App users can collect surplus food for a third of the usual cost (the box containing the above items cost €3.50, so it would usually cost at least €10.50) near closing time.
Sustainability, along with customer satisfaction, is the most important thing to UM when it comes to catering services, says UM contract manager Mark Anneveldt. That’s why it played a major role in the tendering process for a new caterer, which began in 2021. Among other things, it means lots of local products and vegetarian or vegan options. “We also want our packaging materials to be biodegradable or compostable [meaning it is capable of breaking down faster]”, say Stephanie Bex and René Kersten of Eurest, the company that won the tender. “UM also has a deposit refund system for reusing coffee cups and bottles. And a whole line of reusable plastic lunch boxes and cutlery will be introduced, which students can purchase to reuse.”
UM is using the Too Good To Go app to combat food waste. “You could see it as the successor to the 30 per cent discount stickers we put on products at the end of the afternoon”, says Kersten. “If the cooks notice during the day that there is too much food left, they can update the app to say a certain number of boxes are available.”
The contents of these “magic boxes” are always a surprise; it depends on what food is left over that day. It has to be good, though, because there is a rating system. “You can’t just put two plastic bottles of sparkling water into a box to fill it up. It has to be sustainable, obviously.”
All UM restaurants are participating, from the little shop in the university library in the city centre to the new Tapijn Café and the cafeterias. “In a perfect world, we’d prepare exactly the right amount of food every day, but that’s difficult to achieve”, says Bex. “We never know exactly how many customers we’ll have on a given day. This helps us save food that would otherwise be destined for the bin.” Statistics show that, at the time of writing, 1,664 meals and 4.16 tonnes of carbon dioxide have already been saved. But what about the catering services at meetings and events? “That food must be eaten within two hours of being taken from the refrigerator, so it has to be thrown away”, says Bex.
But doesn’t the app cost the caterer a lot of money? If you need a new pair of trousers and you know they’ll go on sale next week, you’ll wait to buy them. Won’t students start postponing their meals knowing they can collect them for a third of the price towards the end of the day? Not at all, says Kersten. “If you’re hungry at lunchtime, you won’t wait for the cafeterias to close after dinner. Besides, the app allows us to target new customers. Too Good to Go is an open platform, so people from outside UM also use it.”