Switch up your lunch for the environment at St Antony’s on 13 June 2023

Join us at St Antony’s to make a positive difference to the environment by taking part in #SwitchUpYourLunch on Tuesday 13 June 2023.

Good Food Oxford’s Switch Up Your Lunch campaign will see schools, businesses, universities, councils, and organisations all over Oxfordshire switch their lunch to either a vegetarian or vegan meal, to benefit human and planetary health. 

At St Antony’s, we are joining the campaign and asking our college community to pledge to eat a vegetarian or vegan lunch on Tuesday 13 June as part of our action to reduce carbon emissions and protect biodiversity. Our Kitchen has pledged to serve only plant-based meals in our Dining Hall at lunchtime on 13 June, and we encourage remote workers and College members who are off-site to take part too.

Andrew Tipton, Head Chef, says

I am pleased to be taking part in this great campaign to increase awareness of the effect of meat and dairy consumption on the environment. I encourage those who do not usually choose a plant-based meal to try it out!

Andrew and his team have put together a tasty lunch menu that will include:

Mains: Cauliflower and Sweet Potato Korma with Mint Yogurt and Naan Bread; Plant-based Provençale; Quorn Florentine

Sides: Mushroom Braised Rice; Courgette, Cherry Tomatoes, Corn on the cob

Why are we doing this?

Because eating less meat is nearly always better for your carbon footprint.  If everyone at the University of Oxford switched their lunch, we could save 73 tonnes of CO2e a day (across the University community of 40,000 people)*. Every mouthful we take makes a statement about the future we want for ourselves and our planet.

To see how meat-eating affects our planet, check out the amazing range of resources and information on The Museum of Natural History’s Meat the Future pages.

 At St Antony’s, food, in particular the consumption of meat and dairy, is one of the areas in which our negative impact on the environment is greatest. It is a priority area in our greenhouse gas reduction action plan, with potential reduction opportunities of ~65t CO₂e. Find out more about sustainability at St Antony’s.

*Calculating the difference between 5.63 kgCO2e/day for medium meat-eaters (50-99 g/d), and 3.81 kgCO2e/day for vegetarian. (source: https://sustainability.admin.ox.ac.uk/article/switch-up-your-lunch)