Plant + by Finer Diner 3.0

Please read Terms of Reference word doc for full information.

Background to Finer Diner

In 2019 Finer Diner 1.0 was trialled in 5 UK Sodexo catered universities. It had a street food pop-up with information and aimed to showcase delicious, nutritious plant-based meals and opportunities for students to understand link between food and its environmental impact.

The impact of this work was that 10,100 plant-based, sustainable meals were sampled, 923 pledges were collected from university students, and there was improved perception of plant-based options. However, there was less impact on behaviours.

In 2022, Finer 2.0 was run. This ran as 'Plant+' and continued the pop-up engagement but moved to secondary schools and considered the entire school journey, from student to teacher to catering manager. Secondary schools were chosen as Sodexo was developing offers in that audience and it fit E4C audience age range. 15 schools were recruited - 7 independent and 8 public. The aims of this round of work was to build on Finer Diner 1.0. Encourage students to sample plant-based meals, communicate taste and environmental benefits, inspire and engage food service and teaching staff on impacts of food choices on nature, increase plant-based meals sold in the schools.

The impact of this work was that more environmentally friendly meals were provided in school, 6094 plant-based meals were sold, 486 pledges were collected, 37 student ambassadors were recruited, 100% increase in rating of taste, 59% students would continue to choose plant based.

Project brief

The last two iterations of the project work have shown there is interest from UK secondary school students to eat healthily and sustainably and think differently about the food they eat. Existing research conducted in experimental and real-world settings indicates that interventions that alter the physical food environment (in this case the canteen) to increase the salience of plant-rich meals have a high potential for impact (see e.g., emerging research on plant-based defaults).

For this project we are looking for a consultancy/academic institution, preferably with previous experience of working across UK secondary schools, to design, implement and measure the impact of a behavioural intervention aimed at increasing the uptake of healthy, sustainable meal choices in UK secondary schools.