Catering team wins national sustainability award

Posted 24 July

Harper Adams University’s Catering Team are celebrating after their work on sustainability won a national award. 

The team picked up the Sustainability Award at the TUCO awards last night. The awards are run by TUCO, the leading professional membership body for in-house caterers operating in the higher, further education and public sector and the Harper Adams team were judged to be the most sustainable in the country in one of just six awards given out during the evening. 

The awards, held in Loughborough, followed a gala dinner at the culmination of TUCO’s summer conference - and a group from the Harper Adams Catering Team were on hand to accept their trophy. 

Speaking this morning after returning from last night’s ceremony, Harper Adams University Head of Catering & Retail  David Nuttall said: “This award is such an honour - and great recognition for all the staff behind the scenes doing the hard yards.” 

The holistic approach to its catering which secured David and his team the award sees them working with as much of the on-site Harper Adams Future Farm’s produce as possible. 

From honey to pork and strawberries to milk, the team has drawn up innovative menus and approaches to feeding students, staff and conference and short course guests across the whole year. 

With more than 2,000 meals a day produced on-site, the team’s approach to its catering has been to ensure they ‘practice what we teach’ – putting the sustainability which underpins so many of the University’s courses into the dishes it serves its students. 

This work includes a full-time butcher who works with meat produced on the Future Farm, an on-site apiary which is not only used for research and teaching but also provides honey, and an on-site vineyard which draws on a specially-selected range of cold climate varieties. 

The Catering Team has helped drive forward research on food waste, as well as working to ensure as little food as possible it produces is wasted through awareness campaigns in University outlets. 

They are also one of a series of University departments whose work has helped the development of an on-site Community Fridge. More than 1,100 people have used the fridge since its inception in January of last year – ensuring more than 52,000 meals have been stopped from becoming food waste. 

Following their success last night, the team is also one of two from Harper Adams University shortlisted for this year’s Green Gown awards, where they have been nominated in the Campus Health Food and Drink category, alongside the School of Sustainable Food and Farming – which has been nominated in the Next Generation Learning and Skills category.