Northwestern dining halls are being recognized for offering culinary creations such as "veggie riblets," "vegan pancakes" and "veggie chicken pitas" for students who forgo meat, eggs and dairy products.
On Monday, peta2, the youth division of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, nominated NU as one of North America's most vegetarian-friendly colleges.
NU was chosen as part of peta2's campaign to find colleges that offer the "smartest" food choices for vegetarian students.
Thirty U.S. colleges and 10 Canadian colleges were nominated for the contest based on input from Facebook and MySpace pages, as well as blogs on peta2's web site and student nominations, said Ryan Huling, peta2's college campaign coordinator.
This is the second year the organization has held the competition. Indiana University took first place in last year's contest.
Contest organizers said peta2 will host a party at the winning school with giveaways and opportunities to sample vegetarian food.
The group developed the contest after representatives began researching vegetarian foods on college campuses, Huling said. They heard from many students who said their dining services were very responsive to vegetarian requests.
"A logical extension of that would be to show (students) the best of the best," Huling said.
According to Huling, dining services at nominated schools "really went above and beyond" to meet the needs of vegetarian students and develop programs based on students' requests.
Students said NU's 1835 Hinman dining hall in particular had a wide selection of vegetarian options.
"I eat mostly in 1835 Hinman," said Medill freshman and vegetarian Caitlin Kearney. "I know there's a bar that's solely dedicated to vegetarian options, and I've noticed that they do try to change it up."
Medill freshman and vegan Lizzie Schiffman said the array of dining options at NU has made it easy to follow vegan dietary guidelines. Schiffman said she was "delightfully surprised" by how easy it was to find food that she liked.
Viewing Comments 1 - 5 of 5
billyjoe
posted 10/30/07 @ 11:04 AM CST
Anyone ever been mainstream restaurant waiter or waitress and had to deal with vegan customers? Youre forced to deal with interrogations such as "Is there egg in the pasta?" "What kind of stock is in the soup?" "Can I substitute a vegetable in place of the meat?"
Vegetarians are bad enough, but at least some of them make allowances for cheese, eggs, and even fish. (Continued…)
A.
posted 10/30/07 @ 7:34 PM CST
Quit whining. If you didn't want to deal with customers asking about food,you shouldn't have applied for a job on waitstaff. Its part of the business. (Continued…)
Mykell Miller
posted 11/05/07 @ 10:07 PM CST
I'm shocked that NU got recognition for being vegan-friendly. One of many reasons I moved off campus is because I couldn't get a proper vegan diet at the dining halls. (Continued…)
Samtha
posted 11/06/07 @ 11:18 AM CST
After having attended two schools on this list (Oberlin and Northwestern), I can confidently say that while Northwestern deserves props for trying, it does not hold a candle to the more sophisticated vegan/vegetarian offerings of schools such as Oberlin. (Continued…)
kitchen sinks
posted 6/11/08 @ 7:29 AM CST
My experience as a vegetarian taught me one thing: If someone starts bothering you about it, just give a brief, simple account of your reasons for being a vegan, and leave it at that. (Continued…)
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