Sustaining Hungry Students

Real food is replacing junk food as the staple diet for students taking part in a nationwide project. Sustain, the alliance for better food and farming comprised of around 100 organisations including CPRE and the Fairtrade Foundation), is now working in partnership with the NUS Student Eats project to help young people across the UK set up food co-ops in their universities and colleges. Tilly Jarvis combines her work as food
co-op project co-ordinator for Sustain with similar work for the NUS’s Student Eats project, which for several years has been promoting the
growing of food on campuses across the country. “We set up Student Eats in 2012 to support students. It was hugely successful – so much so that we were growing a lot of produce which was often being wasted. So there was a lot of interest in setting up food co-operatives on campus or locally.”
The National Union of Students has funding for 67 food enterprises – offering £1,000 in start-up costs for each one. Some focus on providing produce for farmers’ markets, others on the preservation of food, and several concentrate on using up surplus food – offering ‘pay as you fill’ cafes where eople
pay what they can afford. “All the co-operatives have to be student-led but they can be run in conjunction with the local community,” explains Ms Jarvis.
“Our enterprises aim to be profitable, but any surplus goes to the social and environmental groups who are growing food on campus or with the local
community.” With fast food chains taking over many campuses, the project gives students the opportunity to buy fresh, local food.