What EUR serves on campus is one of the most visible, everyday ways sustainability shows up in people's lives here. Food and catering also connect directly to EUR's own research: the same planetary health principles that shape our academic work increasingly shape what's on the menu. 
Our ambition
EUR is working towards a predominantly plant-based food system, as part of its ambition to become one of the most sustainable universities in the Netherlands. In 2025, EUR became the first university in the Netherlands to adopt the Planetary Health Diet framework with all caterers and food vendors on campus. The Planetary Health Diet is a framework developed by the EAT-Lancet Commission that balances human and planetary health.
The Planetary Health Diet policy was formally approved by the Executive Board in June 2025. In October 2025, all 12 campus caterers and food vendors signed a joint covenant committing to its ambitions. To translate these ambitions into concrete actions, EUR developed a roadmap. This roadmap was shaped through a co-creation process throughout 2025, involving food retailers, caterers, students, researchers, and university staff.
A baseline assessment is currently underway to measure progress against these milestones.
Progress will be tracked through annual measurement, learning, and improvement cycles, including working sessions with the covenant participants. The campus itself serves as a living lab for this work. Within this living lab, EUR collaborates with researchers from Erasmus School of Law, Erasmus School of Health Policy & Management, Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences, and Rotterdam School of Management to study and evaluate the transition towards more sustainable food and catering. The Erasmus Food Lab and the student-led Erasmus Sustainability Hub are also involved in this work.
Where we stand today
All EUR-funded employee catering has been fully vegetarian since July 2023. A temporary 50% discount on vegan meals at campus restaurants in late 2024 led to a striking shift in food choices: 75% of all meals sold during the campaign were plant-based. Following strong student support, caterer Vitam made a 25% discount for plant-based meals permanent. Since 2022, all official meals during Eurekaweek — EUR's introduction week for new students — are vegetarian, helping to introduce sustainable food choices from the very start of student life at EUR.
Learning by doing
The Erasmus Food Lab runs weekly plant-based cooking classes and collaborates with researchers and educators on food system innovation. In 2025 alone, the EFL hosted 34 workshops for students and 23 workshops for staff. The student-led Erasmus Sustainability Hub builds on this by creating opportunities for students to learn about sustainable food and food systems. This includes collaborations with the Bildung Climate School and the Edible EUR initiative. Edible EUR manages the campus garden and organises garden sessions that connect hands-on food growing with learning about biodiversity.