Associated Students plans to open a new cafe in the BMU dedicated to providing humane and ecologically sound food. It will be called Urban Roots and will be located directly across from Common Grounds.

Dining Services Associate Director Corrine Knapp said many of the items will be prepared and packaged “grab and go style” in the Marketplace Cafe, and then sent to Urban Roots for sale.

“A good way to think of it is a 7-Eleven for Whole Foods,” said Knapp.

Knapp said that it seems there is a demand for food that takes into account environmental and social issues. She said that although they currently have a lot of those items, they tend to get overlooked because they’re next to other options. So by having a location dedicated to “real foods” the university hopes those items will grow in demand.

“This is part of our commitment with the Real Food Challenge to reach our goal of 20 percent real food by 2020,” Knapp said.

The Real Food Challenge is a student led movement at universities across the nation. As stated on their website, Real Food Challenge is campaigning to shift $1 billion of university budgets away from “industrial farms and junk food” and instead toward “real food.”

“Real food” must meet four criteria: locally grown, ecologically sound, humanely raised and fair trade.

Knapp said all of the items available at the new store would meet one of those four categories.

They plan to open in April.

Michael Fritz can be reached at [email protected] or @themkfritz on Twitter.