Sustainable food and drink

Sustainable food and drink

We source our ingredients with care

Here at YHA, we provide delicious food that is ethically sourced - using British produce wherever possible - so that you can have confidence in your meals.

Sustainable food & drink

  • Celebrating British produce - we work hard to source as many of our products from within the UK as possible to provide quality, hearty food to help fuel your adventure
  • Ethically sourced - we source our ingredients with care and consideration for the people who provide them
  • Ensuring the highest standards - we demand the strictest standards of quality, safety and food hygiene throughout our network
  • Giving you confidence - most of our meat carries Red Tractor accreditation which assures traceability, animal welfare and sustainability
  • Reducing single-use plastic - by switching the yogurt we serve at breakfast, we have saved over 222,000 single-use plastic pots per year; we are also replacing plastic water bottles with canned water
  • Going paperless - many of our menus are available by QR code, reducing paper usage by 75%
  • Offering choices - we are proud to offer vegetarian and vegan options on our menus and encourage meat-free Mondays to help reduce our carbon footprint
Honest and unpretentious

Food promise

YHA is passionate about the provision of food which is both delicious and ethically sourced, served at a price which represents excellent value for money to be enjoyed in some of the most stunning locations throughout both England and Wales. We are proud to carry Assured Food Standards’ Red Tractor accreditation for our fresh beef, lamb, chicken, pork and turkey.

YHA endeavours to meet a range of dietary requests, whether arising from a medical requirement, religious commitment or as a matter of personal preference. All YHA asks is that at least two weeks in advance of your stay, any such requests are notified precisely by either the guest or the group organiser. As it may not always be possible to accommodate late dietary requests, it is recommended that meal options are discussed at the time of booking with our knowledgeable contact centre teams.

As a charity, YHA reserves the right to pass any additional costs incurred for specialist meal provision on to the guest or group. However, YHA will mitigate these costs wherever possible.

sustainable food logo combined
YHA Water refill station

Join the refill revolution

It may not come as a surprise that we at YHA are big lovers of the environment and the great outdoors. We are working to reduce plastic waste and have installed water refill stations at many of our hostels. So you can fill your own bottles whenever you like.

Hostels with water refill stations

YHA Alston Main exterior

YHA Alston

  • Free parking on premises

  • WiFi

  • 24-hour access after check-in

YHA Bath exterior

YHA Bath

  • Café

  • Contactless payments

  • Free on-street parking

YHA Beer exterior

YHA Beer

  • Self-catering kitchen

  • Free parking on premises

  • Garden/grounds

Exterior of YHA Borth

YHA Borth

  • Meeting room(s)

  • Free parking on premises

  • Cycle hire

Stone hostel building by a river estuary with a blue sky in the background

YHA Boscastle

  • Self-catering kitchen

  • Wheelchair accessible

  • Garden/grounds

YHA Bridges exterior

YHA Bridges

  • Garden/grounds

  • Meeting room(s)

  • Free parking on premises

YHA Cheddar exterior

YHA Cheddar

  • WiFi

  • Self-catering kitchen

  • Free parking on premises

YHA Clun Mill exterior

YHA Clun Mill

  • Garden/grounds

  • Free parking on premises

  • Contactless payments

We’re set to eradicate 500,000 single-use plastic bottles from our network of youth hostels per year thanks to support from Waitrose & Partners. We are honoured to have received a £170,000 share of the supermarket retailer’s £1 million grant fund – ‘Plan Plastic – the Million Pound Challenge’ – which awards money to projects that demonstrate an impact to reduce plastic.

Read the story

Waitrose logo

Take a look at our mouth-watering menus and find out about the food we offer.

Fuel your adventure in one of our cafes, bars and restaurants in amazing locations across England and Wales.

Fancy cooking? Find out what to expect from a self-catering kitchen when staying with YHA.