by: Leilani Leszkay
Leilani Leszkay (EPM ’25) worked with the Food for Climate League as a part of her experiential learning experience. Here is her story.
The Food for Climate League works to identify optimal communication tactics and avenues for engagement to catalyze a global movement toward climate-beneficial eating. The Food for Climate League leverages behavioral science and tested narratives to promote and increase the consumption of foods that are both nutritious and sustainable while providing frameworks for businesses, governments, and organizations for successful implementation. My role as the Operations and Fundraising intern was taking a pilot project on plant-based eating and assessing the positive impacts on a macro level. In addition to this project, I worked on assignments in Salesforce to streamline fundraising prospects as well as team building projects.
The food system is responsible for roughly one-third of global greenhouse gas emissions, primarily caused by bad farming practices and animal agriculture which consumes the majority of crops grown worldwide. This, coupled with the near century of marketing in the U.S. promoting poor diet choices has led to a cacophony of problems ranging from an increase in individual health diseases, biodiversity destruction, an increase in zoonotic disease risk, and food insecurity for large swaths of the U.S.. While these are intimidating issues we face, the good news is that consumers make food choices three times a day and Food for Climate League seeks to improve these choices and make healthier more sustainable foods the norm for everyone. They aim to do this through a concept called “nudging” in which the desirable choice for a consumer is easier, cheaper, and generally more accessible – and the individuals are “nudged” to make this better selection.
Within this work, I specifically worked on a project called Defaults, referring to plant-based defaults. This project worked with several other organizations and food service companies on how to increase choice architecture and consumption choices of plant-based foods on college campuses aimed at seeing what serving one plant-based meal once a day on all college campuses in the United States would do. My assignment within this project was to assess what the potential impacts a successful implementation would have across various metrics. I researched and assessed the environmental, personal and public health, animal welfare, and financial impacts of such a project. After solidifying the data, I compiled these findings into a document and a presentation that was shared with partners on the project and potential funders.
My biggest insight during this internship was learning from a practical perspective how
organizations approach plant-based eating with foodservice operators. There is a lot of
qualitative and quantitative research that is done within the organization, which is then applied in engagement settings with stakeholders, which in turn informs the more abstract, qualitative research. This goes on and on in a feedback loop, slowly but surely making changes toward instituting better climate-friendly options from foodservice operators.
What surprised me most during this internship was that I learned I do not enjoy fully remote
work. When I started working fully remotely, I thought it was wonderful as I could work with
international colleagues, have flexible work hours, and of course, not worry about commuting. I have realized through this internship (at no fault of the organization), that fully remote working removes the humanity from individuals in many ways (at least that’s how I felt), and deprives us of so many important things in-person work provides, such as the magic that can happen in in-person collaborative meetings that cannot be recreated on Zoom. This was a great insight to have during an internship as now I know I will be looking for an in-person or hybrid work environment for future roles!
One of the personal highlights for me was researching the positive impacts a plant-based default would have across all U.S. campuses. I found this research interesting and seeing the potential outcomes reinforced my passion and dedication to this work. I drew upon what I’ve learned at the Middlebury Institute in many ways during this internship. Specifically, the work I did in my Sustainability Management class helped me calculate and understand how to approach the emissions reductions targets and goals of the Defaults project. Additionally, I was able to apply my knowledge of behavioral science from the Environment and Natural Resources Economics course directly into language usage to ensure it was always in the affirmative and spoke to the interest of the consumer.
My academic knowledge of food systems from the environmental policy lens is unique, and I brought this and applied it to the work I did with Food For Climate League in every project and meeting I was a part of. I learned from various feedback and conversations that my skills in this area are unique and are valuable to many different organizations working to address climate change.
I was able to learn two new software programs including Salesforce and Asana, both of which are vital to many other organizations doing similar work. Aside from these technical skills, I was able to better understand how fundraising is done with a newer nonprofit that is growing fast and has lots of big funders. I was surprised to learn that more money is not necessarily the goal, but is dependent on what short, medium and long term goals the organization has in their capacity.
My biggest tip for other students is to go for those organizations that are your number one
choice! Send the cold emails or set up informational interviews. I’ve been surprised at the
positive response I’ve received from so many people that I reached out to. I would also say that action is the most important thing you can do while in your program – whether it’s attending conferences and talking with as many people as you can, volunteering, or doing informational interviews – getting out of your comfort zone and taking actions is the way towards growth. I stopped saying “networking” and started saying “learnings” since it’s really a way to learn more about them or their work and if it is something you want to pursue. Remember that in interviews, you are interviewing them as much as they are interviewing you!
I’m happy to make any connections if other students are interested in working with Food For Climate League. I’m also happy to chat with students who might be interested in doing similar types of work and discuss my experience further.