The university becomes a Fairtrade University. To mark this honour, the student union has come up with a special three-course offer.
The smell of mango, chocolate and curry will be wafting through the canteen kitchen on the Haarentor campus next Tuesday, 25 January, when the staff start preparing lunch at 7am. Fair food will also be cooked in Wechloy, as the university will be officially recognised as a "Fairtrade University" on this day. For the Studentenwerk Oldenburg, this is a great opportunity to put together a three-course menu with numerous fair trade ingredients.
"As the selection of fair trade products is limited overall, realising the menu is a special challenge for us," explains Christian Jorge Vinz, Head of University Catering. For example, in what quantities are the products available? How quickly can they be delivered to the canteen? These questions occupied Vinz and the entire kitchen team during the planning phase. The result on the Haarentor campus: a carrot and mango soup as a starter, followed by an exotic vegan ragout with curry and tofu and a homemade chocolate brownie for dessert.
Guests at the canteen on the Wechloy campus also have the opportunity to choose dishes made from fair trade ingredients on Tuesday. A cauliflower and orange soup with coconut is followed by a fruity vegetable curry with purple rice. The final dish is a quinoa and sultana flummery.
Marc Pargmann, head of the Uhlhornsweg canteen, adds that they are very happy to offer Fairtrade more often. "The quality of the products is always very good and we can be sure that production really is fairly remunerated. That also gives us chefs a good feeling." The problem, however, is the supply chains. Apart from coffee, tea and a few other products, these are not yet sufficiently developed for many ingredients and are therefore unreliable.
A highlight of the selection on Tuesday was the vegan chocolate brownie, says Vinz, who has already had the chance to try it. "Extremely tasty," he enthuses. The Fairtrade brownie will cost 80 cents for students. Although this is twice as much as a normal dessert, it only approximately covers the costs, according to the student union. "If the producers are paid fairly, this naturally has an effect on our purchase price," says Vinz. Of course, anyone who wants to can also choose a different dessert at the usual price on Tuesday. "We're really looking forward to seeing how the menu is received and how our guests like it."
