Ripples Story: Enterprise on the menu

In this article, Neve Howells-Aitken, a Rank Fellow, shares her experience of being part of a management team that ran a successful student social enterprise at a South Wales college, which provided sustainable, inclusive, and affordable meals for the student body.

Hot to Go (HTG) is a student-run social enterprise based in UWC Atlantic College, which serves as a restaurant for the student body. It was founded by a student in 2019 and has been dedicated to fulfilling its three core values on campus and in the wider South Wales community: charity, community, and sustainability.

HTG attempts to emulate a working restaurant as closely as possible; we have a head chef, sous chef, and head pastry chef who lead a team of more than twenty people in the kitchen weekly. The front-of-house team has bartenders, baristas, head waitresses and a dedicated team of over 20 rotating waitstaff. I got involved in HTG in August of 2022 and worked as part of the management team until March 2024, when I passed down the position as my time at the college ended.

Charity, being one of the core values at HTG, means our impact on the community is always at the forefront of events and services. This year, we have successfully donated over £3,500 to scholarship fundraisers at the college to directly impact our college community. This will help future students by contributing to the financial aid required to attend UWC. Additionally, we strive to make HTG as inclusive as possible. This is vital as we aim to serve all students, who are a highly diverse group of people in many ways. The gap between the socio-economic backgrounds of Atlantic College students is relatively large; however, we never want this to stop people from affording our food and enjoying themselves with us. Because of this, we offer a free dining experience for those who qualify for the school’s ‘Student Financial Services’. This has sometimes been challenging, as the costs we incur have risen dramatically over the last two years due to the cost-of-living crisis. First and foremost, we are a charity, so our aim to serve all students on campus has been unwavering.

Our efforts to be sustainable have also proved challenging; however, they have been a brilliant endeavour for growth and learning. HTG has always been vegetarian to minimise emissions and make food accessible to as many people as possible. At the beginning of the year, I completed a research project analysing the impacts of only using hyper-locally sourced ingredients on HTG.

The limited produce we would have access to, with the infrastructure and resources available, would negatively impact our desire to share global culture and possibly limit the menu, which would restrict customers and our impact on the charity.

We are able to serve an extremely diverse menu because of our collaborations with national groups on campus and the unique background of every chef. People love to come and enjoy the delicious dishes we prepare. We can unite our campus community as a team, serving between 50 to 100 students and staff weekly.

HTG has been an incredible experience that I will value for the rest of my life. Not only has it taught me the intricacies of running an enterprise, ignited a passion for food and helped me nurture personal skills surrounding finance, leadership, and organisation; but it has allowed me to enjoy making a positive impact on my community

Neve Howells-Aitken

Rank Fellow