Dining at College
Sharing meals together is an important part of our collegiate community
Eating together is a great way to share thoughts, create ideas and develop friendships, and our Dining Hall is the largest of all Cambridge colleges. Food and drink are subsidised for students and Fellows at the College, and staff get a free meal while on duty.
We serve breakfast, lunch and evening meals in our Dining Hall, as well as hosting formal dinners. For those wanting snacks or a lighter meal, the Buttery Bar provides a variety of salads, sandwiches, sushi and pizzas.
Our undergraduate accommodation includes communal snack kitchens, with microwaves and small fridges. Our postgraduate accommodation offers self-catering options in addition to college-based dining.
If you have any dietary requirements, please email Catering. If you have any feedback on our food, good or bad, you can let us know by filling out our feedback form.
About the Buttery Bar
The Buttery is a centrally located open plan bar, and is a popular central meeting point for students, lecturers and fellows. The bar serves light snacks and refreshments throughout the day, and is WiFi enabled. If you don’t want a cooked meal, you can get things like pizza, sushi and sandwiches, as well as hot and cold drinks from our baristas here.
The Buttery also plays host to events such as open mic nights, discos, big screen events and music performances.
For an idea of prices, a 12-inch pizza in the Buttery costs around £7.25 (as at August 2024).
About the Dining Hall
It functions as a self-service restaurant most of the time, typically offering a salad bar, choice of hot meals, and various dessert options. It also hosts Formal Hall dinners on Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays, starting at 7.30pm.
A typical two-course self-service dinner (main meal and pudding) from the Dining Hall will cost between £5.50-£6.00 (as at August 2024). Student Catering Accounts are sent fortnightly by email to help students to keep track of their spending. Payment for all meals is made by way of your University student card at the tills.
The Dining Hall is open daily during the following hours:
Breakfast: 07:30 – 09:30
Self-service lunch: 12:00 – 14:00
Self-service dinner: 17:45 – 19:10
Please note: Saturday brunch is served in the Hall during term time. The above times may be subject to change.
Formal Hall
A Formal Hall dinner is a three course served meal that students can book onto. Formal Halls vary between colleges. At Churchill College, students are encouraged to dress slightly more formally for Formal Halls, but don’t have to wear gowns. Wine is not provided but students may bring strictly limited amounts with them. Formal Halls cost £14.25 for students and £15.30 for guests (as at August 2024).
Food sourcing and carbon reduction
We always look to simplify and localise our produce supply chains. This work has resulted in our forming direct commercial relationships with a number of local farms in Cambridgeshire and neighbouring counties.
We adhere to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs guidance on sustainable
procurement and we are committed to engaging with our full supply chain in an environmentally and socially responsible way. This means that when procuring any goods or services we ensure that the whole supply chain are able to evidence their commitment to sustainability.
Churchill College has partnered with Klimato, a software company providing a carbon calculator tool to help us reduce our carbon footprint from food.
We are now able to:
- Calculate the climate impact of the food served using an online carbon footprint calculator and get insights on carbon heavy ingredients to avoid
- Communicate the carbon footprint of food items with carbon labels on menus and other surfaces (ie. digital menus)
- Report on emissions from the food we sell, and track progress over time with monthly reports
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