Sustainability and nutrition
Sustainability has been an important topic for the Studentenwerk SH for many years. The university catering team prefers to buy fresh food in the region and uses regional, organic or fair trade products in its dining halls and cafeterias wherever possible. Through the monthly Green Day, the Studentenwerk Schleswig-Holstein also contributes to climate protection. In 2017, the Studentenwerk was awarded the Kiel Sustainability Prize for its sustainable approach to food. The company also received the same prize for avoiding disposable cups.
Vegetarian and vegan meals are playing an increasingly important role in the Studentenwerk's dining halls and cafeterias. In recent years, demand has increased by almost eleven percent, with a shift from vegetarian to vegan. The range is therefore constantly being expanded with new, delicious dishes.
For those with allergies, our university catering team is constantly searching for low-allergen or allergen-free ingredients. For your information, the 14 most common allergens are labeled in our dining halls.
Important topics
Reusable crockery is a priority for us. We offer reusable crockery with a deposit system at all locations so that bowls and cups can be borrowed simply and easily without having to download an app. Registration is also not necessary anywhere.
A deposit of €7.50 is required for bowls and €4.00 for cups. You can obtain the trays by asking at the counter and paying the deposit at the till. If you are interested in a MW cup, you can get one on request at the cash desk so that you can fill it and pay the deposit at the cash desk together with the drink. You will receive a deposit chip for our cups, which you can exchange for the deposit amount together with the cup and the lid. Please note: We can only take back intact MW crockery including the corresponding lid and pay out the deposit amount accordingly."
You also always have the option of bringing your own clean crockery. We will be happy to fill it.
We also avoid waste in other areas of our canteens, cafeterias and café lounges by
- giving our guests the opportunity to save tasty, over-produced food from being thrown away. To this end, we offer them our Zero Waste Plate at some of our locations 15 minutes after the regular meal service in the canteens.
- In our cafeterias, we offer the Zero Waste Bag, which works on a similar principle. Our guests receive leftover cafeteria specialities here.
- In addition we are cooperating with "To Good To Go" to offer people beyond the campus the opportunity to save food.
- Prepare meals predominantly "just in time" and re-produce as required.
- allow a flexible combination of side dishes with the main course and prepare the dishes according to tried and tested recipes so that there are rarely any leftovers on the plates.
- Promote flawless dishes that are left over despite careful planning and preparation as a "limited offer" on another opening day.
- Feed unavoidable leftovers to a biogas plant to generate electricity.
- hand over unavoidable leftovers to food sharing organisations that use them themselves or pass them on to charitable institutions.
In the spirit of sustainability, we want to give coffee grounds a second life. Our guests can collect coffee grounds free of charge from our cafeterias every day. As collection times vary from location to location, it is best to speak directly to our employees on site if you are interested.
The coffee grounds can be used in a variety of ways, for example as fertiliser, to speed up composting, to keep snails or ants away, to neutralise odours or for cosmetic applications.
The organic range in our canteens and cafeterias is becoming increasingly diverse. We only offer organic coffee and cocoa as well as various organic teas. In 2019, we purchased 6,240 kilos of coffee and 38,080 bags of tea. We purchase many dairy products, such as milk, sour cream and quark, as well as some poultry products from organic farms in northern Germany. Ingredients such as tofu, bulgur, quinoa and wholemeal pasta are exclusively organic and are labelled as such in our menu. Overview of organic products at the Studentenwerk
You can find out more about organic products on the information portal on organic farming.
In the university catering facilities, coffee and drinking chocolate are fair trade and organic. This enables the workers to secure their livelihoods and improves their quality of life through health protection.
The Studentenwerk SH also supports the Fairtrade Town campaign in the cities of Kiel, Lübeck and Heide as well as the Fairtrade University FH Westküste as a co-operation partner. Further information at: www.fairtrade-deutschland.de
Farms from which we obtain our meat from species-appropriate husbandry pay great attention to animal welfare. For example, the animals are housed in stables with daylight and more space than required by law. Only GMO-free feed is used and no prophylactic antibiotics are administered. This way of keeping the animals has a significant effect on the quality of the meat.
We buy the meat from different suppliers in northern Germany, depending on the type of animal. You can read more about the requirements for keeping the animals here:
Markerup geese and ducks
Lübchiner straw pig
Severin organic eggs and brother cock
For years we have been abstaining from overfished fish species such as redfish and plaice in order to make a contribution to global overfishing. Now we are going one step further and offering catfish from sustainable aquaculture in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern for more fish diversity.
In 2019, we processed a total of 19 tonnes of meat from species-appropriate animal husbandry and sold 50,000 curry sausages. We source our species-appropriate chicken meat items exclusively from brother chicken farming.
We buy shell eggs or processed eggs mainly from free-range farming.
On the 1st Thursday of every month, we prepare mainly vegetarian dishes in our cafeterias. In individual dining halls, we offer selected meat dishes and deliberately avoid red meat, so that comparatively small amounts of greenhouse gases are produced. With Green Day, we want to make a contribution to climate protection and raise awareness for sustainable nutrition.
Green Day and the ongoing expansion of vegetarian and vegan food offerings have contributed to a significant increase in the meat-free share. Good Food - Cool Climate!
We buy our fresh food as regionally as possible. These ingredients are produced and processed in the northern German region.
We purchase the dairy products used in the canteens and cafeterias of the Studentenwerk SH, such as milk, sour cream and quark, from the Dehlwes organic farm dairy. What is special about this family business is that it only uses organic milk from its own cows and from the neighbourhood within an average radius of 10 kilometres from the dairy. This guarantees short delivery routes and lower CO2 emissions. We also source our Wittenseer mineral water from the region, namely directly from Groß Wittensee in the Rendsburg-Eckernförde district.
Since the end of 2023, we have only been sourcing organic shell eggs for our salad bar.
We are constantly expanding our vegan and vegetarian offerings. There is at least one vegan dish in the refectories every day. In addition, side dishes that are not suitable can be changed at no extra charge or sauce can be omitted to create a vegan dish from the available selection. The salad bars in some refectories also offer a wide vegan selection. In the cafeterias and café lounges, vegan cakes, desserts, salads, baked goods, bars and plant-based milk are available, and there is usually also a vegan hot food offer. The offer varies according to the size of the establishment. In 2019, we purchased 8,376 litres of plant-based drinks and sold 20,000 scoops of vegan ice cream.
At least 50 per cent of our canteen meals are vegetarian or vegan (WS: 21/22: 53.8 %*). With various campaigns, such as the World Vegan Day, the university catering promotes the vegan offer. Our commitment to an attractive vegan offer was recognised by the animal rights organisation PETA. The Kiel Mensa II and the Mensa Kesselhaus are thus among the most vegan-friendly refectories in Germany.
The Mensa Kesselhaus has been the first purely vegetarian refectory of the Studentenwerk SH since the winter semester 23/24.
*under pandemic conditions