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According to a student-led climate campaign group, the University of Cambridge has canceled a plant-based menu at The Whale Café based on “the wrong sales data.”
Plant-Based Cambridge, which calls on the university to “follow its own scientific research” by transitioning to fully plant-based catering, has requested that Cambridge acknowledge the error and bring back the café’s meat-free menu.
Read more: Chef-Owner Of UK’s First Vegan Michelin-Starred Restaurant Says 95% Of Diners Are Meat-Eaters
The Whale Café is located at Cambridge’s Museum of Zoology, within the David Attenborough Building. It famously features a 21-meter-long whale skeleton displayed above the diners. In an online petition, Plant-Based Cambridge said the Whale Café trialed its fully plant-based menu from October 8 to November 7, 2024.
Plant-Based Cambridge described the trial as a demonstration of the University Catering Service’s commitment to sustainability and reducing its emissions footprint.
In May of 2025, Cambridge’s Estates Technical Sub-Committee canceled the new menu, reportedly claiming the trial had been unsuccessful based on “sales data and survey responses.” However, Plant-Based Cambridge believes that the university “reached the wrong conclusion because it analysed the wrong dates.”
Plant-based menu described as a ‘lovely change’
The campaign group said that the committee “wrongly” compared October 2024 with October 2023, thereby excluding the busiest sales week of the entire term and including a week where the café was closed. Plant-Based Cambridge also said the data actually shows that “a majority of visitors” preferred the plant-based menu.
On the petition itself, one commenter wrote that they ate at Cambridge University’s Whale Café on three different occasions during the plant-based month. They added that it was “so busy” they had to wait to be seated each time, and that the food was “a lovely change.”
According to Plant-Based Cambridge, students communicated these mistakes to the director of estates, Graham Mathews. They said that Mathews responded by saying “the decision has been made” and that it would not be opened up for “further discussion.”
‘For whales, for wildlife, for nature, and for the future’
The University of Cambridge is currently number 110 in the People & Planet sustainability rankings, and is included within the “third class” category.
It is down by 38 places since last year, and scores just 12.5 percent for carbon reduction and 16.8 percent for water reduction, both areas that could be easily improved by moving away from animal foods in favor of plant-based ones.
Animal agriculture is the leading cause of climate change and the biggest cause of food waste. It is high-emitting and resource-intensive, whereas plant-based foods support biodiversity, climate resilience, environmental restoration, and human health.
Plant-Based Cambridge noted that one of the criteria for which the university scored zero points was “having one plant-based or vegetarian food outlet on campus.”
The students wrote, “We urge the University of Cambridge to acknowledge errors in its analysis of the Whale Café trial, reverse its decision to cancel the plant-based menu, and support the University Catering Service to transition its venues to sustainable plant-based catering.”
Writing in a post on LinkedIn, ProVeg’s School Plates coordinator Alexandra Jemison said, “Now is the moment to sign the petition and to support the University Catering Service to continue its fantastic work to transition venues to sustainable, plant-based food. Let’s all get that fully plant-based Whale Café menu back, for whales, for wildlife, for nature, and for the future.”
You can read and sign the petition here.
Read more: Nearly Half Of UK Parents Support More Plant-Based Meals In Schools, Says Survey
