Climate Week 2022: Fighting Food Waste

Roasted vegetables

Focus on fighting food waste

Great Food at Leeds is proud to be part of the war on food waste. As part of Leeds University Union (LUU) Climate Week 2022, we want to put fighting food waste in the spotlight, sharing what we are doing to support this movement and ways you can get involved.

What is Climate Week?

Climate Week 2022 is taking place from Monday 21 – Friday 25 March. It’s the second year of this exciting campaign after its launch in 2021, and there are lots of opportunities for University staff and students to engage with sustainability at LUU. The three themes for this year’s event: climate justice, climate education and eco-anxiety.

At Great Food at Leeds, we are excited to be supporting the event as sustainability is a key value of our service. Managing food waste plays a huge part in running our service sustainably and combatting climate change.

Why is food waste a problem?

Food waste is a global problem, it occurs all around us – in the home, in supermarkets, restaurants, pubs and cafés. A whopping 3.6 million tonnes of food is wasted by the food industry every year in the UK!

Most wasted food in the UK ends up in landfill, which contributes to greenhouse gas emissions and impacts climate change. The worst part is that a huge 2 million tonnes of the food that goes to waste is still edible!

How is Great Food at Leeds tackling food waste?

We are proud to be part of the Too Good To Go food waste movement – a mobile application that connects customers to food outlets that have unsold food surplus.

You can find the Refectory and many of our cafes on the Too Good To Go app, place an order and collect a Magic Bag before closing time. Food offerings range from sandwiches to hot daily specials. We have saved almost 600 meals already in 2022!

Next time you fancy some food on campus, why not download the app and rescue a Magic Bag of surplus, unsold food and save food waste!

How can you help fight food waste?

Planning meals and not buying too much food is a good place to start, but when you do buy too much there are creative ways to use this up!

Our Senior Head Chef, Lisa, has provided some top tips for using up fresh ingredients from the back of the fridge and giving food leftovers a new lease of life!

  • Leftover Bolognese sauce: Why not try making this into a chilli? Add some fresh chilli, ground cumin and paprika, serve with rice and top with soured cream or natural yogurt. Alternatively, make this into a lasagne inspired dish by layering the sauce with sheets of pasta or cooked pasta shapes and top with cheese before baking.
  • Vegetables: If you find yourself with lots of vegetables that need using up, try making a vegetable soup. Roughly chop up whatever is available to you, root vegetables, greens or anything in between and cook in stock. Have it chunky or blend to smooth perfection, adding a potato will help make it creamy. You can also add some dried lentils to pack this with protein, too!
  • Fruit: Its grocery shopping day, the cupboards are bare, but you still need a nutritious breakfast… it’s time to whip up a smoothie! Add the last, over ripened banana to a blender with some berries (fresh or frozen). Pour in milk of your choice or fruit juice and add some porridge oats. Whizz it up and enjoy!

Do you have a food waste regular offender, lurking in the fridge at the end of each week? Need some inspiration on how to make the most of it?

Get in touch via our social media channels or drop us a line to gfal@leeds.ac.uk and Chef Lisa will be happy to provide some ideas on how to save this from becoming food waste!

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