2 November 2021 Serving up sustainable food options

Lincoln University is committed to providing sustainable, healthy food options – including gluten free, vegetarian, and vegan alternatives – to everyone who spends time on campus.

This is in line with Lincoln's comprehensive Sustainability Plan, which outlines its vision to be an exemplar of sustainable practices for the land-based sector. Part of that involves demonstrating sustainability in the university's campus operations and promoting the importance of the 17 United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. 

Lincoln's on-site cafes are open to students, staff and the public, and there is also a student dining hall, with a catering service available for events. 
 

All campus cafes and dining facilities:

• Are certified palm oil free
• Use free range eggs
• Serve potatoes organically grown on-site by the Biological Husbandry Unit and supplied with zero packaging and low travel miles
• Use herbs grown on campus by the catering department
• Use campus-made yogurt to avoid plastic packaging
• Offer affordable meals for students. 

Meals for students

Meals in the student dining hall are provided to residents as part of our accommodation package. Students not living on campus can buy discounted meal tickets for buffet-style dining.

The Lincoln University Catering team meet with student residents at the start of each term to identify dietary requirements and can cater for many different requirements including gluten free, vegan, dairy free and halal.

Vegetarian options are included for all meals.

Healthy, sustainable options

The campus cafes serve a wide range of healthy meal options.

Balanced meals for student residents

Meals in the student dining hall are provided to residents as part of our accommodation package.

Affordable meals for everyone

Students not living on campus can buy discounted meal tickets for buffet-style dining.

Award-winning catering

The Lincoln University Catering department has been recognised in the Selwyn Responsible Businesses Awards for:

• Reducing waste by removing single-use jam packets (eliminating 29,400 packets), making its own yogurt (eliminating 1350 x 1L and 240 x4L containers), and using biodegradable rubbish bags.
• Continually reviewing products and replacing them with alternatives, including becoming palm oil free, abolishing takeaway coffee cups, and moving to an electronic food control plan (reducing paper waste by 70%).
• Supporting Lincoln University’s sustainability initiatives and advocating change by being represented on the Sustainability Action Group for the Environment (SAGE); washing, sorting and crushing items to ensure they will be recycled; and working with suppliers such as Fonterra to retrieve waste and recycle. 

Useful links

Selwyn Responsible Business Awards (PDF 79 KB)