Â鶹´«Ã½ÊÓƵÍøÕ¾ is happy to support individuals and groups interested in sustainable food initiatives, whether it is a Living Labs research project or a new idea or product.
Â鶹´«Ã½ÊÓƵÍøÕ¾ Food 4 Good
In January 2023 a cross-sectional group came together to tackle food poverty at Â鶹´«Ã½ÊÓƵÍøÕ¾. Made up of members of Gather & Gather, the Student's Union, Â鶹´«Ã½ÊÓƵÍøÕ¾ #ZeroFoodWaste and professional services, it is a working group looking at food waste and food poverty within Â鶹´«Ã½ÊÓƵÍøÕ¾'s communities and neighbouring communities. Their purpose is to take practical action and make tangible progress in this area over the 2023-24 academic year.
Â鶹´«Ã½ÊÓƵÍøÕ¾ #ZeroFoodWaste
Zero Food Waste is a student-led project at Â鶹´«Ã½ÊÓƵÍøÕ¾ that aims to tackle food waste on campus. They redistribute food from where it is in excess to where it is in need: from Â鶹´«Ã½ÊÓƵÍøÕ¾ cafés to homeless shelters and a surplus food bank. These are namely Lifeafterhummus Community Benefit Society, a surplus food bank for community residents in the Euston/King’s Cross area, and St Mungo's Endsleigh Gardens, a homeless shelter.
Rice Inc / Paddi
In 2019, Â鶹´«Ã½ÊÓƵÍøÕ¾Ìýbegan buying rice from Rice Inc, now calledÌýPaddi.
Rice Inc was founded by Â鶹´«Ã½ÊÓƵÍøÕ¾ students. Their concept strives to eliminate food waste, promote sustainability and bring food security, by helping farmers nearly double their income from recovering rice which would otherwise be lost.
Â鶹´«Ã½ÊÓƵÍøÕ¾ Innovation and Enterprise supported their idea, which went on and won the 2018 Hult Prize challenge, including $1million in funding.Ìý
Our catersÌýCH&Co have pledged to continue to buy and use their rice in Â鶹´«Ã½ÊÓƵÍøÕ¾ meals.
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&²µ³Ù;ÌýÂ鶹´«Ã½ÊÓƵÍøÕ¾ alumni tackle food poverty with ‘world’s first sustainable rice brand’
Milids
MilidsÌýwas set up by a Â鶹´«Ã½ÊÓƵÍøÕ¾ student who wanted to produce coffee cup lids made from grains, thus reducing plastic waste.
Â鶹´«Ã½ÊÓƵÍøÕ¾ caters,ÌýCH&Co have provided support and advice on a catering provision.
> VisitÌýÌýon Linkedin
Â鶹´«Ã½ÊÓƵÍøÕ¾ Food4Thought
Two studentÌýmembers of Â鶹´«Ã½ÊÓƵÍøվ’s Vegetarian and Vegan Society,ÌýAashish Khimasia and Elena Bashkova, foundedÌýÂ鶹´«Ã½ÊÓƵÍøÕ¾Food4Thought, to deliver theÌýF4T campaignÌýon Â鶹´«Ã½ÊÓƵÍøÕ¾ campus.Ìý
They calculated and analysed the carbon footprint of Â鶹´«Ã½ÊÓƵÍøվ’s catering food purchasing. This baseline and the students' support will be utilised to create carbon footprinting of meals in the refectory, in partnership withÌýFoodsteps.
> visitÌýt
Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering
In 2019, then Â鶹´«Ã½ÊÓƵÍøÕ¾ caterers, Sodexo partnered with the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering (CEGE), as four students conducted a living lab project on single-use plastic in the catering industry, using the refectory as a test bed.
The project focused on the elimination of plastic cling film.
Sodexo achieved a 28% reduction in cling film use, by adopting the measures suggested by the students:
- Replace open boxes with click-close boxes
- Use cloth covers for tray and food trolleys instead of wrapping film
- Increase the training and awareness