#Zero Food Waste

Zero Food Waste is a student-led project at UCL that aims to tackle food waste on campus. We redistribute food from where it is in excess to where it is in need: from UCL cafés to homeless shelters and a surplus food bank. These are namely St Mungo's Endsleigh Gardens, a homeless shelter, and Lifeafterhummus Community Benefit Society, a surplus food bank for community residents in the Euston/King’s Cross area.

Between Oct 2023 and Sep 2024, 8550+ food items were saved from being binned. In the AY 2023-2024, we had a high unsold food items recovery rate of 78%. Our project has received recognition from both within and outside UCL: we were the winner of 2023 UCL Sustainability Impact Award, 22-23 and 23-24 Student-Led Project of the Year and were shortlisted for 22-23 National Society and Volunteering Community Award.

In the 2025/26 academic year, we secured funding from Hubbub to bring a community fridge to the Clubs & Societies Common Room in the Bloomsbury Theatre Building! 🥕The fridge will help redirect near-expiry food to the campus community, free of charge, helping reduce food waste while making surplus food more accessible. Keep an eye out for more updates! We can’t wait to get it up and running! 💚

Our volunteering takes place on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays in the afternoon/evening, with shifts lasting half an hour to one hour each within the timeframe of 3:30pm-8.30pm. If you are interested in joining us, please click on the 'expression of interest' button at the top of the sign up page!

https://www.instagram.com/zerofoodwasteucl/

[email protected]

Opportunities

Zero Food Waste Volunteer 25-26

Volunteers pick up unsold food waste from cafes on the UCL campus (like Gordon's, Print Room, Student Centre) and transport it to our local charity partners, St Mungo's and Life After Hummus.

See what other students say about this project

It has also helped me realise that so many people are interested in food waste and how people would go an extra mile to help reduce food waste.

I spoke to the lovely Patricia Gimeno Le Paih, a second-year Biological Sciences undergraduate student, who is co-leading the Student-Led Project Zero Food Waste.

"I feel like volunteering gives you a sense of achievement and enjoyment"

Daisy is a second year Psychology student, and she has been doing an amazing job as Project Leader for the #Zero Food Waste SLP, winner for the Student Led Project of the Year award! Discover her story in this Profile Piece, where she tells us about the practicalities and impact of running this project.

"We were happy to support the students that have a wonderful vision..."

We had a conversation with Farrah from the Lifeafterhummus Community Benefit Society. They have been working with the Student-Led Project Zero Food Waste to reduce food waste on the UCL campus. Farrah shares their experience collaborating with UCL students and has very insightful ideas and comments about the impact and the future of this project.