Meals, minus the beef: More colleges branching out into vegan, vegetarian cuisine

“At Smith and Bowdoin colleges, dishes like tempeh cacciatore… have become standard fare.” Wow… tempeh at college. When I was in college, I didn’t even know what tempeh was.

According to the article, Smith and Bowdoin colleges, both in New England, are two of the top ten vegetarian-friendly colleges, according to PETA. Other colleges on the list are New York University, University of California-Santa Cruz, Columbia University, Indiana University, College of Wooster (Ohio), Virginia Tech, Vassar College, and Elmira College.

Though I wasn’t vegetarian when I was in college, I can definitely say that the food service folks didn’t cater towards vegetarians. And all the vegans I knew opted out of the food plan all-together. I don’t ever remember seeing a tofu dish anywhere. The best chance for vegetarian meals came on rare theme nights where they would serve up ethnic dishes. It’s curious, though, since a large percentage of college students are vegetarian (the article says 20 percent, though that seems a bit high, from my own experience). Of Smith College’s 1900 students, 200 are vegan and 300 are vegetarian.

My cousin, who just entered college, has been vegetarian for almost ten years. She said that there aren’t exactly many vegetarian options at her school either, which is kind of surprising, as she attends a major university.

I think if I were back at college now and living off of the meal plan, I’d raise an issue with the food plan. Vegetarian college students need more options than cheese pizza and vegans need more choice than side dishes.