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VEGETARIANS HAVE VARIED OPINIONS ABOUT
LIMITED CHOICES
By ChristieLyn Diller
The snack shelves on Marist campus that once held numerous vegan cookies and muffins now hold a repetitious amount of non-vegan snack foods.
Un-chicken sandwiches once decorated the refrigerated section of the Cabaret. These options have since been replaced by pudding topped with whipped cream and endless containers of yogurt and milk, none of which is allowed in a vegan diet.
Previous efforts by Marist College to provide vegetarian and vegan options in the dining halls seem to have weakened. The diet of a vegan or vegetarian at Marist appears to be in jeopardy, and the students are not pleased. Junior Judith Ihlenfeldt is among the displeased.
“When I came to this school they claimed to cater to a variety of dietary needs, and they haven’t.” Ihlenfeldt said, “I was excited, as a vegan, when they started selling vegan fare, but I’ve noticed since last year that their effort to cater to the vegan lifestyle has disappeared.”
A vegetarian diet is a diet without meat products. A vegan diet, however, includes the absence of meat as well as the absence of any other animal products or byproducts such as dairy. Vegan students such as Megan Smith are left with what seems to be a lack of support from the college for their dietary needs.
“As an upperclassman I find myself getting food at the Donnelly Café. Towards the beginning of the year they had Boston cookies. Now they have none whatsoever. All I can get is a drink or greasy chips, which pisses me off.” Smith said.
Marist sophomore Lisa Holtz is one student who has a lessened opinion of the college as a result of this downsizing.
“I think Marist is a meat and potatoes sort of school, judging by the high athlete to vegan ratio, there’s not much of a demand for vegan food. It feels like vegetarianism at Marist is an idea that hippies through out last year.” Holtz said.
Holtz refers to the efforts taken by the Marist Animal Rights Ninjas, or MARN, which was established in the fall of 2001.MARN enlisted the help of the cafeteria to provide more adequate meals and snacks for the student who chooses to abstain from meat or any animal products. Into the earlier portion of this school year, Marist was successful in accommodating these needs, as student Meredith Sherwood noted.
“It was a progressive step to offer vegan options but now it’s a step backwards.” Sherwood said.
Although the dining offices at Marist failed to reply for questioning, there are several assumptions made by the students as to why these services have been terminated to some degree. A primary contender is the financial concerns.
“Isn’t it in the interest of business though to see what’s selling, and carry things that are?” Sherwood asked. “As far as good business goes, if something isn’t selling you don’t sell it anymore. It’s a matter of supply and demand.”
The financial concerns of the school are however, of no concern to Ihlenfeldt in this regard.
“On Meat Out Day last year the cafeteria catered to one student who had Crone’s disease, Ihlenfeldt said, “If they can cater to one student, it is not unreasonable that they cater to twenty.”
Meat Out Day, nationally recognized as a day when people abstain from eating meat, was held at Marist on March 20, 2002. For one meal of the day, lunch, the cafeteria voluntarily served only vegetarian options. The student response from non-vegetarians could be summarized as negative. Student vegetarian Holtz was a witness to the events.
“People couldn’t handle not having meat for one day. Vegetarians have to deal with poor choices everyday.” Holtz said. Nonetheless, Meat Out Day was not held this year.
Ihlenfeldt responded to the claim that MARN’s efforts to maintain vegan and vegetarian choices have dwindled.
“Do we have to go back every three weeks to get this food? Do we have to constantly remind the cafeteria to carry things?” Ihlenfeldt asked.
The selections of the dining areas cannot be completely discredited for the food that is available. The cabaret can make wraps with only vegetables. The prices for these items, as with all non-vegetarian items are often high. Senior Frank Addeo is one unsatisfied customer.“There are never really options for a vegetarian. I’m not willing to spend four dollars on a soggy pita.” Addeo said.
Are the efforts worth it then? Some students, vegetarian and non-vegetarian, advocate the health benefits of vegetarian options. Student Jonathan Squilla, a non-vegetarian, is one such advocate.
“There is a vegetarian population on campus, and it’s a healthy lifestyle opposed to the choices we have now.” Squilla said. “Everything is fried. Stop frying everything!”
Erin O’Neill is another critic of Marist College dining services.
“I eat meat, but in the cafeteria I tend to eat vegetarian. The meat in the cafeteria isn’t conducive to being healthy. The quality of the meat is disgusting.” O’Neill said.
The number of meat eaters at Marist College greatly outnumbers the non-meat eaters. Consequentially, there are students at Marist College who do not particularly concern themselves with vegetarian concerns. Junior Eric Hess doesn’t care.
“There are enough vegetables there that they can make do if they want,” Hess said, “You get protein and nutrients that you need from eating meat.”
Addeo might agree that there are enough vegetables on the salad bar in the cafeteria, but that it is the other service areas that disappoint him.
“They don’t have much of a variety of vegan food in the cabaret and especially not in Donnelly,” Addeo said.
Sherwood and Holtz, however, think it is the cafeteria that is in the most need of help for vegetarians.
“The cafeteria has more of a responsibility to provide options, that’s where most undergrads who have a meal plan go,” Sherwood said.
Holtz has more serious concerns about her health.
“I’d be a lot happier if I wasn’t losing weight because the cafeteria controls what I can eat as a vegetarian,” Holtz said.
Among all current concerns is the acknowledgement that Marist College once did provide for the vegan and vegetarian diet more satisfactorily than at the present. Those options arrived only after the request for them. Future requests may be able to change the current regime of pepperoni pizza and cheese steaks to one with tofu scramble or vegetable risotto.
Marist College is one college of many that span America where the needs of minority diets are cast aside. This phenomenon is not central to colleges in the Hudson Valley region, but rather an issue that all vegetarians and vegans face on a daily basis.