Hey HallsLife! As you know by now, our favourite thing to do is to help you feel at home here at UWE Bristol and what’s the best way to do that? Why free food of course.
Hey HallsLife! As you know by now, our favourite thing to do is to help you feel at home here at UWE Bristol and what’s the best way to do that? Why free food of course.
You might have heard that our Bring Your Own Bowl food waste event series, won the Student Engagement Category, for large institutions at the EAUC Green Gown Awards, in November 2018. Between September 2017 and February 2018, we hosted 3 BYOBs and provided you with free meals made from surplus supermarket food. Collectively, they saved over 200 kg of food waste, fed over 600 students and raised environmental awareness. It was also a key event of the 2018/19 Welcome for new students.
But we’ve also been working with The Green Team to increase your knowledge of food waste, so you are more sustainable at home and continuing the good work of BYOB. Did you know, that the average UWE student throws away £9 worth of food each week? And, 51% of the rubbish in general waste bins from student accommodation at Frenchay campus is unwanted food?
Well actually, yes, it turns out you do know! In November 2017, at our Thanksgiving edition of BYOB, 8% of you knew that the correct answer was £9 and 32% of you knew it was 51%. This increased to 38% and 49% respectively in February 2018. But we weren’t satisfied leaving it there. HallsLife you have smashed it out the park. We’ve hosted 4 BYOBs in 2018/19 and on average, a huge 68% of you know it’s £9 and 76% of you know it’s 51%!
This means we’ve increased the number of correct responses to question one by 79% and to question two by 55%. We’ve also surveyed more of you than ever at this year’s BYOB series of events, from 200 in total in 2017/18 to, 486 in 2018/19!
You might also remember that we asked you what your staple ingredients are and what foods you throw away the most. Well, we have listened and will be creating recipes and top tips for you based on this feedback. Make sure you check it out at thestudentsunion.co.uk/byob
We couldn’t do it without you and want to say a big thank you for bringing a bowl and making it such a success this year!
It’s down to you guys that BYOB has become one of our staple events and with such positive feedback, we can’t wait to keep making it bigger and better.
Here are just a couple of quotes from some of our wonderful BYOB attendees.
"I love this, this is a great concept, thank you"
"Thanks for making my life a little easier"
Get in touch with HallsLife at SUHallsLife@uwe.ac.uk #UWEHallsLife
Get in touch with The Green Team at TheGreenTeam@uwe.ac.uk #ThinkGreenBeGreat
This article connects to the UN Sustainable Development Goals: