A brand-new café is set to welcome new customers from the end of August.

Based in the Sir William Henry Bragg Building on Woodhouse Lane, the 1915 café takes its name and inspiration from the year University of Leeds alumni Sir William Henry Bragg was awarded a Nobel Prize.

The 1915’s relaxed and informal menu has been carefully created to offer a mix of both classic and on-trend options. Using locally and ethically sourced ingredients alongside seasonal produce throughout the year, customers will enjoy regularly updated specials as well as gluten-free and vegan options with regionally sourced coffee and locally handmade cakes sitting alongside more contemporary wraps and flatbreads.

Julie Tong, Head of Retail at Great Food at Leeds, said: 

“We are delighted to add 1915 to our portfolio on campus. The café space has been designed with the University community in mind, working with the schools of Engineering, Physics and Astronomy, and Computing.

The 1915 café offers a wonderful place for staff and students to enjoy light meals throughout the day or catch up on work accompanied by a barista coffee

As with our other outlets, the cafe will be opened in line with appropriate government covid regulations.”

Catering services play a key role in life at the University of Leeds, eating with each other provides the opportunity to bring us closer together and to consume responsibly. We recognise our potential to drive change and influence our customers and it is our ambition to become industry leaders in the higher education sector for sustainability, reaching ambitious goals such as removing single-use plastics by 2023.

Our mission is to reduce our impact on key issues such as climate change, soil degradation and habitat loss. To support the health of our community and commit to continual improvement in the nutritional content of our meals that provide a diverse offer to meet current health guidance.

We also believe in being a positive partner in society, sharing our skills and knowledge, supporting local and global initiatives, and building the capacity of existing and future staff to deliver sustainable catering. In 2019 we embarked on the University’s Blueprint programme, which is a framework to support Schools and Services to work out what their sustainability impacts are and what they can influence or change to support the University’s sustainability goals. Catering services identified the following key strategic areas to develop over the next 5 years:

  • Reducing the use of single-use packaging, with an aim of using no single-use plastics by 2023.
  • Collaborating with Food Science and Nutrition to increase the availability of healthier food and improve nutritional content.
  • Reducing the overall meat content across meals and increase the amount of meat-free/vegan meals available.
  • Increasing the amount of locally and seasonally produced food
  • Decreasing the amount of food waste on campus
  • Reducing the impact of food on the environment
  • Sustainability of fish sold
  • Supporting animal welfare and the welfare of farmers
  • Working with procurement to reduce carbon emissions and ensure the integrity of the supply chain

Our journey so far

The team have been busy working on each of these areas of development and are ensuring that these are inextricably linked in our everyday working life and the decisions we make.

Plastics
In 2019, GFaL (Great Food at Leeds) marked the 1-year anniversary of the #2023plasticfree pledge by significantly contributing to the University removing 1 million pieces of single-use plastic from its operations.

In 2020 GFaL continued to work hard behind the scenes aiming to achieve the interim target to ‘remove single-use plastic from catering and offices by 2020’. This included a new recyclable cardboard packaging solution that would remove 125,000 single-use plastic trays and lids from Deli(very) operations.

Despite the complex operational challenges created by the Coronavirus outbreak, including the postponement of the Deli(very) packaging initiative, GFaL has continued to work with the University Sustainability service and procurement team to ensure all catering operations are working towards being single-use plastic free.

Positive changes have included using paper wallets for reusable cutlery, instead of plastic pre-packs; and working with one of our suppliers, Planglow, to create a bio-wrap film for packaging of all in-house products. This is made using plant-based organic materials, to replace traditional oil derived plastic sheets, and was created custom-made for GFaL following supplier engagement.

GFaL also reintroduced a reusable cup scheme to all outlets and in September 2020 installed accessible and easy to use recycling bins for disposable hot drink cups.

Too Good to Go

In 2017 GFaL partnered with Too Good To Go, an innovative app and social enterprise that aims to put an end to food waste in the hospitality industry and support food security. The Too Good To Go app is available for The Refectory as well as many other GFaL cafes. It allows GFaL to help reduce food waste on campus, by providing a platform to show surplus food that is available to students, staff, and the wider community at a third of the usual cost rather than it going to waste.

In the last year, we have seen an increase of residents from the surrounding areas utilising the app and our aim for 2021 is to increase the options available to customers, as well as promoting the app more widely to help achieve our less than 5% food waste target.

Carbon Footprint Project

GFal is currently working alongside Student Sustainability Architect, Amelia Cookson, developing a project, that aims to calculate the carbon footprint of our menus.

This exciting but meticulous project uses a carbon footprint calculator developed by TUCO (The University Caterers Organisation) to give each food item a score. Amelia has been holding online focus groups with staff and students to understand the best way to communicate this information to our customers to encourage positive purchasing decisions and help support the University’s climate principles.

 

 

United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 

We use the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a framework to guide our activity. Our work reducing single-use plastic is linked to the following SDGs:

  • Goal 12: Responsible consumption and production
  • Goal 17: Partnerships for the goals

Find out more about our impact on the SDGs.

Head Chef Lisa’s traditional hot cross buns recipe.

30 mins + hours proving time

Advanced

Makes 15

Vegetarian

Freezable

  • For the bun
    300ml fullfat milkplus 2 tsp more
    50g butter
    500g strong bread flour
    1 tsp salt
    75g caster sugar
    1 tbsp sunflower oil
    7g sachet fastaction yeast
    1 egg beaten
    50g mixed peel
    75g sultanas
    Zest of 1 orange
    1 applepeeled, cored, and grated.
    1 tsp cinnamon
  • For the cross
    75g plain flour 
     
  • For the glaze
     3 tsp of apricot jam 

Equipment
Piping bag

Use up leftover chocolate in this easy no-bake Easter-themed rocky road!

prep 10, 2 hours to set

Easy

Makes 16

Vegetarian

Freezable

 

  • 400 g Milk/Dark Chocolate
  • 125 g Golden Syrup
  • 125 g Unsalted Butter
  • 100 g Mini Marshmallows
  • 150 g Digestives (chopped)
  • 600-800 g Easter Chocolates (smarties, mini eggs)
  • 250 g White Chocolate

Equipment

  • 8” ( 20cm ) or 9” ( 22cm ) square tin
  • Parchment paper

To compliment your tea or coffee, we work with many local suppliers to stock brands that have a positive social impact on society and the planet. We also understand that choosing to back Fairtrade and ethically sourced products is one way we can stand with those vulnerable communities on the front line of the climate crisis.

 

Brown & Blond Brownies


Location:
Wortley, Leeds
Served: Selected outlets across campus
Brown & Blond Brownies website

This small bakery, which started out on a smallholding in North Yorkshire in 2010, is now firmly embedded in the heart of Leeds (Wortley) and supplies cafes, restaurants and delicatessens throughout the region and beyond.
Using only the finest ingredients (sourced locally where possible) coupled with an uncompromising attitude to quality drives artisan bakers, George and Lucy, and their team forward to deliver over fifty mouth-watering flavour combinations – from Banoffee to Black Forest, Peanut Butter to Praline and Salted Caramel to Stem Ginger!

Artisan Bakes

Location: Wakefield, West Yorkshire
Served: Selected outlets across campus
Artisan Bakes website

Artisan Bakes are a small team of passionate skilled bakers located in nearby Wakefield, West Yorkshire and have been a regular supplier of cakes to campus for several years.

What makes Artisan bakes taste so good is that everything is crafted by hand, in small batches that are made to order. The ingredients used are sourced as locally as possible – including the fruit that goes into their home-made jams.

Artisan continues to innovate its range with increasing choices for Vegan and Gluten-Free bakes as well as offering healthier options.

 

One World Bakery

Location: Lincolnshire & Holmfirth
Served: All Cafes
One World Bakery website

We are proud to stock a vast range of “One World Bakery” snacks by Bewleys across all of our catering outlets on campus. All handmade in the UK, using fairtrade ingredients and certified sustainable palm oil. The range covers healthier on-the-go snacking including, the Vegan Coconut bites to super indulgent Rocky Road and Billionaire’s Shortbread.

Ever wondered where the coffee beans and tea leaves that go into your GFaL (Great Food at Leeds) drink come from? Well, it’s closer than you think! Every cup of tea and coffee served in our cafes is either Fairtrade or ethically sourced using local suppliers from Yorkshire. We serve over 500 thousand cups of tea and coffee a year, so it’s important that we use the best quality ingredients and support local, sustainable suppliers.

Coffee

 

Darkwoods

Served: Affine, Loma, Loma Express, The Edit Room 
Roasted in: Marsdon, West Yorkshire
Darkwoods.co.uk

Nestled away in the West Yorkshire Penninesjust 25 miles away from campus is Darkwoods coffee merchants, who are one of the first coffee roasters in the UK to be BCorp certified.

Dark Woods use specialty grade coffees, which have cleaner more distinctive flavours and are traceable to skilled farmers and their farms across the world. 

Ian Agnew, Director of dark Woods, is also the director of the Lorna Young Foundation, a small charity that works with farmers in developing countries to help them get more value from what they grow. It was with this foundation that his involvement with coffee began when he helped to set up the Oromo Coffee Company, the world’s first refugee-owned social enterprise coffee company.

 


Bewleys: Coffee Eros

Served: Refectory, Hugo, Café 7, Café Maia, Baines Wing Café, Delivered catering
Roasted: Meltham, West Yorkshire
bewleys.co.uk

Bewleys

Established in 1840, Bewley’s source a large range of triple-certified, 100% Arabica, and Fairtrade coffees. Our cafes only use Bewley’s Fairtrade coffees which are sustainably sourced and roasted in nearby Meltham, West Yorkshire.

Bewley’s grower partner relationships go back years and they visit many of the growers they buy from regularly. As a business, Bewley’s are committed to reducing their environmental impact and actively work on the sustainability of coffee cups, alternative packaging and offsetting carbon emissions.

 

Tea


Canton Teas

Served: Affine, Loma, Loma Express, The Edit Room
cantontea.com/

Canton work hard to make the finest teas available at the fairest prices.  Most of their teas are beyond organic, some are biodynamic – and several are from abandoned tea farms where the plants now grow wild. Others are from ancient tea trees in the forests of Yunnan and Vietnam.


Bewleys: Eros Tea

Served: Refectory, Hugo, Café 7, Café Maia, Baines Wing, Delivered catering
bewleys.co.uk

Bewley’s carefully sources the finest teas based on leaf appearance and infusion qualities such as flavour, colour, strength and briskness. All Eros tea is Fairtrade and organic where possible.

 

 

Get involved!

Join the ‘Choose the World You Want’ online festival with your friends and family.

Follow Great food at Leeds on social media for all the latest posts around Fairtrade Fortnight

#Fairtradefortnight
#Choosetheworldyouwant​

Great Food at Leeds and Fairtrade

Since 2003 Great Food at Leeds (the University’s catering service), has been responsibly sourcing and selling ethical and Fairtrade products, to use in meals and sell in its cafes.

In 2005 the University of Leeds obtained Fairtrade status and our continued support has helped Yorkshire to be named the first Fairtrade region in the country.

We understand that choosing to back Fairtrade and ethically sourced products is one way we can stand with those vulnerable communities on the front line of the climate crisis.

As a consumer, YOU too have the power to help make a change socially and environmentally on the products you choose to buy.

At Great Food at Leeds, we understand that it is our responsibility to inform our customers about making these choices as well as making sure we provide a good variety of ethically traded products available across all of our cafes.

Fairtrade Fortnight 2021

For two weeks each year at the end of February and start of March, thousands of individuals, companies and groups across the UK come together to share the stories of the people who grow our food and drinks, mine our gold and who grow the cotton in our clothes. People who are often exploited and underpaid. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown us more than ever how interconnected we are globally.

This Fairtrade Fortnight, Great Food at Leeds will be shining the spotlight on the ingredients and suppliers we use and sharing information on how we can all make informed choices when it comes to Fairtrade and ethically sourced products.

Fairtrade and Sustainability

So, how does Fairtrade fit in with sustainability? Ellie, a final year BSc Geography student and one of the Community Reps at LUU writes about this year’s Fairtrade Fortnight theme 2021, and the growing challenges that climate change brings to farmers and workers in the communities Fairtrade works with.

Read Ellie’s blog post here

Get involved!

Follow our social channels below to find out how you can get involved or join the ‘Choose the World You Want’ online festival on the Fairtrade website with your friends and family.

Follow Great food at Leeds on social media for all the latest posts around Fairtrade Fortnight.

#Fairtradefortnight
#Choosetheworldyouwant​

Watch as Ellen Wang from Leeds University Business School shows you how to make Chinese dumplings at home!

Prep: 40 mins Cook: 2 -10 minutes

Medium

Makes around 16 – 20 dumplings per 60g of flour

Meat and vegetarian

 

  • Meat
    Mince Beef 250g
    2 Large Carrots  (grated)
    Light Soy Sauce
    Dark Soy Sauce
    Oyster Sauce
    Chinese Five Spice
    Sesame Oil
    Ginger (chopped)
    Spring Onions (chopped)
    Garlic (chopped)
    Salt  – to taste
    Sichuan Peppercorn Warm Water (small cup)
  • Vegetarian 
    2 Courgettes  (grated)
    2 Large Carrots  (grated)
    3 or 4 cooked eggs omelette style (chopped)
    Light Soy Sauce
    Dark Soy Sauce
    Chinese Five Spice
    Sesame Oil
    Ginger  (chopped)
    Spring Onions  (chopped)
    Garlic (chopped)
    Salt – to taste
  • For the dough
    250g Plain flour
    200 mL Warm water

Equipment
Large bowl
Medium bowl
Cloth
Optional: Wooden spoon or chopstick
Large Pan
Large slotted spoon