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About Us
We're committed to providing a great on-campus catering service for students, staff and visitors
We run multiple cafes and restaurants on the Newcastle University campus, a catered halls of residence and an Event Catering business to deliver catering for events. Our vision is to be the best University caterer in the country, and we're constantly striving to develop our service to meet your needs.
We provide a wide range of healthy and sustainable products in all of our outlets. Our numerous accreditations display our continued commitment to environmental and social responsibility. Our suppliers share our values.
All meals and grab and go containing meat, allowed within a Halal diet, which is produced by the University's Hospitality team is Halal certified.
Our values
We are committed to providing an excellent, sustainable service within the local community. Our mission is to Welcome the world to Newcastle, and we aim to nurture great minds for a better tomorrow.
As the University's catering service, our key areas of focus are:
- running an environmentally sustainable business
- providing nutritional, great quality food and drinks which cater to a variety of diets and lifestyles
- offering excellent value for money to our staff, students and visitors
- delivering a friendly, welcoming service and relaxing facilities to help nourish the wellbeing of our community
Consumers are increasingly aware of the food they eat and the negative impact it has on our world, particularly:
- waste
- packaging
- food miles
- carbon footprint
- animal welfare
We want to set a good example by improving the sustainability of our own catering services and supply chains. See our Healthy and Sustainable Food Policy for more information.
Positive impacts of sustainable food production and consumption include:
- managing the negative environmental impacts
- contributing to improved health by helping customers make healthier food choices
- improved food quality and security
- improved standards for workers throughout the supply chain
Our food is sourced and purchased in line with the university’s Sustainable Procurement. Producers are vetted on both the quality of their goods and hygiene of their premises.
Our suppliers
We're cultivating a food supply chain that provides value for money whilst delivering greater economic, social and environmental benefits.
Our suppliers share our core values. They pay particular attention to increasing:
- consumption of healthy and nutritious food
- use of seasonal goods
- the proportion of fairly traded products available
- the proportion of food produced according to a recognised farm assurance standard
And reducing:
- food waste
- packaging waste
- the number of food deliveries made to the catering outlets
Our suppliers also provide reasonable support for university awareness and training schemes, and facilitate relationships between the university and small producers
Becoming a supplier
We welcome opportunities to work with suppliers who share our values and can help us meet our objectives. If you're interested in becoming a supplier please e-mail purchasing@ncl.ac.uk
Prices and payment methods
We offer good food at competitive prices. By providing a number of payment methods in each of our outlets, we make eating with us enjoyable and convenient.
Pricing structure
We are a self funding department and our pricing structure reflects this criteria. We are a non-profit making organisation and do not receive any subsidies.
We aim to provide good value for money at all times. Price comparisons with other universities and similar high street outlets are regularly carried out to ensure that we remain competitive.
Ways to pay
In most of our outlets, you can pay by:
- card
- voucher
- student fob
Vouchers
Most EAT@ outlets accept vouchers. Please check individual outlet pages for details.
University departments wishing to purchase vouchers should telephone us on 0191 208 6363.
Vouchers may be exchanged for goods of the same or higher price than the face value on payment of the difference. No change will be given if the value of the goods purchased is less than the value of the voucher. Vouchers cannot be exchanged for cash. If not used by the expiry date, vouchers will be cancelled. We do not accept liability for lost, stolen or damaged vouchers.
Sustainability
We recognise our responsibility to carry out catering activities in an environmentally and socially responsible manner.
What we believe in
As the University's catering service, we are aware of the impact we have on the environment, and are continuously introducing solutions to minimise this, as outlined in our Story of sustainability.
Our food is sourced and purchased in line with the university’s Sustainable Procurement; producers are vetted on both the quality of their goods and hygiene of their premises.
See the sections below to find out what we've done so far to reduce our impact. If you have suggestions or would like to work with us to help us improve, please get in touch at catering@ncl.ac.uk - we'd love to hear from you.
The University has excellent recycling rates; however, when waste is taken off site, it is not treated as well as we would like. Currently technology isn't ready for our vision of Zero Tolerance on Plastic, but we are working towards becoming plastic-free as technology advances.
What we've done so far:
- In 2014, we changed our branded disposable cups to be fully compostable (with the plastic lids being recyclable); whilst regionally we don't currently have the facility to recycle these, when the cups are incinerated, energy is produced
- We are looking at dedicated cup recycling bins, to make composting easier
- We give a 30p discount off the price of hot drinks if you use a suitably sized, re-usable cup
- We can sell you a re-usable hot drinks cup if you need one - just ask!
- We have replaced plastic cutlery with wooden alternatives in our units
- We are trialling compostable, non-plastic trays in our Event Catering service; these should be placed in the general waste bin. If you do receive a delivery using plastic trays, the clear lid can go in a plastic recycling bin, and the black bases should go in the general waste bin
- We have removed plastic straws from our offer; only a very small number is available on request for customers with medical needs, although we encourage the use of reusable ones.
- Jugs of tap water or water fountains are freely available in our units where we have appropriate and sufficient space to do so. If the unit does not have jugs of tap water or a water fountain, the staff are able to direct customers to the nearest University location that does
- Re-usable water bottles are for sale in most units; please ask us where you can refill yours!
- We are working with colleagues to install more free water dispensers around campus
- We provide enhanced information on recycling to customers, in conjunction with the Sustainability Team, to encourage positive recycling behaviours
- We are actively working towards reducing single-use plastics in our units by replacing products to alternatives in eco-friendly packaging, e.g. replacing water bottles with canned water.
Please contact us, if you have any ideas or want to get involved in helping us achieve our vision at catering@newcastle.ac.uk.
Did you know that over a third of all food produced globally goes to waste? We believe that when people are going hungry in the UK and having to use foodbanks, it’s morally unacceptable to produce avoidable food waste and we are working on it.
What we've done so far:
- Looking at portion sizes - we now actively advise event organisers to consider what they are providing and to not over purchase (also helping pockets!), and have also reduced portion sizes to more suitable ones across our hot meals
- Introducing more vegetarian/vegan options to reduce environmental impact, including Meat-Free Mondays at Castle Leazes
- Through the use of food trays in Event Catering, we encourage the sharing of food leftovers with colleagues and students after events (as long as it's still considered safe to eat)
- In units which are not open at a weekend and food is nearing the end of its shelf life, we move food to units which are open
- We also encourage the sale of items, otherwise marked for the bin by reducing prices (keep an eye on our social media channels for alerts!)
- We manage waste effectively by following catering industry waste management standards and we have invested in a new electronic stock management system which will help to reduce food waste even further
- Food waste from our production kitchens has been collected and processed via an anaerobic digester since 2014
- We are working to reduce single-use plastics and general waste in our cafés, starting with Courtyard. In practice, this means replacing some products to alternatives in eco-friendly packaging (e.g. cans of water instead of bottles). We have also made recycling bins for Walkers crisp packets available.
So what's coming next?
We're currently working on bringing in an online food ordering system for events, which will incorporate images of portion sizes to further help event organisers to purchase responsibly.
We are also continuing to work with our Student's Union on Student Affordability Agenda, and we want to do more. If you want to be part of a Food Waste Revolution, check out OLIO - a food-sharing app aiming to maximise the use of food which would otherwise be thrown away, e.g. by sharing meals or leftover ingredients (as well as household items) with others. If you’re interested in helping set this up, we’d like to hear from you - contact us at catering@newcastle.ac.uk if you have any ideas or want to get involved.
The Good Egg Award
The Good Egg Award celebrates companies who use only cage-free eggs or egg products. All of our eggs come from a cage-free local supplier.
We were previously awarded The Heart of Newcastle Award by Newcastle City Council, which recognised food businesses in the city who promoted excellent standards of hygiene and healthy choices. Unfortunately the award is no longer operated by the Council but we continue to promote and provide healthy food and drink choices, and have excellent standards of food hygiene.
We are members of the Red Tractor Farm Assurance scheme. The scheme encompasses food safety, hygiene, animal welfare and environmental protection. Members believe it's important to know where your food comes from, that the basic welfare needs of sheep and cattle must not be compromised at any stage of their lives, and that farmers must ensure that their farming practices do not damage the environment.
The Food Standards Agency is an independent Government department set up by an Act of Parliament in 2000 to protect the public's health and consumer interests in relation to food.
This independent consumer information service supports the Food Standards Agency national Food Hygiene Rating Scheme (FHRS). Our outlets display five stars (the highest rating) but soon the ratings will change to conform to this national scheme. In addition to the FHRS scheme, the Scores on the Doors service will publish additional local authority schemes such as Fair Trade and Healthy Eating.