Exeter Uni launches £2 hot meals on campus to help students with the cost of living

It’s giving elite school lunches


Aside from the new series of I’m a Celeb, the cost of living is probably the biggest thing happening right now. It has been hitting the headlines in all sorts of ways at Exeter, from the pure outrage over Marketplace’s rather spenny meal deal to an Exeter student dressing up as the cost of living for Halloween.

The university recently revealed it has invested £3 million to help students with the cost of living, including everything from free budgeting workshops for students to one off payments of £150. The latest scheme to help students is the new £2 hot meal campaign for all students on Streatham campus, here’s everything you need to know:

The hot meals are served out of the Old Italiano place in DH2, run by the trusty Eat and Shop on Campus crew. You can bring your own container if you want to be zero waste, but don’t worry if you can’t match up your identical IKEA Tupperware with the thousands of rouge lids. You can get a takeaway container for no extra cost or have a plate and eat in the seating area in DH2.

All the options are plant based (and are staying this way for the foreseeable future), not only to keep costs low but to be as sustainable as possible. The meals change on a daily basis, and a menu detailing what’s available when will be published online. As well as the daily hot meal, they offer a jacket potato with filling and sides for £2.99 (in case you’re a fussy eater).

They are hoping to roll out something similar across St Luke’s.

The initiative is solely a result of student activism. Emma de Saram, VP Liberation and Equality, and one of the figureheads of the £2 hot meal campaign spoke to the Tab Exeter. She said when she ran for the role, she knew she “wanted to implement something which would make food more accessible to all students.”

It originally started as a £3 meal deal back in August, but later evolved to hot meals, served in a canteen style in September after talking to a range of students about what they needed most. The campaign was started by Emma and a group of other students, but there was an onslaught of support from other students and societies who got involved in the petition.

Emma spoke about how “overwhelming” the support was, not just AU wide, but from the university and Guild too – it has been “the most successful campaign” she’s been involved with since being at university. She believes it is a “turning point in the way students understand their voice.”

“The uni operates as a business, but as students we have buy in power. Students have always been at the forefront of change and radicalism throughout history, hopefully this campaign has helped reinvigorate that, and made students realise just how much they can achieve.”

The £2 meal deal campaign are continuing to support students throughout the cost of living crisis. They are hosting a Question Time on Thursday 10th November in the M&D Room, Devonshire House at 1pm if you want to find out more.

You can find them on Instagram @2poundmealdeal_exeteruni 

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