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UCL 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.
UCL Food 4 Good
In January 2023 a cross-sectional group came together to tackle food poverty at UCL. Made up of members of Gather & Gather, the Student's Union, UCL #ZeroFoodWaste and professional services, it is a working group looking at food waste and food poverty within UCL'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.
UCL #ZeroFoodWaste
Zero Food Waste is a student-led project at UCL that aims to tackle food waste on campus. They redistribute food from where it is in excess to where it is in need: from UCL 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, UCL began buying rice from Rice Inc, now called Paddi.
Rice Inc was founded by UCL 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.
UCL Innovation and Enterprise supported their idea, which went on and won the 2018 Hult Prize challenge, including $1million in funding.
Our caters CH&Co have pledged to continue to buy and use their rice in UCL meals.
> Visit Paddi
> UCL alumni tackle food poverty with ‘world’s first sustainable rice brand’
Milids
Milids was set up by a UCL student who wanted to produce coffee cup lids made from grains, thus reducing plastic waste.
UCL caters, CH&Co have provided support and advice on a catering provision.
> Visit Milids on Linkedin
UCL Food4Thought
Two student members of UCL’s Vegetarian and Vegan Society, Aashish Khimasia and Elena Bashkova, founded UCLFood4Thought, to deliver the F4T campaign on UCL campus.
They calculated and analysed the carbon footprint of UCL’s catering food purchasing. This baseline and the students' support will be utilised to create carbon footprinting of meals in the refectory, in partnership with Foodsteps.
> visit UCLFood4Thought
Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering
In 2019, then UCL 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