The culinary well-being of the students and employees is taken care of by StudierendenWERK BERLIN, a public non-profit service provider that manages and operates Freie Universität Berlin’s 11 cafeterias and dining halls. A unique feature at Freie Universität Berlin is a dining hall with exclusively vegetarian and vegan food. The dishes are organic, seasonal, local, and therefore climate-friendly. The Veggie Dining Hall was the first of its kind at a German university.

The main dining hall achieved certification under the EU Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) in 2016. StudierendenWERK BERLIN has proven the feasibility of ecological and affordable cooking in a commercial kitchen and supports employees and students in living more sustainably. StudierendenWERK BERLIN also offers environmental education workshops, for example, with students taking part in the Schools@University for Sustainability + Climate Protection project. Furthermore, it manages the Vegan Climate-Friendly Dishes project. Between its launch in April 2011 and December 2017, 2.85 million climate-friendly meals have been sold in all of its dining halls.