Students are famed for their poor diets, living off of ready-meals and take-away pizza – but it doesn’t have to be so. Cooking a proper, well balanced and tasty meal does not need to be time consuming, expensive, and doesn’t require a cord-en-blur Chef in your kitchen.
With little time to dedicate to mealtimes (as the sooner you eat, the quicker you can get to the pub) and with money always an issue, the pull of the supermarket ready meals can be all too tempting. Despite the attractive packaging, ready meals are often over priced. What’s more, a sizable chunk of what you pay goes towards the packaging, bumping the cost up even more. Add to this the fact that you don’t know what has gone into them to bulk them out and make them last for a month, it seems daft not to grab that recipe book and explore your creative side. You can make something tastier, healthier and cheaper.
Options for buying fresh produce are plentiful: On Highfield campus every Monday in the Students Union is the ‘Monday Market’ where fresh fruit and vegetables are on offer from UniFruit. The produce here is generally cheaper than the supermarket offerings and of top notch quality. UniFruit supplies a good variety of locally or British grow items so you can be ethical by reducing the amount of diesel required to get your veggies to your kitchen. You’ll also be supporting your local economy rather than lining the pockets of supermarket shareholders.
Whilst you are at the Monday Market, why not visit the PURE stall. PURE is a student society which promotes a universal rights ethos, and has had a huge role in increasing the number and variety of fair-trade products on offer in the University and Union catering outlets. At the Monday Market PURE have many fair-trade products available, from chocolate and snacks, to tea and coffee, from pasta and rice to clothing and jewellery. All reasonably priced and guaranteed to be fairly traded.
Farmers Markets are also held on campus every month selling good honest food and drink at low prices, such as sausages, jam, muffins, cider, cakes and eggs. Fair-trade produce such as bags and accessories are also availiable.
Farmers Markets are from 10am- 3pm on the concourse on the following dates:
- Thursday 6th Nov
- 4th Dec
- 8th Jan
- 5th Feb
- 5th March
- 2nd April
- 30th April
- 14th May
Just a fifteen minute walk or a five minute bus ride from Uni (Highfield and Avenue Campuses) is Portswood, our local shopping parade. Here, fresh produce is available in the numerous bakers, butchers and grocers. As well as food, you can get keys and your hair cut, use the dry cleaners, browse the charity shops for bargains, buy course books from October Books, our ethical book co-op, and buy a huge number of things from the hardware stores when making those finishing touches to your new abode.
If you want to make a day of it, and for something a little different, Winchester holds the largest Farmers Market in the County every other Sunday (see www.hants.gov.uk/farmersmarkets for dates and details). Available here is fresh, locally produced and often organic bread, vegetables, fruit, meat, fish, eggs, yoghurts, cakes, cheese, pies, pastries, jams, preserves and much more. You can even sample a Hampshire Water Buffalo Burger if you fancy. For those at the Winchester School of Art, there is a smaller daily market at the bottom of the High Street too. To get to Winchester costs under a fiver on the train (return with a Young Persons Card) and the journey takes less than half an hour.
For the truly lazy, why not have a fresh fruit and veg box delivered straight to your door. Riverford Organics and Sunnyfields are two of the local companies who offer a ‘box scheme’. You can talk them directly at the Winchester Farmers Market, or have a look on their websites for details (www.riverford.co.uk and www.sunnyfields.co.uk). The vegetables offered are seasonally available, and you’ll receive veggies you never get to see in the supermarket, forcing you to be creative. And its not just veg on offer, you can also order fruit, cheese, milk, yoghurt and burgers amongst other things. The SUSU Shop can also provide a veggie box for you, ordered on a Wednesday and delivered for collection on a Friday.
With all this succulent and tempting food the choices for meals are endless, the time taken is minimal and the taste, goodness and health benefits are huge. So go and have some fun with cooking – don’t settle for banal cardboard-tasting offerings from the freezer section of your ‘local’ supermarket; discover what food can really taste like!
Also have a look at THE GOOD SHOPPING GUIDE BOOK or online at www.ethical-company-organisation.org Over 700 consumer brand companies are compared and ranked on their ethical efforts from animal welfare to pollution and world debt.