The catering department at Liverpool Hope University is proudly in-house, to the benefit of our staff and students. We recognise that the procurement, preparation, and serving of food and drink greatly impacts the environment, and we are committed to reducing this impact as much as possible.
Catering seeks to provide healthy, nutritious, culturally-diverse, and sustainable menu choices for all of our customers. We are committed to providing fresh home-cooked food while utilising seasonal produce.
We have embedded sound ethical, social, and environmental practices, both when procuring goods and services required for the delivery of hospitality, and when preparing and serving food and drink to our customers.
Keep up to date with all things food and drink by following @EatatHope on Instagram and Facebook.
In the news:
Success for our chefs at the annual TUCO Competitions 2025
Catering achieve two-star Food Made Good rating
Catering staff take part in sustainability workshops
Catering Operations Manager attends Colombian coffee tour
Hospitality award for Catering team
The Public Diners
Sustainable Restaurant Association
We achieved a two (out of three) star rating from the Sustainable Restaurant Association's Food Made Good Standard. The standard—considered the Michelin of sustainability—assesses behaviour, measures action, celebrates progress, and provides a roadmap towards further improvement across three main pillars: sourcing, society, and the environment. Ratings last two years (2024–26).
The University Caterers’ Organisation
The University is an active member of The University Caterers’ Organisation (TUCO). Most catering suppliers are appointed under TUCO frameworks, with sustainability embedded into the procurement process.
Food waste
We send zero waste to landfill; all waste is reused, recycled, or used for energy from waste.
Food waste is processed through our on-site food dehydrator. The processed food waste is then sent for anaerobic digestion.
Used oil is collected by Olleco and recycled into biofuel.
More plants, better meat
Our award-winning hospitality menu is vegetarian-by-default for three principal reasons: 1) environmental sustainability, 2) peace of mind for an increasing number of plant-based and “flexitarian” diners, and 3) the negative health implications associated with consuming too much meat (specifically red meat).
Our Place Bar + Kitchen has a standalone vegan menu, while Fresh Hope Food Court offers daily-changing plant-based meals.
We received the Compassion in World Farming’s Good Egg Award for our commitment to serving only free-range eggs and egg products. All eggs are sourced within 20-miles of the University.
We use Wildfarmed Regenerative Flour in our pizzas. Wildfarmed are carbon negative, fully traceable, use no CIDES (pesticides, herbicides or fungicides), contribute zero river pollution, and integrate livestock in farming.
We are signed up to Sustainable Fish Cities and only use sustainably-sourced fish; we do not use any fish that has been identified on the Marine Stewardship Council’s “fish to avoid” list; and we commit to promoting the MSC certification of our seafood produce on our menus.
We're working towards using only 100% Sustainable Palm Oil in our foodservice restaurants. Our Place Bar + Kitchen—the University's largest restaurant—is set to achieve this certification in September 2025.
Community food
The University supports numerous community events, most recently catering and providing spaces for:
- Childwall in Bloom (June 2025);
- Community Engagement Team's Christmas Pantomime (December 2024);
- community Christmas light switch-on (November 2024);
- Harvest Festival (October 2024);
- plus several other on-site events (including Choir and Hope Book Club, both of which are open to Hope staff & students and the local community).
Off-site, the catering team has produced food for over 250 community members at the annual All Saints Church tree lighting event (November 2024).
The catering team regularly donates surplus food and ingredients to charity, for example, donating perishable stock ahead of the Christmas break to Paper Cup Project, a local nonprofit coffee shop offering support to Liverpool's homeless.
Did you know?
Almost all of the coffee served on campus is 100% Arabica, organic and Fairtrade certified.
All milk served on campus is sourced within 20 miles.
We provide free drinking water in all catering spaces.
All our restaurants are crockery-first. When it's requested, our takeaway packaging is biodegradable, compostable, or recyclable—and has been long before government legislation.
