After finding his research experience in the most unlikely of places — a poster on a wall — Willem Schott, a recent pre-med graduate, took his research project to a whole new level. When interning with the U’s Dining Services for a year, followed by receiving funding through the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program to do more research, Schott realized just how much of an impact food had on students’ health. After pulling together a group of students, Schott and the group wanted to implement the Real Food Movement at the U, which commits the university to having 20 percent of real food by 2020. We know what you’re thinking: “What in the world is ‘real’ food?” Let Willem explain: “To qualify as a real food, it must meet one of the four food attributes — local, fair, ecologically sound and humane.” In March 2015, they got U President David Pershing to sign on, making the U the largest and first school in the Pac-12 to join the initiative. “If we invest in food, we invest in health,” Schott said.
Find this article and a lot more in the 2016 “Student Innovation @ the U” report. The publication is presented by the Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute to celebrate student innovators, change-makers and entrepreneurs.
