We asked 485 UWE students what they thought about sustainable food on campus, asking students from Bower, Frenchay and Glenside campuses, keep reading to find out what we learned...

Plant based Students’ Union

• 62% of respondents said they would still buy food from The Students' Union if 75% was plant-based
• 26% said that they maybe would
• And only 11% said that they would not.

Veg box scheme on campus

• 140 students said that they were interested in a local and organic veg box scheme.

We are in conversations with the Community Farm about potentially a launching a local and organic veg box scheme at UWE on Frenchay campus which would be around £9.60 for a box. Some students mentioned that this may be too expensive for them, other students were very interested though and would like to support this local and regenerative farm.

Food options on campus

• 70% thought there should be more sustainable food options on campus.
• 30% said it was not clear which food options were more sustainable when buying food on campus, 24% said maybe it was, and 14% said they weren’t sure.

We are going to use these findings to encourage UWE to improve the sustainable food options as well as signage to make to clearer which options are more environmentally friendly.

General thoughts about food on campus

When asked if they had any other thoughts about food on campus in general, the responses fell into four main themes:

More vegan and vegetarian options

This was the most common theme, with 37 respondents specifically mentioning that they wanted more vegan or vegetarian options, these responses were from students from all three campus sites. Some of the responses are as follows:

• “I'd like more veg options and the eat well for less would be veggie”
•  “Include more plant-based food and more availability of plant-based milks, which contain less CO2 emissions”
• “More plant-based sandwiches”
•  “Would love to see far more vegan/veggie high-protein options!”
• “More than one option on pizzas/wraps for vegans.”

Too expensive

Many students mentioned that the price of food on campus was too high, this was the second most common theme, 29 responses came within this theme, such as:

• “As it stands, aside from the free meals, the food is still very expensive.”
• “Canteen food is too expensive (except meal of the day)”
• “Cheaper sustainable foods”
• “Really expensive”
• “Cheaper main meals”

More culturally diverse food

22 comments fell within this category, such as:

• “More variety of food from every different country especially Asian country”
• “We need more varieties of food from different backgrounds and more halal food stations”
• “Some authentic veg dishes from different regions”
• “More cultural food from international student backgrounds”
• “More African food options for international students from Africa”
• “I think it would be nice if there were more halal food selections for Muslim students”

11 of these comments specifically mentioned that they wanted more African food, and 8 of these comments specifically mentioned wanting more halal options.  All of these comments came from students based at Frenchay campus, showing us that there is more of a desire for culturally diverse food at Frenchay.

Fresh / healthy food

15 comments fell within this category, such as:

• “Wish there was more than one fresh fruit / smoothie stand”
•  “I would really love if it would be healthy meals on campus.”
•  “More gluten free options and healthy options”
• “I would really love if it would be healthy meals on campus.”
• “Healthier and more filling options”
•  “More salad takeaway/ build your own salad bowl kind of options.”

Events and education

• 60% said they would like to understand more about sustainable food.
• 34% said they would like to attend a free event on sustainable food, that’s 165 students, 45% said maybe.
• When we asked what kind of events students would be interested in going to, 173 students said they wanted to attend a cooking class (from all three campus sites), and 96 students said they wanted to attend a quiz, but only students based at Frenchay and Glenside.

We used these responses to inform the Sustainability Committee’s campaign activities and events. We could see that the two most popular suggestions were a cooking class and a quiz so we incorporated both a cooking class and a sustainable food quiz into the campaign on sustainable food: Sustainable Food for All. We are also using this information to inform our Welcome planning for our Welcome period in September 2023, where we will run at least two cooking workshops, and perhaps incorporate a short quiz and / or talk about sustainable food.

Priorities when choosing food

Question: Rank the following items when deciding on food purchases: cost, taste, sustainability (Carbon Emissions, Water Usage, Organic, Food Mileage, Plant-based), convenience, nutrition.

• 57% of respondents rated 'cost' as their number one priority when choosing food
• 22% rated taste as number one
• 12% rated nutrition
• 6% rated sustainability as number one
• 3% rated convenience