Northeastern Adopts New Sustainability Program
Boston Magazine - 07/26/2013
This week, Northeastern University became Boston’s first college to join the Real Food Challenge, which is a national campaign through which colleges pledge to purchase 20 percent of their food from local, sustainable sources.
The Real Food Challenge will begin this fall at Northeastern’s International Village dining hall. A small group of students will work with dining services to process invoices, and they will break down the “real food” being provided into four categories: community based, fair, ecologically sound, and humane. In a report for Northeastern, Maureen Timmons, the director of dining services at Northeastern, said:
“We’re thrilled about this commitment. It takes all the work we’ve been doing on sustainability to a whole new level. We give the students a lot of credit for their commitment to the issue and for working so closely with us.”
According to the report, Northeastern’s participation in the Real Food Challenge will continue the university’s commitment to green initiatives and sustainability. Two of the seven 3-star certified“Green Restaurants” in Mass. (restaurants that are awarded stars are environmentally responsible, and excel at waste reduction, recycling, and sustainability) located on Northeastern’s campus (The International Village Dining Hall, Peet’s Coffee, and Jamba Juice), plus the university’s compost system processes nearly 700 tons of compost each year.