St John’s joins Sustainable Fish Cities Campaign

St John’s College has joined the Sustainable Fish Cities Campaign, committing to only serve fish from sustainable sources on its menus.

St John’s College has joined forces with Cambridge Sustainable Food to help to make Cambridge a Sustainable Fish City. The College has signed a pledge to only serve sustainable fish on its menus such as fish from the Marine Conservation’s ‘fish to eat’ list, and Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certified fish.

St John’s was one of the earliest sign-ups to Sustainable Fish Cities. The campaign, coordinated by Sustain, aims to make Cambridge a leading city in serving sustainable fish and transform Cambridge’s impact on the depleting fish stocks; some scientists estimate that at the current rate of decline most of the world’s fish stocks could collapse within decades without action. Sustainable Fish Cities is awarded stars by recruiting organisations who pledge to follow sustainable fish principles, which include buying, eating, serving and promoting sustainable fish. Catering departments of 15 Cambridge Colleges have now signed up to the campaign - who between them serve thousands of meals each day to Fellows, staff, students and visitors - and more pledges are in the pipeline.

Bill Brogan, Catering and Conference Manager at St John’s, said: “We are committed to helping to make Cambridge a Sustainable Fish City, and now that several Colleges have signed up to the campaign we are well on our way to achieving this - Bournemouth was the first Sustainable Fish City, and Cambridge is hoping to be the seventh. We have pledged never to serve any endangered fish on our menus, and I am currently writing a fish policy, which will link to the Sustainable Restaurants Case Study that I am writing. I will also be promoting this policy to College members.”

The College is proud to support local sustainable food. St John’s became the first Cambridge College to achieve an impressive Two Star rating from the Sustainable Restaurant Association which celebrates everything that is good about the food service industry and the people in it. The College also runs Sustainable Hall events to promote local, Fairtrade and high-welfare produce.

For more information about Sustainable Fish Cities and sustainable food, visit the Sustain website and Cambridge Sustainable Food.