Blog by Dr Maggy Fostier, Associate Dean for Environmental Sustainability

The University of Manchester is committed to improving the sustainability of food and drink on campus via several initiatives listed on our website. These cover ethical and responsible sourcing, increasing the plant-based options on campus, limiting the impact of our operations (energy, water, packaging) and reducing waste and its impact via our food recycling scheme to produce energy. 

Tackling food waste is an essential part of becoming more sustainable. It starts by planning effectively to avoid over purchasing: planning menus at home and following the code of conduct for professional staff when ordering catering on campus. 

Food on campus provides cardboard boxes for leftover food, to encourage staff and students to take it away. We also have community fridges in the SU and the Nancy Rothwell building where students can help themselves. 

You can also limit food waste in Greater Manchester by using apps that advertise food reduced or free, such as Too Good to Go, Olio or Karma.  

Recently, another student-led initiative was launched called Bee Circular. This is a spin off from an Oxford initiative that has set partnerships between shops and food outlets and volunteers.  

The project is coordinated in Manchester by a sustainability champion, Haojun Shuai, BSc Environmental Management. He is currently looking for volunteers (staff or students) to collect FREE food from their local retailers, such as Sainsbury’s, Aldi, Lidl, M&S, and Pret A Manger.  

The system works as follows: 

• volunteers sign up for one or more geographical areas and are organised in WhatsApp groups.  

• Partner retailers contact Haojun with their offering.  

• Haojun posts the offering to the relevant WhatsApp group and volunteers sign up for what they want to collect. 

• Volunteers either keep the food for themselves or bring it to a partner organisation that will redistribute the food to those in need.  

The network is expanding fast and on 14th November, there is an exciting opportunity to collaborate with the Trussell Trust and Manchester South Central Foodbank as part of a supermarket collection event at Asda Hulme.  

To sign up, please visit the Dunn School Green Group Manchester page or contact Haojun. 

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