
"This is a significant investment, not just in the health of our students, faculty and staff, but in the wellbeing of our city and region," university President Ronald J. Daniels said in a statement. "It demonstrates our commitment, as the city's largest private employer, to sustaining the community we call home."
According to a press release, Daniels signed the pledge Friday evening at the 100 Mile Meal, a campus event featuring an all-local meal planned and prepared by students.
John Hopkins University has already started stocking its dining hall with more local products. It swapped its traditional dining hall fare with 25 varieties of apples from a farm in Pennsylvania, greens and gourmet beef from nearby towns.
About 80 percent of the meat on campus, including grass-fed beef, is locally purchased, Baltimore chef Spike Gjerde of Woodberry Kitchen is supplying the campus with his hot sauce and pickled vegetable and all milk comes from two Pennsylvania dairies.
In six years, the college plans to increase its servings of local, sustainably grown food to 35 percent of all ingredients, becoming one of a handful of universities nationwide to make such a commitment about its cuisine.
Real Food Hopkins, a student organization on campus and a chapter of Real Food Challenge, campaigned for the dining changes.
"It's exciting to see tangible change," fourth-year student Raychel Santo said in a press release. "When we leave Johns Hopkins we'll know we made a difference."
Johns Hopkins University is the 18th college to take the pledge. Other schools that have done it include the University of California, Santa Cruz; University of Massachusetts, Amherst; University of Vermont, and Oberlin College.
