Sustainability is an important topic of discussion in geography as society faces increasing challenges from depletion of natural resources and degradation of the natural environment (Yates 2012; Goudie 2013). A primary goal of educators is to prepare students to address complex issues such as these in their personal lives and professional careers. Active learning (i.e., hands-on engagement) and significant learning (i.e., expanding beyond basic content to engage in higher-level activities such as critical thinking, ethical reasoning, and metacognition) help develop this connection and have been found to be more effective at increasing student knowledge than the traditional lecture approach (Fink 2003; Freeman et al. 2014). The challenge for the authors was to take a topic that had previously been covered in a traditional lecture and redesign it as an active learning exercise incorporating significant learning objectives. The topic was sustainable use of water in food production. The class was an upper-level university course on water resource management with a typical enrollment of 25 students. This activity could easily be adapted for a middle or high school classroom. To enhance engagement, the exercise was designed as a game in which teams compete by selecting foods for a "dinner party menu" that uses the lowest amount of water. This activity models gamification and significant learning as students discover the value of sustainability-based decision making in their own lives rather than hearing about its value from a lecture or other instructor-led mode of discovery. A key issue in understanding the purpose of this exercise is to recognize that water is a finite resource that is under stress as society attempts to meet the demand for uses such as food production, industrial production, and household washing and cleaning (Anisfeld 2010; Feldman 2012). This lesson introduces students to the concepts of sustainability and the WF of food. Active learning stimulates student interest; conducting the exercise in a competitive game format further enhances engagement. The activity covers multiple types of significant learning, providing a rich learning experience.