Vegans ask for dining hall entrées ( The Maneater - Columbia)

March 7, 2006

Rae Nudson/Staff Photographer Marion Brewer scoops sauce for her spaghetti in Dobbs Dining Hall during dinner on Monday. Dobbs Dining Hall is the only dining hall that offers a vegan entrée for lunch and dinner. In most campus dining halls, vegan options are limited to items such as bread and peanut butter. Students from the Animal Liberation League have created a Vegan

Dining Committee to work with Campus Dining Services to implement more vegan entrées in all of the dining halls. Dobbs Pavilion is the only dining hall that offers a vegan entrée on lunch and dinner menus. “We would like to see more entrées not just for vegans or for animal rights but for healthier living and eating styles in the dorms,” Animal Liberation League President Sarah Cochran said. “There should be staple choices at every dining hall for every meal.” The committee met with Steve Simpson, associate director of Campus Dining Services, on Feb. 22 to inform CDS about the committee’s goals. “It just seems like right now they don’t offer enough vegan options, let alone entrées,” committee member Karen Marshall said. “The dining halls need to offer more than peanut butter sandwiches. If you look at the menus from other schools, they have entrées for every meal.” Simpson said he would like to work with the Vegan

Dining Committee to develop more options for all the dining halls. “We certainly offer more vegan options than entrées, and that can be anything from peanut butter to vegetables to hummus,” Simpson said. “It is not that they cannot find the foods they want, but they are looking for a dedicated entrée so they don’t feel like their options are limited.” Simpson said that in order to implement vegan entrées, at least 10 percent of dining hall customers would have to be interested in the entrée. He said this would mean non-vegan students would also have to be interested in such entrées. “There are plenty of good vegan options that would interest the general public,” Simpson said. “It is just a matter of developing the right recipes.” Cochran said she felt the meetings went well and both Simpson and the head chef seemed responsive and excited to try vegan culinary options. Simpson said he has scheduled the next

meeting with the committee for March 23, and he said they would look at recipes and possibly taste some sample recipes. Cochran also said some sample substitutes for non-vegan items could easily be used to adapt recipes to become vegan entrées. Examples include using applesauce for eggs in French toast and desserts and using tofu as a thickening agent. As far as implementing actual entrées, Simpson said it might be a slow process because CDS plans its menus at least a semester in advance. “I would like to see vegan entrées added immediately, but I know due to how far in advance Campus Dining plans their meals that a realistic goal would be by next fall,” Cochran said.Peter H

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