How students can create change
When it comes to eating sustainably, it can be hard to know where to start! Here’s 15 key actions students or young people can take:
1. Get a progressive Good Food Policy adopted by your university or college, based on the eight actions outlined below. Get in touch with your students’ union or university/college sustainability team for support.
2. Choose plant-based foods that are seasonal, local or Fairtrade and/or organic wherever possible. Consider using a local veg box scheme, buying from a zero-waste shop on campus if you have one, and if not try setting up a buying group with friends to bulkbuy more affordable wholefoods.
3. Choose better meat and dairy (if you aren’t vegetarian or vegan) that has been produced in the UK. If you do eat meat look out for organic and/or pasture-fed. Avoid processed meat products, only eat meat occasionally and change the proportion of meat-based meals to include a greater vegetable content.
4. Choose fish (if you aren’t vegetarian or vegan) that is MSC certified, and only eat it occasionally.
5. Choose to buy food from restaurants and cafes on campus that have been awarded the Food for Life Served Here bronze award as a minimum. If lots of students ask about accreditation it may help push caterers towards taking action if they haven’t already.
6. Choose Fairtrade options whenever possible.
7. Avoid overly processed food, drinks and snacks that are commonly sold in single-use packaging and provide little nutritious value.
8. Use water fountains or refill stations rather than buying bottled water or fizzy drinks. If these aren’t available on campus, campaign for them to be installed.
9. Carry a reusable water bottle and/or coffee cup and ideally a food container in case you come across some surplus food after an event, from a friend, or when eating out. Use apps to make the most of your reusables e.g. Refill to identify local refill stations.
10. Aim to only buy the food you need and if you have surplus freeze it, give it away to someone you know, or share it via an app such as OLIO or Too Good To Go. Find simple hacks and tips at Love Food Hate Wasteand make the most of other people’s surplus food.
11. Grow some of your own food: on a food growing site on campus, at your local community garden or Community Supported Agriculture farm, or just in some pots on your windowsill.
12. Buy food from local independent shops such as bakery’s and butchers, or directly from producers e.g. veg box schemes or food markets, instead of going to supermarkets.
13. Campaign for food justice – understand the issues that need to be addressed for a fair food future, join the growing food citizenship movement, and support a Right to Food. Find a library of resources in the Culture Roots Collective Learning Hub.
14. Check for university investments in industrial livestock agriculture and, if they exist, start/support a campaign for Big Livestock divestment with reinvestment into regenerative agriculture that uses nature friendly farming practices.
15. Get involved in national good food campaigns such as Good to Grow Day, Food Waste Action Week, The Big Lunch, Sourdough September or Open farm Sunday.
What should unis and colleges be doing?
Food represents the intersection between the triple challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss, and poor physical/mental health. We have a chance to address all these issues through the food made available to students on campuses. Here’s eight actions we want to see educational institutions take. As a student, you can help build momentum by asking your uni to take one or more of these actions.
1 Commit to phasing out industrially produced meat and dairy
- Follow Eating Better’s Better by Half roadmap by purchasing and serving 50% less meat and dairy by 2030 and shifting to better produced meat and dairy for the remainder.
- Put antibiotic supply chain policies in place that ban on farm routine use and preventative group treatments. Refer to Save Our Antibiotics and their Antibiotics Policy Toolkit for further information.
Note: Research has shown that doubling vegetarian options in cafeterias does not affect overall sales.
2 Commit to only serving and selling demonstrably sustainable fish
- ‘Demonstrably sustainable’ means either indicated as ‘best choice’ by the Marine Conservation Society or having Marine Stewardship Council, organic, ASC, GLOBALG.A.P or BAP certification.
- Refer to the Marine Conservation Society’s Good Fish Guide for up to date information on fish ratings.
3 Eliminate all avoidable food waste and compost the remainder
- WRAP has plenty of resources for hospitality and food service outlets.
- Redistribute surplus food, e.g. via apps like Too Good To Go or OLIO.
- Choose composting over anaerobic digestion (AD). Consider catering food waste composters such as The Rocket used by the University of Bristol and City of Glasgow College.
Note: Composting on-site can lower waste costs and provide a regular source of free compost for your grounds/growing sites.
4 Make seasonal, local, ethically produced, plant-based food the default option
- Use the Kale Yeah! Caterer’s toolkit to help rebalance menus.
- Aim for silver or gold Food For Life Served Here as a minimum.
5 Provide training for chefs and catering students on the links between climate, nature, health and food
- Get guidance, assessment tools, recognition, support and inspiration by working towards the Sustainable Restaurant Association’s Food Made Good Standard
- Ensure full understanding of the term ‘Sourcing Better’ and how to apply this in the workplace.
- Provide onsite training for chefs and embed sustainable food into food service courses, using resources such as the Future Plates handbook and culinary teaching materials, and the Chefs’ manifesto.
6 Provide opportunities for students to grow food and to learn how to cook
- Create an accessible growing site on campus if one doesn’t already exist. Refer to SOS UK’s Food Growing guide for tips including what to grow for term time harvesting.
- Ensure the food grown reflects the cultural diversity of students. Run an annual campaign to teach cookery skills to students. Consider external support for delivery e.g. the social enterprise, Let’s Cook Project.
- Consider setting up a student community kitchen on campus.
Note: in an SOS UK survey the main reason students gave for not growing any of their own food was a lack of access to outside space.
7 Explore ways to make sustainable food the more affordable option
- Increase the price of less sustainable options, e.g. meat, to subsidise the cost of more sustainable options, e.g. plant-based.
- Set up (or support students to set up) veg bag schemes and wholefood buying groups.
- Shorten supply chains by working directly with farmers and other food producers so they get a fair price and students could pay a bit less.
8 Contribute to creating a better food system in the UK
- Join the Sustainable Food Places network to help drive positive food system change in your local area.
- Become a Real Living Wage employer. Millions of people in the UK struggle to eat enough because of inadequate/insecure incomes.
- Use your buying power to support community wealth building through food, including using smaller suppliers, buying from co-operatives and social enterprises, and creating the conditions for more equitable and sustainable food enterprises to thrive.
Note: Over 94% of businesses say becoming a Real Living Wage employer benefitted their business