Aligning Food Choices and USD Values: Results of the 2025 Student Food Choices Survey

In Spring 2025, the USD Center for Food Systems Transformation partnered with Professor of Sociology Julia Cantzler, PhD, JD to survey students about what matters most to them in the food choices they make. The survey tracked the knowledge, attitudes and behaviors concerning food on campus for approximately 300 students.

The CFST’s support for the survey is part of a larger effort to increase the alignment between USD’s values and its on-campus food systems. Part of this effort requires understanding and listening to student voices and thus the survey was created and implemented. Students surveyed demonstrated a strong commitment to values-based food systems and are eager to see transformations in USD’s dining options that reflect a more ethical, sustainable and inclusive food system on campus.

Some key highlights from the preliminary survey data:

• Most students surveyed (more than 80%) are concerned with the harms of food production, including climate change, farmworker wellbeing, animal welfare and pesticide use.
• 70% of students surveyed are interested in incorporating more plant-based foods into their diets as a way to address the negative impacts of food supply chains.
• More than 75% of students surveyed want USD to add more plant-based options at all campus dining locations and more than half are in support of USD transitioning to a fully plant-based menu at one dining location on campus.
• Over half of students who participated in the survey are willing to pay more for campus meals that align with the Zero Foodprint Initiative and reflect their concern for a more environmentally sound food system.

This survey is the first in a series of annual surveys that will provide an increasingly specific picture of what food changes students want and would genuinely support at USD. In the coming months, we will be conducting a finer-grained analysis of the data to develop our full report.

Additionally, we are working with NGO partner Better Food Foundation to disseminate the survey for use at other institutions across the country in order to create a wide-reaching data set to support institutional food systems that reflect student values about food.

The Center for Food Systems Transformation would like to thank all students who took the survey and all faculty who shared the survey with their students.