Hey, we’re Heather and Harrison, two third year students at the University of Cambridge. We’re taking part in Cambridge Carbon Footprint’s Eating Well on a Budget (£21 a week) challenge this summer, with the hope of rolling this out to the student population in October 2012. We want to make students aware of the impact that their food choices have on the environment.
We’ve just returned from the Sunday Farmer’s Market with bags of beautiful vegetables, which have now joined our cupboard full of pulses and dried beans from Arjuna – we’re ready for a low-carbon, healthy and inexpensive week of food fun!
Heather with her favourite broad bean!
Breakfast: Muesli with soya milk and a banana
Lunch: Sandwiches or left-over dinners
Dinner: A cacophony of pulse-based dishes!
Budget Breakdown:
Arjuna – £9.04 per person*
| Product | Price per kg (£) | Country of origin | Organic? |
| Cannellini beans | 3.10 | UK | Yes |
| Chick peas | 3.50 | Turkey | Yes |
| Couscous | 2.85 | France | Yes |
| Muesli base | 1.99 | UK | Yes |
| Red split lentils | 2.29 | Turkey | Yes |
| Soya milk (Provamel) | *To be discovered | Yes | |
| Tahini | 2.85 for a 340g jar | Greece | Yes |
| Yellow split peas | 2.50 | USA Canada | Yes |
| White loaf of local bread | 1.55 per loaf | UK (Cambridge) | Yes |
While most of these products are from abroad, they were shipped and have minimal packaging and processing, so are a good low-carbon alternative. We also chose to emphasize organic produce, as it has several benefits:
(See here for the ecological benefits.)
Sunday Farmer’s Market – £5.45 per person
Mayfield Organics – broad beans, carrots (£1.20/kg), coriander (80p/bunch), lettuce, marrow, onions (£1.20/kg), potatoes, spinach (£3/kg), tomatoes (£1/punnet).
Other organic stall (name to be discovered…) – mixed peppers (£2) an expensive treat!
Stall next to Tom’s cakes – plum punnet (£2).
A cheeky confession – we’re buying our fair-trade bananas from Sainsbury’s! (£1 for 5)
TOTAL spent so far: £15.49 + soya milk
We’re hoping to blog every day, with updates on our challenge. If you have any comments or advice we’d love to hear from you: hjplumpton@gmail.com and harrison.bowers@gmail.com