Liverpool Hope University commits to providing a high quality catering and hospitality service. We recognise that the procurement, preparation, and serving of food and drink in our outlets have a large impact on the environment, and we are committed to reducing this impact as much as possible.
Catering seeks to provide a healthy, nutritious, culturally diverse and sustainable menu choice for our customers. We are committed to provide fresh home cooked food, and will change dishes to use the best products that the season has to offer.
UK households alone waste £12.5 billion worth of good food and drink each year, costing the average family with children £60 a month. This is an unnecessary waste of money, energy and natural resources which went into the production, storage, preparation, packaging and transportation of that food. If we reduce the amount of food we throw away, we could save the equivalent carbon emissions as taking 1 in 4 cars off the road (Love Food Hate Waste).
In the news:
A community food project brought a group of Liverpool veterans and their families to the University’s Nutrition Labs for a cookery lesson with a difference.
- Bring your own mug to purchase a drink in any Hope outlet to avoid paying an extra 25p for a takeaway/single use cup.
- Bring your own water bottle and fill up Fresh Hope, LTC Foyer, EDEN cafe, Chapters Cafe and Hope Park Sports Foyer.
- Buy more local and seasonably priced produce to reduce both costs and your food miles. Eat Seasonably shows what produce is best to eat and grow now.
- We throw away 7 billion tonnes of food and drink each year, costing around £60 per month, and more than half of this could have been eaten. Check out Love Food Hate Waste for practical tips about a range of food-saving measures: from planning to food portioning, and from better food storage to using leftovers.
- Check out Love Food Hate Waste’s portion planner to work out how much food you need to cook for each person (whatever their age) in your household, for each meal. This will save time and money, as well as reducing the amount you might be throwing in the bin.
- Choose free range and responsibly sourced food.
- Drink tap water instead of bottled. Bottled spring water is more expensive and has a substantially greater carbon footprint than tap water.
- When ordering food for meetings, where possible, request a higher proportion of vegetarian food, seasonal and local produce, and check the dietary requirements of attendees before ordering.
- Use reusable cups and glasses for meetings in preference of disposable drinking cups.
- Buy and use organic tea and coffee, if possible; less CO2 is emitted by organic farming
We have been a Fairtrade accredited University since 2005. This is awarded by the Fairtrade Foundation in recognition of our continued promotion of Fairtrade products and principles. We are continually promoting Fairtrade products and principles, and improving the range and availability of Fairtrade products across campus.
This means we're supporting better prices, adequate working conditions, and fair terms of trade through the goods we purchase and the suppliers we work with.
How we support Fairtrade
- The University and Student’s Union have a joint Fairtrade Policy
- Fairtrade hot drinks are served at all University meetings, conferences and events.
- We work with suppliers to increase the range of Fairtrade products available, and offer taster sessions throughout the year.
- We organise and promote Fairtrade through events, activities and competitions throughout the year.
- We offer Fairtrade prizes to various competitions run by the Sustainability Team.
- We promote Fairtrade through our Facebook page, Hope social media, and articles within the staff and student weekly bulletins.
- We have an active staff-student Fairtrade Steering Group, which meets every two months to discuss how to increase awareness of Fairtrade, as well as the sales and range of available Fairtrade products.
How you can support Fairtrade
- Choose to buy Fairtrade products, and encourage others to do so – this is the most direct way you can make a difference
- Choosing Fairtrade is easy: just look out for the Fairtrade Mark on thousands of products. There’s a wide range of Fairtrade products available, including coffee, tea, cocoa, sugar, bananas, other fresh and dried fruit, juices, honey, preserves, nuts, oils, herbs, spices, rice, pasta, beer, rum, and wine. The Fairtrade Mark is also present where any of these products are the key ingredient in another product, such as cakes, muffins, flapjacks and snack bars.
- Join our staff-student Fairtrade Steering Group.
- The Group seeks to maintain the University’s Fairtrade accreditation and raise awareness of Fairtrade amongst our staff and students.
- The Group is open to anyone, and provides an opportunity to present and discuss ideas, and getting involved with running events. If you’d like to join, or just to find out more about what we do, please email hartles@hope.ac.uk to find out more.
- Attend our Fairtrade events, or host your own – we can help promote them!
Where can you find Fairtrade on campus?
- Fairtrade hot drinks and sugar are available in all catering outlets and the Chaplaincy
- Fairtrade iced tea and orange juice is available from the Food Court
- FML Starbucks
- LHU Catering and Conferencing provide Fairtrade hot drinks and sugar for any internal or external meeting and conferences.
- The FML shop stocks a small range of Fairtrade products
Why is Fairtrade important?
Fairtrade is a simple way to make a difference to the lives of the people who grow the things we love. They do this by changing the way trade works through better and stable prices, decent working conditions, community investment, and a fair deal for farmers and workers in developing countries; they also promote sustainable farming practices.
Fairtrade offers protection for the producers' income against the financial pressures of international trade by guaranteeing them a fair price for their products; offering training programmes, including gaining the knowledge and skills that they need to develop their businesses and increase sales; long-term contracts that offer security; and advanced financing. Premiums are also paid to the community - which can be invested in schools, hospitals and clean water.
Fairtrade’s mission is to connect disadvantaged producers and consumers, promote fairer trading conditions, and empower producers to combat poverty, strengthen their position and take more control over their lives.
- We collect food waste from Our Place to allow us to divert our food waste from the general waste stream
- We provide free drinking water within Fresh Hope, LTC Foyer, EDEN cafe, Chapter Cafe and Hope Park Sports Foyer.
- We have embedded sound ethical, social and environmental practices both when procuring goods and services required for the delivery of hospitality across all of our food outlets, and when preparing and serving food and drink to our customers
- We have signed up to the Sustainable Fish Cities and will only use sustainable sourced fish in all of the catering outlets and within our hospitality provision.
- Fish that has been identified on the Marine Stewardship Council’s "fish to avoid" list is not served within any catering outlet, and we maximise the use of fish on the "fish to eat" list
- We commit to promoting the MSC certification of our seafood produce in all our menus and communications, and will include the Sustainable Fish City icon
- We have been awarded Compassion in World Farming's Good Egg Award
- All eggs (in shell) are free range, and we are working towards using higher welfare eggs in all of our products
- The University collects its waste cooking oil, which was converted into bio-fuel by Olleco
- The soup, salad and hot drink takeaway containers/cups are compostable. They still, however, need to go in the general waste bin.
- We are using the last of our plastic cutlery, stirring sticks and straws around campus
- We are looking at how we can reduce the need for them (using metal cutlery, for example, or charging for their use)
- Looking at the provision of biodegradable alternative
- Feeling Fruity? The Big Apple Van will be making weekly visits to deliver all your healthy eating needs; details of times and dates will be released via the bulleti
