Darwin College

The Darwin College catering service have received the silver standard business award for their efforts towards sustainability.  They provide daily meals for 700 students and staff from over 60 different countries and cater for events in the College.

Darwin College catering aims to promote sustainability by producing a range of freshly cooked menus that include carefully sourced ingredients.  They plan fish dishes in their menus by using guidelines from organisations including: the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), the Marine Conservation Society (MCS) and Sustainable Fish Cities.  They take the same care sourcing meat making sure it is RSPCA Assured. Meat, vegetables and fruit are locally sourced whenever possible. Only free range eggs are used. They also promote Fair Trade products in all their outlets.

With concern for reducing their environmental impact and CO2 emissions, the catering team aims to reduce their use of meat by always offering vegetarian and vegan dishes in their main menu as well as providing vegan lunches throughout the week.  With food waste being a major contributor to CO2 emissions, as well as working to reducing their food waste, Darwin College composts food waste in an effort to send no food waste to landfill.

We are really pleased that in spite of this great work that they already do Darwin College catering service are taking further sustainable steps, with immediate plans to focus on promoting healthy options and to become Fair-trade accredited, in addition to longer-term goals to further reduce meat consumption and to focus on packaging, encouraging suppliers that only use  biodegradable and not petroleum based packaging.

Website: www.darwin.cam.ac.uk/catering

Twitter: https://twitter.com/darwinkitchens