As part of the Student Eats Food Enterprise programme, funded by Our Bright Future, we've captured students' attitudes and behaviours linked to food and sustainability.

The survey was completed by approximately 1500 students in September 2018.

Key findings include:

• Half of respondents (50%) are responsible for buying all their own food
• The vast majority (88%) of respondents report that they use supermarkets in a town/village to do their food shopping at least once a month
• Price (80%) and location/convenience (75%) are the two main factors which influence where respondents decide to do their food shopping
• Food to cook or prepare at home represents the biggest weekly spend for respondents with approximately a third (35%) spending £31 or more on average per week
• Price is also reported as the strongest influence on what food respondents buy with87% saying they consider this when buying food
• Two fifths of respondents say they make a conscious effort to buy Fairtrade products (42%) and a third say they try to buy food that is in season in the UK (34%)
• Respondents perceive locally produced food / food products to be a way of purchasing food that is as fresh as possible (36%) and also a way of supporting the local economy (35%), however only around a quarter say that these products are worth paying a bit extra for (22%)
• Only 5% of respondents say that how animals are reared is not important to them
• 78% agree that it’s better for the environment to eat local fruit and vegetables grown in season
• Half (52%) agree that they have a good understanding of the issues surrounding buying local and seasonal produce
• 32% have been hungry but did not eat because of a lack of money or other resources in the last 12 months

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For more detailed findings, read the full report.