Vegetarians struggle to eat on campus

The University of South Dakota recently scored an F on PETA2’s Vegan Report Card, which surveyed thousands of colleges and universities across the country about how well they’re keeping up with the demand for vegetarian and vegan options.

In addition to students voting on PETA2’s website, PETA2 also reviewed public information records and student feedback about vegetarian and vegan options on each campus.

The requirements for a higher grade were offering at least one vegan entree at every meal, offering nondairy milk, labeling vegan entrees, labeling vegan desserts, including a vegan member on the campus dining’s student advisory board, promoting vegan options, partnering with students to distribute vegan food, participating in Meatless Mondays, offering an all-vegan station and having an all-vegan dining facility. USD had none of the requirements.

Junior Danielle Slaughter has been a vegetarian for six years.

“I decided to become a vegetarian because in the eighth grade I watched a video PETA had posted and it was heart-wrenching to think that animals suffer just to feed us,” Slaughter said. “I didn’t want to eat meat anymore if I could survive just fine not doing so.”

When she moved to USD for her first year of college, Slaughter usually ate in the Commons, but would occasionally venture over to the Muenster University Center.

“At first I didn’t think I would have that hard of a time finding food to eat, but as the year went on, it was frustrating because it was the same options for vegetarians all the time,” Slaughter said. “I felt like I was eating the same things every week.”

Slaughter said she didn’t have as many options in the Commons as she did in the MUC, even though “both selections were pretty poor,” and that there weren’t many healthy vegetarian options at either place.

However, Slaughter said she would have ranked USD as a D, not an F.

“It could be a lot worse, but it could be so much better,” she said. “There are so many easy vegetarian options that wouldn’t be hard to do with the same ingredients they already have.”

Slaughter said she prefers vegetarian options that are the same as what is being served but without the meat.

“I also think a lot of other vegetarians would appreciate artificial meat as an option,” Slaughter said. “We need to get protein somewhere, and the options on campus make it very difficult for us. Making USD more vegetarian-friendly would be easy to do and beneficial for quite a few people.”

Sophomore Danny Duncan has been vegetarian for two years.

“I started thinking about going vegetarian, and I figured if I don’t have to kill my food to eat, then I shouldn’t have to,” Duncan said.

Duncan lives in McFadden, so he usually eats at the MUC.

“It kind of is the same thing meal after meal,” Duncan said. “In the Commons, I could usually only eat pizza or pasta. At the MUC, there’s more options, but it usually comes down to either Wok or the Mexican place.”

Duncan said he started feeling like he was eating the same four meals over and over.

“Now that I live in McFadden, I’ve started making my own meals so I don’t feel like I’m jumping through hoops to find food,” Duncan said. “It’s kind of difficult to eat vegetarian with what’s offered, but at least they’re making an effort.”

Duncan said his biggest problem is that many of the meal options could be vegetarian, but they aren’t.

“With the Commons, it’s usually things that have meat in them that don’t need it, like grilled cheese with bacon or bean soup with beef, so I can’t eat them because of one ingredient,” he said.

Sophomore Elizabeth Landy became a vegetarian four years ago.

“I was in a culinary academy at my high school, and we would watch super gross meat production videos,” she said. “It eventually freaked me out.”

When Landy came to USD, she lived off salad, pizza, Diet Coke and chocolate milk.

“I was always very bored with my meals. Salad and pizza get old really fast,” Landy said. “I hardly have any options if I eat on campus. However, I feel that sometimes that’s just the issue vegetarians have to deal with. We’re the ones with annoying eating habits.”

Landy said the F grading was a little extreme, and she’d give USD a “solid C.”

“There are options,” she said. “Maybe not a ton, but I’ve been places where I just won’t eat because there isn’t anything I can.”

Landy said USD could do a lot in order to improve the PETA2 rating.

“A couple simple things would be more fresh fruits as well as more main dishes that don’t contain meat,” she said.