Eat Real Certified, Inc.

When Eat REAL was established in 2012, our certification was built to work with all types of foodservice establishments willing to make the changes needed to protect the health of their diners and do better for the planet. Eat REAL certified over 500 restaurants, hospitals, universities, corporate dining programs, and other foodservice establishments. In early 2019, we decided to evolve our certification program to work solely with our public K-12 school system. Public schools in the United States make up the largest restaurant chain, serving 30 million meals a day. They can provide up to 50% of students’ daily calories and have a collective buying power that when utilized can shift purchasing away from conventional and overly processed food towards more local, organic, real food that is better for our kids and the planet. Today, we are 100% focused on bringing Eat REAL certification to our schools and raising awareness on the value of real food in the surrounding communities.

Eat REAL Certified™ is a powerful way for communities to come together to improve food in schools.

Modeled after the LEED Green Building Certification, Eat REAL’s certification program is built on comprehensive evidence-based standards that support continuous improvement. We partner closely with school Food Service Directors, giving them tools to lead the change.

Third-party registered dietitians (RDs) lead an in depth, comprehensive assessment. The point-based system supports school districts to design and customize their action plans.

As a school district achieves Eat REAL Certification, we support community engagement and awareness building.

Eat REAL (USHFC) has developed the following capabilities:

- The Eat REAL Certified nutrition and sustainability certification developed with the consensus input of a wide body of health and environmental experts.

- A highly effective, self-motivated team with a track record of successfully scaling a nationwide certification program.

- A portfolio of intellectual property and brand assets to support REAL Certified and the "Eat REAL" program.

- The financial support of numerous government and major health and environmental nonprofits.

With over 500 previously certified establishments nationwide, the United States Healthful Food Council has demonstrated success in increasing consumer awareness and recruiting foodservice providers to support the program. With our focus into the K-12 area since 2019, we have partnered with 5 school districts, encompassing 237 schools and over 116,000 students. These districts are in process at this time and we anticipate significant reductions in sugar, increases in minimally processed/scratch cooked meals, and increases in plant-based/plant-forward meals offered (to name just a few areas of impact). We have a pipeline of over 300,000 students interested in joining our next cohort (Fall 2020). We project to reach 1.4 million students by 2025.