Teens and others from the University of California at Berkeley are about to score a big win for fresh, local food on campus. At the end of October, the Berkeley Student Food Collective plans to open its doors, providing students and staff with healthy, local and sustainable alternatives to the fast-food landscape encroaching on the campus.

Food co-ops are certainly not new to Berkeley. In fact, many believe that cooperative buying clubs were birthed there during the Depression. Back in the day, the Berkeley co-op championed organics, whole grains and veggie options, long before people started slinging around the terms sustainability and locavore. But the co-op went the way of the rotary phone.

Along came teens such as Justina Byrne, a UC Berkeley freshman, who thought it was time to resurrect the practice. She and her peers petitioned the school, which gave the collective a big chunk of money, free rent and an advisory board. (It helps when a guy on the co-op board is Berkley professor and journalism foodie Michael Pollan.) Blogger Sarah Henry tells what happened next.

UC Berkeley food fiends scarf down local food. (Photo from the BERKELEY STUDENT FOOD COLLECTIVE)