Guest guest Posted November 30, 2005 Report Share Posted November 30, 2005 The Orion : NOLAN MACLEANSeniors Gray Estrada and Amber Critchfield enjoy the free tofurkey meal Nov. 17. The couple brought their own utensils and plates to save paper products. A.S. serves up vegan options Food Service may offer organic produce, biodegradable packaging Jennifer Scholtes Staff Writer November 30, 2005 Students will have to give up some of their green to make campus food greener. Within a year, Associated Students Food Service plans to provide organic produce, biodegradable packaging and more vegetarian and vegan options on campus, which will cost students money, said Jeffery Soon, associate director of A.S. Food Service. The A.S. Environmental Affairs Council has encouraged A.S. Food Service to be more environmentally friendly and offer more vegetarian and vegan options, said Courtney Voss, A.S. commissioner of environmental affairs. The council thinks it's reasonable for A.S. Food Service to provide organic produce if the price increase is less than 20 percent. If an item costs $1, the council thinks it's reasonable to switch if the alternative costs $1.20 or less, Voss said. A.S. Food Service should switch to biodegradable or compostable packing if the price difference is within a few cents of the current packaging cost, Voss said. The council realizes students will stop buying food from A.S. Food Service if the prices are too high, so the council's members don't want A.S. Food Service to change things if prices become unreasonable, Voss said. "It's about being sustainable," she said. "You can't be sustainable if prices go up 80 percent." Soon said 60 percent of A.S. Marketplace Cafe's plates are already made of biodegradable and compostable corn and cane fibers, which increased prices on the items by a few cents, but he thinks prices are still reasonable. "You can't stop the entire process over a few cents," he said. "I'm committed to having Food Service move forward aggressively to maintain sustainability on campus." Switching to the corn and cane fiber containers might change the size of portions sold and students won't be able to view the food before purchasing it like they can with plastic containers, Soon said. The only containers Soon hasn't found a similar priced biodegradable substitute for are the paper burger baskets. "Those things are frightfully inexpensive," he said. Adding more vegetarian options won't increase the price of food because the cooks are paid the same amount no matter how many options they prepare, Soon said. But Soon isn't convinced more vegetarian options are needed in A.S. Food Service because many options are already provided and he thinks there is a downtrend in vegetarian and vegan college students, he said. Whitney Hall Food Service made 35 portions of tofurkey, a vegetarian turkey alternative made with tofu, Nov. 16 and three of the portions were eaten, Soon said. Students who tried tofurkey at the sixth annual Tofurkey Feast on Nov. 17 at Selvester's Cafe-by-the-Creek had differing opinions about the meat alternative. The Environmental Affairs Council hosted the lunch with the Environmental Action and Resource Center so students could try a vegetarian Thanksgiving meal and learn about environmental issues, Voss said. Sophomore Holland Tromblee said she is a picky eater but liked the tofurkey. "It tastes like a salty soy product, but in a good way," Tromblee said. Tenshi Furumi, 21, said the meat substitute tasted like bologna. "But if I had bologna, I would rather eat the bologna than this," Furumi said. Students can send A.S. Food Service staff comments about food preferences and opinions about switching to biodegradable and compostable containers in the A.S. Food Service section of www.aschico.com. A.S. Food Service won't ignore the requests of the minority that eats the vegetarian options like tofurkey, and the options will still be provided, Soon said. "It would be foolish for Food Service to put its head in the sand." Jennifer Scholtes can be reached at jscholtes The Valley Vegan............Peter H How much free photo storage do you get? Store your holiday snaps for FREE with Photos. Get Photos Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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