Demonstrating institutional commitment to community and staff wellbeing, the IDS Bar and Kitchen hosted several ‘lunch and learn’ events in the past year, as well as cultural celebrations such as Diwali, a Christmas Market, Mexican Day of the Dead party and a Burns Night. These are especially important for our one-year MA community, helping to support friendships and networks.
Sustainability and ingredient standards schemes have also been implemented, including:
- a zero food waste strategy using dynamic menu planning, ingredient re-use, careful ordering and volume management
- sustainable and compostable takeaway packaging, use of local and seasonal ingredients, consideration of food miles
- collaborations with Surplus to Purpose and the Soil Association
- contributions (of 10p per kilogram of coffee sold) to the C2C fund, a grassroots project supporting coffee-growing communities
- a data collection and carbon savings analysis tool, Cool Food Pro, to inform choices around waste, meat consumption, menus, food miles and seasonality.
This year we started a project linking our IDS MA Food and Development students, IDS researchers and the Bar and Kitchen. That collaboration is changing our restaurant practice and creating opportunities for our students to learn and work with our commercial suppliers.
Disclaimer
The views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author/s and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of IDS.