University Dining is currently working to promote vegetarian options for both vegetarian and non-vegetarian students on campus.
According to Lisa Eberhart, head dietitian of NC State, University Dining has worked in recent years to increase available vegetarian and vegan options around campus, particularly outside of the dining halls.
“Our goal in the past years has been to have vegan and vegetarian options available at every venue on campus,” Eberhart said.
This year, University Dining added several new vegetarian options to the dining halls’ special services bars, including a hummus bar and a vegetarian option in the Asian dumpling bar.
University Dining also introduced several new vegetarian entrees, including spicy potato curry, edamame with red grain, roasted cauliflower steaks and Ethiopian cabbage.
“The dining halls usually have a wide variety of options,” said Anna-Claire Bousquet, a freshman in human biology and nutrition. “I’m pretty happy with the way the dining hall caters to vegetarians.”
According to Eberhart, the school wants to increase the amount of vegetarian food they offer for financial and health reasons.
“Since meat prices have gone up so much, we are looking for non-meat center of the plate options, which are also healthier,” Eberhart said.
Out of 9,000 students signed up for an NC State meal plan, there are only 198 students who self-identified as vegetarians and 20 as vegans.
Yet, University Dining wants to see all students opting for vegetarian entrees.
“I think that it’s good to have vegetarian options available for the variety,” said Jessie Burroughs, a junior in polymer and color chemistry. “I’m not a vegetarian, but if I don’t like the meat options at the dining halls, then I’ll go for the vegetarian ones. I think that they are as good as the rest of the food.”
Head Chef Bill Brizzolara works with University Dining to create vegetarian options for the on-campus dining halls.
The chefs regularly update vegetarian menus based on what students are eating, according to Brizzolara.
“We try to bring things that are new and trending into the dining halls to get everybody interested,” Brizzolara said.
Currently, there is at least one vegetarian and one vegan option at Talley, The Atrium and The Oval.
However, according to Eberhart, the best places for vegetarian options are the University’s dining halls, particularly Fountain and Clark, which serve more than 100 vegetarian and 100 vegan options throughout the semester.
“There are always vegetarian and vegan hot main dishes at the dining halls,” Eberhart said. “Though Case tends to have fewer vegetarian options.”
University Dining labels entrees as vegetarian and vegan in dining halls and posts full lists of ingredients on the University Dining website.
“We label food as vegetarian only if the food truly has no meat products,” Eberhart said. “No fish and no gelatin.”
However, according to Bousquet, the labeling in the dining hall is not always sufficient.
“Sometimes they put the wrong labels on food,” Bousquet said. “There are definitely times when there’s a dish, which I can’t tell if it is vegetarian, because the label is wrong.”
University Dining is promoting vegetarian eating by promoting options at the dining halls on the upcoming nationally celebrated Vegetarian Day, which is October 1st.
Vegetarian entrees including vegetables and dip, carved cauliflower, spicy veggie wraps and veggie stations will be available in Clark and Fountain Dining Halls during lunch on October 1st.
University Dining will be giving out information on the holiday in the Brickyard from 11 am to 2 pm that day.