Why This University Makes Plant-Rich Meals a Top Priority

What drives you to make plant-based foods a priority? 

In response to University College London’s Grand Challenge to tackle climate change and as part of a campus-wide campaign to be climate positive, we prioritise serving low-impact foods on campus so as to align with UCL's key climate concerns. We respond to the vision of the UCL community, and we’re increasingly being asked by faculty and students how we reduce the climate impact of our activities on campus. We strongly believe that a positive diet is one rich in plants, so we are proud to support UCL's efforts to be ‘powered by plants’.

In what ways does focusing on plant-rich menus benefit your organisation?

From a customer point of view, we benefit from leading the way towards responsible food consumption on campus. Our customers know that choosing to enjoy their meals with us means choosing to eat their way towards a sustainable food future, and this is increasingly important to them.

In terms of our relationship with our client, UCL, working towards a shared goal is incredibly important. Our successful work to increase plant consumption on campus is indicative of the symbiotic and positive client/contractor relationship we have developed throughout our tender here. 

Can you share some of the more creative ways you use fruits, vegetables and/or legumes?

We love using the Future 50 ingredients identified by the WWF as being both nutritional powerhouses and protecting biodiversity. We have set our chefs a target to include a Future 50 ingredient as a hero or main ingredient in over 25% of the dishes they plan every term. This helps us to avoid the ‘soup and salad’ trap, instead pushing our chefs to become more creative and include these dishes across our best-selling categories. 

How does the Food Made Good Standard support your sustainability work?

The Food Made Good standard allows us to identify areas where we need to work on operations and governance, and helps us to set an action plan for the years ahead. In 2021, one of our lowest scoring impact areas was ‘More Plants, Better Meat’, and we have spent the last two years working on improving our performance in this area. We used many of the recommendations from our previous Food Made Good report to create a plant-rich food environment on campus today, and we're thrilled to have achieved three stars in our latest Food Made Good assessment!

Learn more about Gather & Gather here, and you can find more inspiration from their work at UCL here. If you’re ready to discover the benefits of making your business more sustainable, get in touch today at hello@thesra.org.