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back to Vegan Dorm
Food Campaign
"How
We Veganized Our Dining Hall"
by
Leor Jacobi, Vegan Action Founder
During
the spring semester of 1994, at the behest
of the vegan and vegetarian dormitory residents
in the group, our campus animal rights group
decided that we should do something about
the dorm food at the University. We agreed
to draft a petition, but by the time we
actually got anything done, finals were
upon us, and many of the students lost interest
as they were about to leave the dormitories
and the dorm food forever.
A few of us resolved that we would bring
the issue up in the fall, to a new bunch
of students. We started thinking about what
types of strategies and tactics we would
use. We decided to aggressively recruit
fresh people and other new members at the
beginning of the semester and try to get
them active on this issue. It's amazing
how issues that hit close to home seem to
be so much more motivating. That's one of
the big advantages about working on this
campaign as opposed to many other campus
Animal Rights campaigns: it's easy for students
to see how it will directly affect their
own lives.
Over the summer, we decided to completely
make-over BSAL. We got rid of the circa-1988
sign of a restrained monkey and replaced
it with a nice-looking tiger. We decided
to change the name of the group to Students
In Support of Animals (SISA), something
that sounded less militant, to broaden our
appeal, without affecting our message. I
believe it was Noam Chomsky who complained
that many people mistake radical tactics
for a radical agenda?
Our first meeting was well-attended and
there was much enthusiasm for working on
getting vegan food so we decided to draft
a petition and circulate it, as well as
continuing to table and start complaining
about the food through the dining hall suggestion
box and meetings with dining hall managers.
(UC Berkeley has 6 dining halls, but policy
decisions are make higher up in the administration.)
We figured that a petition would counter
what we predicted would be the administration's
first claim: "There isn't a demand
for vegan food."
We decided (after much discussion) on a
petition which read as follows:
"We, the undersigned residents of the
University of California dormitories and
patrons of Cal Dining Services, request
that at least one healthy entree without
meat, dairy, eggs, or other animal products
(vegan) be served at each meal. We also
request that all food be properly labeled
showing all ingredients so that diners may
be assured that the food being served meets
their dietary specifications."
We decided on this language because it was
firm and clear as to what we wanted, yet
promised to appeal to non-vegetarians due
to it's health content. The labeling issue
is a very important part of the petition.
We heard lots of horror stories about veggies
being cooked in butter, hidden cheese in
sauces, etc.
This brings us to some of the central
principles which must be recognized in waging
a successful dorm food campaign:
You must
at all costs avoid turning this into a vegetarians
vs. non-vegetarians issue, or even worse,
a vegans vs. non-vegans issue.
The numbers are still against us.
We had people sign our petition as they
were chewing on hot dogs and licking ice
cream cones!
Use the
health arguments as much as possible, especially
when dealing with administration.
As the nutritional evidence keeps pouring
in, our case on that front has grown strong
enough to stand alone. Phrases like "More
and more doctors are recommending vegan
diets." will score you more points
with administrators than "Modern-day
dairy practices are cruel to cows."
Almost everyone forced to eat institutional
food hates it. 50% of all students
would sign anything if they thought there
was any chance it might make their food
better. One of the gimmicks we used to get
signatures was to buy a big bulk jar of
antacid tablets and offer free antacid to
students outside the dining halls to help
their "digestion". We were mobbed
with students eager to sign our petition.
Students have traditionally felt disenfranchised
from government, but nevertheless do have
some channels of having their voices heard
from within the system. Student government
is a great place to seek assistance, since
they are directly accountable to students,
not administrators.
We formed a group: "The Coalition of
Students for Healthy Dorm Food," once
we realized that the scope of the campaign
involved much more than just animal rights.
This broadened out base of appeal. We put
out a "Special Dorm Food Issue"
of the Vegan News, our local newsletter,
and that generated a few letters to the
administration from students and others
in the community. We got the student paper
to run a very favorable article with front-page
headline "Students Demand Vegan Food."
We had a sympathizer on staff at the Student
Advocate's Office through whom we processed
quite a few official student complaints.
This all resulted in the Student Advocate's
Office arranging a face-to-face meeting
with a high-level administrator in Dining
Services.
We planned thoroughly for the meeting. We
had PCRM's Gold Plan and VRG's Vegetarian
Quantity Recipes nicely bound to present
during the meeting. We decided on presenting
the Gold Plan as our primary document since
it was written in their food-service type
of language. At the meeting, we were a portrait
of diversity: myself from Vegan Action,
the coordinator of SISA, a vegan dorm resident
and a vegetarian dorm resident (who said
things like: "I'm not a vegan, but
I don't want to eat so much cheese and eggs
all the time." -- very important) representing
The Coalition of Students for Healthy Dorm
Food, and two staffers from the Student
Advocate's Office who had already prepared
a rudimentary cost analysis of implementing
vegan options in the dorms. We all dressed
nice: suits and ties, very professional.
Our presentations were well-prepared with
each of us taking about 5 minutes to emphasize
different points. The crux of our arguments
was that there was a sizable and growing
demand among students for vegan food, that
this food was more healthy, and that we
would work with the University in helping
them to meet this demand, promote vegan
foods, and turn this whole event into positive
publicity for the University.
We expected the administrator to be a detached
bureaucrat who would simply try to appease
us without actually changing anything, but
somehow we managed to connect with her.
She said that she wanted to implement the
changes and would recommend them in her
further meetings with Dining Hall Administrators.
She also informed us that results of a recent
survey of dorm residents would probably
have an effect on how sudden the changes
would take place.
It turned out that 5% of survey respondents
indicated that they were vegans, about three
times as many as only a year before! We
think that some of those students may not
be vegans, but vegan sympathizers who have
read about us in the paper and seen us with
out petitions. Our representative in the
Student Advocate's Office and the coordinator
of SISA managed to convince the student
senate to unanimously support a resolution
calling on Dining Services to introduce
more vegan options. All liberal and conservative
senators united! Endorsements by our campus
PIRG and Environmental groups were secured.
Soon after all this, we had another meeting
with the administrator in which we were
shown the next semester's menus which had
vegan entrees for every lunch and dinner!
(and the assurance of the introduction of
tofu and other vegan items for breakfast.)
We were also assured that all foods would
be properly labeled with all ingredients.
In response to our suggestions that these
foods shouldn't just be quietly introduced,
she suggested that the dining halls have
a special all-vegan meal. I almost fainted
as I imagined the milk machines being turned
off.
We decided to declare a victory and start
encouraging the University to keep moving
in this positive direction by giving the
Dining Hall Administration credit where
credit is due. Now it's time to enter the
next phase of the campaign and start putting
together a manual and other articles so
that students at other colleges can utilize
our tactics on this incredibly important
issue. If you live in a dorm, please contact
me at Vegan Action if you want to get some
of this valuable information. We are in
the process of expanding the Vegan News—become
a member now and get on our mailing list!
I'd like to add that we did this entire
campaign on virtually no budget! Furthermore,
we had no existing infrastructure and basically
rebuilt the previously inactive campus group
from scratch. Enormous amounts of time and
energy were needed of course, but it just
goes to show that a committed group of people,
no matter how small or how poor, can make
a big impact.
«
back to Vegan Dorm
Food Campaign
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Attention
all superheroes: Need help in facilitating
your activism? Check out http://www.campusactivism.org.
PCRMs
Factsheet on Vegan Dorm food:
http://www.pcrm.org/health/PDFs/faq_college.pdf
A few companies that offer vegetarian
foods to Foodservice Providers:
http://www.amyskitchen.com/lemonslice/foodservice/foodservice.html
http://www.gardenburgerfoodservice.com/products
http://www.moonrosevegetarian.com
http://www.precisionfoods.com/news/vegan.asp
(Vegan Soft Serve)
http://www.tofurky.com/recipes/foodservice_recipes.htm
http://dilberito.com/fsi
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