When Hai started college, he weighed over 250 pounds Healthy food choices were difficult for him, and he was emotionally distraught (忧心忡忡). However, when he left home for college, he was able for the first time to start taking his life and weight into his own hands.
He started by shopping at a local farmers' market, an experience that inspired him profoundly. The idea that a farmer's market represents local, sustainable, healthy food with a human connection where you can interact with the people that grow your produce was extremely appealing to him, and he began to think about the food that people at his university were eating. From what he saw at farmers' markets, Hai realized that dining hall food was not “real” food.A lot of it is frozen or processed, and has unhealthy additives. His ideas continued to develop as he started taking classes about food sustainability at university, and after the summer of 2014 during which he cooperated with other students9 he launched into his senior year at the University of California full force with the Real Food Challenge (RFC) campaign, a project he co-founded that aims to reinvest university spending in food that is “real”: ecologically-sound, community-based, humane, and fair; as opposed to those traditional purchases with those unhealthy additives and processed products.
Not only has Hai started a movement of change across the university dining system, but he has also grown extremely as an individual，now with strong leadership abilities and great vision. In addition, after he started learning about food sustainability and taking action at university, Hai has lost over 100 pounds, and has been able to start enjoying activities such as backpacking and swimming that were not a possibility for him previously. He is confident instead of distraught now.
