
The Session will showcase the Finalists of the Best Food & Beverage Initiative in the 2025 Student Experience Network Awards.
ActivateUTS – $5.50 Student Lunch Specials at The Terrace at UTS
In October 2024, ActivateUTS launched a discounted student lunch program at The Terrace café to address growing cost-of-living pressures in Sydney. Backed by initial funding from the Student Amenities and Facilities Fund (SAFF), the initiative offered 50 nutritious, high-quality meals each day at prices well below market value, ensuring affordability without compromising dignity.
The strong uptake was clear: 7,881 meals have been sold to date, supporting a significant share of UTS’s 40,000 students. In recognition of its impact, UTS committed an additional double of original funding to continue the program through 2025.
This initiative has not only reduced food insecurity but also strengthened The Terrace as a central hub of student life, showing how campus dining can evolve into a driver of wellbeing, equity, and community.
UCX – Street Food Cart and Fun Day
UCX created the Street Food Cart & Fun Day as a response to cost-of-living pressures and the need to energise campus life with affordable, engaging food experiences. An existing coffee cart was repurposed into a rotating street food cart featuring fresh concepts, fun themes, and culturally inspired menus each month.
The aim was to go beyond food—building a social, inclusive space where students could gather, connect, and enjoy affordable meal deals, giveaways, and activities in partnership with clubs and community groups. Objectives included providing diverse, low-cost meals, activating underused spaces, involving student clubs in music and entertainment, promoting healthier and inclusive dietary options, and offering wellbeing-focused giveaways.
With minimal infrastructure and maximum creativity, UCX transformed a simple cart into a recurring campus event that eased financial pressures, celebrated diversity, and enriched student life.
University of Sydney Union – Rolls & Bowls
The Footbridge retail space had long struggled to attract students, with past concepts like merchandise displays, a cereal bar, and a bakery failing to succeed. By late 2024, USU developed a new idea: a Pan-Asian–inspired salad and sandwich bar focused on Banh Mi and rice bowls. Offering fresh, healthy, and convenient meals, the concept stood out from existing campus options.
With a small budget, the project was delivered using repurposed equipment and careful planning, aiming to revitalise the space, increase foot traffic, and provide affordable, on-trend food. The Executive Chef designed a vibrant menu inspired by Sydney’s Vietnamese bakeries, while the brand team created the simple, catchy identity “Rolls and Bowls.”
A structured rollout followed and Rolls and Bowls launched on time in February 2025, just before Semester 1. Delivered collaboratively and within budget, the initiative transformed an underperforming space into a student-focused food destination built on taste, value, and experience.