The Sustainable Lifestyle Festival had something for everyone to get involved in from pumpkin carving to free soup, free costumes and crafts!

To reduce waste, students were encouraged to “eat the brains” of their pumpkins. The night before the event, EcoEats volunteers – supervised by Jayne - cooked over 100 portions of vegan pumpkin soup at the Marketplace using the pumpkin guts of pumpkins carved the following day. This activity combined learning new cooking skills while reducing food waste! This soup was given out at the event, sparking great conversations about food waste around festive period.

At the Sustainable Lifestyle Festival 150 locally sourced pumpkins were carved; students were encouraged to take their pumpkin seeds and flesh home to make soup which Emily and Evie from EcoEats demonstrated at the event. At the event recipes of how to make pumpkin soup, sweet and savoury pumpkin seeds and pumpkin pie were shared. Plus, free ingredients left over from the cooking session were given out to help people to make their own version!

On the theme of locally sourced food products, the Lancaster University Bee Keepers (LUBK) also sold their honey which is produced right here on campus from the campus apiary called ECOHives, located at the ECOHub.

Inside the Work In Progress Space there were free costumes collected from the Don’t Ditch It project to encourage people to dress up with less impact. This aimed to inspire individuals to get creative with their existing wardrobe, exchange with mates and buy second hand rather than new.

Creativity was flowing at the crafts table which students painted autumnal themed designs on coasters sawed from willow trees at the ECOHub. Amazing clay impressions were made from leaves collected in ECOWild sessions. To get people thinking about food systems they wrote ideas to improve food sustainability on leaves collected in ECOWild sessions which we turned into decorative leaf bunting.

The next Sustainable Lifestyle Festival (winter themed) will take place in Alexandra Square/ Work In Progress space on Tuesday 5th December 2023 in Week 9. To stay updated with all Green Lancaster activities, sign up to our newsletter, check out our events feed on the website or follow us on Facebook or Instagram.