Faculty

Bring food systems change into your classroom

You’re already shaping how the next generation thinks about health, sustainability, and our food system. We’d love to partner with you. By bringing our free Behavioral Nudge Workshop into your classroom or curriculum, you give students the chance to move from learning about food systems to actively reshaping them, analyzing real campus dining environments, redesigning menus, and leading change on their own campus.

Grounded in Design Thinking and experiential learning, the workshops turn abstract concepts in public health, nutrition, sustainability, and behavioral science into hands-on skills students can use right away. Add it as a single guest session or weave it into your course — we’ll build the right fit for your students.

Nudge Workshop details

• Free, interactive, built around real campus dining, catering, cafes, and coffee shops
• 45 min–2 hrs, flexible
• Zoom + interactive Mural board
• Ideal for classes with 10 – 30 students

Who it’s for

This workshop is a natural fit for courses in public health, nutrition & dietetics, sustainability, environmental studies, and food science or food studies — and for any student, faculty, or staff member who wants practical tools to improve their campus food environment. The workshops are informed by human-centered design and behavioral science.

• Faculty: add to your environmental, sustainability, or nutrition course
• Perfect for both undergraduate & graduate students in your courses

What’s Included

1. Behavioral Nudge Training (30-45 min)
Students discover how subtle design changes to food environments create real environmental and public health impact. We cover the top 5 evidence-based nudge strategies, grounded in behavioral science, that shift choices toward sustainable, plant-forward options without restricting choice.

• Connect food systems to the UN Sustainable Development Goals
• Learn why and how nudges work through the lens of campus dining
• See real examples and data from campuses already doing this
• Understand the environmental, health, and cost-saving outcomes of plant-based defaults

2. Menu Redesign Activity (15–30 min)
Students apply choice architecture principles to redesign a real dining hall menu — a hands-on skill they can use immediately on their own campus.

**Have a menu from your own dining hall? Send it our way, and we’ll build it into the session for a fully personalized experience.

3. Plant-Based Nudge Workshop (Full session: 65 min)
A full-group simulation in which students become campus advocates leading a real nudge initiative. In small groups of 3–4, they move through five phases:

• Phase 1: Research & contacts (30 min): map decision-makers, allies, and campus values; select the best nudges
• Phase 2: Communication & outreach (10 min): draft an outreach email and support-building strategy
• Phase 3: Proposal (10 min): build a pitch using real campus case studies
• Phase 4: Action & implementation (25 min): redesign the menu and plan how to market the change
• Phase 5: Measuring success (10 min): define metrics and plan how to institutionalize results

Groups reconvene after each phase for full-class discussion. This is active learning, start to finish.

“Better Food Foundation’s nudge presentations and problem-solving workshops translated cutting-edge behavioral science into practical strategies that inspired my students to drive impactful change in our college’s food systems.”

— Barry R. Muchnick, Ph.D., Associate Professor & Chair of Environmental Studies, St. Mary’s College of Maryland

About the DefaultVeg Internship Program

Interested students can take it further. During the session, we can share our DefaultVeg Internship Program — a hands-on opportunity for students to lead real plant-based nudge advocacy on their own campus. We’ll walk through how it works and how students can get involved.

Bring this workshop to your classroom.

Sessions are free, flexible, and designed to fit your schedule. Reach out to start the conversation, and we’ll build the right experience for your students.

Final Notes: All sessions run via Zoom and an interactive Mural board. Students will need access to a computer.