UTS Bluebird Brekkie and Night-Owl Noodle Bar

Project summary

Accessing healthy affordable food is essential for students to achieve their academic best.

Unfortunately many students are time poor, juggling study with paid work and often resort to cheap unhealthy food choices. Financial pressures, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, mean some students go hungry.

This is where the student run Bluebird Brekkie and Night-Owl Noodle Bar helps, providing free healthy sustainable food to students on-campus.

The large-scale pop-up cafe provides free, delicious and nutritious breakfast twice per week – organic muesli, permeate-free milk and natural yoghurt, freshly-baked local sourdough with avocado and spreads, fruit juice, fresh organic fruit and fair-trade tea and coffee – all in an inclusive community setting with chilled-out music.

Two evenings per week Blue-bird provides hot healthy Asian noodle soups with multiple different mix and match options.

The aim is to improve student welfare while at the same time laying the foundation for positive long-term healthy and sustainable eating habits.

The initiative provides over 4000 free meals on campus per week for students.

The initiative is run by the UTS Student's Association, the university student representative body, and won an International Green Gown sustainability award in 2012.

For more information, visit the Bluebird website or Facebook page.

Project timeframe

Running since its inception in 2010 the initiative started as a breakfast bar and expanded to noodle nights in 2018.

SDG targets addressed by this project