What is it like to be vegan on a Northwestern meal plan?

Speaker 0 00:00:00 Boat milk, almond milk and soy milk rice milk. The choices are endless. Just make sure you don't choose whole milk. In the past few years, the number of Americans eating vegan has increased substantially in 2021. Google searches for vegan food near me increased by 5000%. Food providers have responded to this change in demand were, is largely coming from young people, according to a 2018 gall poll, 15% of adults ages 18 to 49 are vegan compared to just 5% of adults, 50 and above. As many Northwestern students have noticed one such food provider is college dining halls. Students have mixed reviews of the dining halls in general and vegan students are no exception. I sat down with a few students for the inside scoop on the experience of eating vegan while on a Northwestern meal plan. Speaker 1 00:00:49 When and why did you become vegan? Speaker 2 00:00:51 First? I start start out as like a sustainability concern. So I just like cut meat, um, like beef basically. And, uh, because that's the, like where the methanes came from. And, uh, after like reading a book, I know like there's overfishing problem. I took, like, it took me like five years to entirely became Speaker 3 00:01:12 Vegan. I've been vegetarian since late 2019, but I didn't really start being like strictly vegan until last summer, but I mainly of like lactose intolerance, so I didn't have any dairy. So I was already like mostly there to be honest. Um, I think mainly it started with a better awareness of what I was eating and where it came from. Speaker 4 00:01:34 You know, there was this one morning when I was doing research on it and I was actually eating, um, a ha a ham and cheese sandwich while doing the research. Um, and I came across a statistic that said that every kilogram of the EST equivalent of 50 showers, um, in terms of the water footprint. And I decided like right then and there that, you know, it was just ridiculous. And then from that lunch onwards, I never ate meat again. Speaker 0 00:01:55 That was Andrew chin, Elise angel and Kate there. I first, second, and third year respectively, and they all became a of their vegetarian or vegan before starting the Northwestern meal plan. The three students, all of whom eventually became fully vegan did so for slightly different reasons, but they all have one goal in common to create a more sustainable world. They faced some challenges reaching this goal while on campus, though, how Speaker 1 00:02:20 Hard or easy have you found it? Being able to find options in the, a dining hall for meals Speaker 2 00:02:25 It's okay. But I like they could definitely do better by like getting like more diversity. Speaker 3 00:02:30 I don't really enjoy the dining options that they serve. So oftentimes I'll just like take the raw like salad bar ingredients, and then I'll go back and like cook my own food in my dorm. I Speaker 4 00:02:40 Definitely do feel that, you know, it, it could, it could be fairer if like, you know, say we can get to pay less, um, for a meal plan, but overall, I haven't had too much of an issue finding, um, food and, or even like finding healthy food that meets my daughter, Speaker 0 00:02:56 Andrew Elise and Kate voiced frustration that the limited options in the dining halls deincentivize students to become vegans. Speaker 2 00:03:04 I have friends who like really wanna go vegan, but like, they don't feel like the dining hall can provide them with enough protein. Speaker 0 00:03:10 One suggestion Andrew offered was having the dining hall, provide vegan versions of their junk food like pizza because students often turn to that when the rest of the options in the dining hall are lacking. Andrew and Elise also said that because of the lack of options, they often find themselves tempted to buy food off campus. Elise gets around this by cooking food in her own dorm, but students, without that option may be further de incentivized to go vegan cause of the financial burden. It can present Some vegan students at Northwestern have found community through their common goals and struggles. Andrew Elise and Kate are all in the new vegans group chat in the chat, which was started last year by current sophomore students recommend and offer warnings about vegan food in the dining halls plan outings to vegan restaurants and more, Speaker 3 00:04:02 It's just been nice to be able to talk with other people who do share a similar value as you. I think whether that value is, you know, environmental care ethics, um, when it comes to like animal rights or whether that is another value. I think having a community of people who think alike, at least in one manner is very comforting and it feels like you're not alone. It has meant that I have more room to be excited over vegan food where as, without the group chat, I would very much just be like, oh yeah, I'll, you know, eat whatever. It's just food. You know, I eat to live, but with a group chat, I sort of have a more lift to eat mentality where I'm like, oh my God, I wanna try this. So I can, you know, text a group and tell them how it is. Speaker 0 00:04:49 A lot of vegan students at Northwestern have created a network to support one another. But what about the university student organizations have been quite active in promoting sustainability on campus. ASG recently passed a bill committing to default edge, meaning that from now on the food at ISG host events, borrowing pizza will be 70% plant based in partnership with the environmental policy and culture department. Students hosted an all night event for earth day during which they learned about climate change and brainstorm salute to which they could contribute administration, sponsored groups like sustain NNU, also leave sustainability initiatives. Speaker 3 00:05:29 I remember she sent me like the energy reports and Northwestern is also a pretty like energy friendly building. I think learning about the policies, I was pretty like satisfied. Obviously I don't think Northwestern is doing the most, but I do think they're doing a job than I really expected. You see it with like the reusable containers in like the dining halls and measures around like Ryan field and sustainability. And they're also thinking about implementing like, uh, sustainability distribution requirement in Weinberg, which I also think would be really, really cool and valuable to have Speaker 0 00:05:59 Overall Andrew Elise and Kate seemed cautiously optimistic about the future of vegans on Northwestern's campus. Elise and Kate both mentioned that this year's vegan dining options are significantly better than last year's. So we may be able to expect that trend to continue for any students looking to shift to a more plant based diet. I collected my interviews, go to vegan meal in Evanston Speaker 2 00:06:22 Elephant, and vine is definitely a good place. It just had like, like really good wrap and the Speaker 3 00:06:27 Fris I do really enjoy so on. I really like not everything there is vegan, obviously. Um, but I really like the sooooo, which is like the spicy tofu. They, um, and they have a lot of like really good vegan option Speaker 0 00:06:41 For w N news I'm.