March 13, 2024, by sustainablenottingham
Reduce your food waste in catered halls to win prizes!
This year a competition in university catered halls run by the Catering Team and Residential Experience Team is tackling food waste head on.
4.7 million tonnes of edible food is thrown away each year by UK households. Shockingly, 25% of this wasted food is as a result of people cooking, preparing or serving too much – this costs UK households £4.9 billion each year. Food takes enormous amounts of water and energy to produce, from growing the ingredients through to the cooking process itself. Any thrown-away food is, therefore, a waste of water and energy and has a negative impact on the environment. Reducing food waste in UoN catered halls can play a part in helping the planet.
At mealtimes, students who only take the food they will eat and minimise the amount of food they throw away may be rewarded in our competition for their environmentally friendly efforts.
Anybody living in catered halls can help their hall win prizes by personally reducing their food waste by taking part in the food waste challenge. Our monthly competition is straightforward. Simply reduce and be conscious of the food you throw away from your plate at hall mealtimes, and we will take care of the rest!
The hall with the lowest amount of food thrown away each month will win a prize and be our food waste champion. Catering staff record waste daily and total this up at the end of the month to determine our most food-friendly hall!
In November and December, The Atrium at Jubilee Campus were the winners, but Derby Hall surpassed them in January! Students in the winning halls were given the prize of a specialty theme night and voted from three options in our survey poll. Students eating at the Atrium enjoyed a special Dirty Burger night, and Derby Hall students opted for an evening of Thai food.
Are you a catered student interested in helping the planet? Start acting more consciously towards food waste today and you can enjoy a night with exceptional food of your choice!
Food Waste Action Week (18th-24th of March) is Love Food Hate Waste’s annual campaign to cut food waste. It encourages citizens to ‘Choose What You’ll Use‘, highlighting the benefits of buying loose fruit and vegetables and inspiring people to do this wherever they can. Buying loose reduces food waste – WRAP research has shown that if all apples, bananas and potatoes were sold loose, we could save 60,000 tonnes of food waste by enabling people to buy closer to their needs.
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