As we’ve learned so far, veganism allows one to eat many different foods, and a healthful vegan lifestyle can be easily attained when one eats a nutritious vegan diet. However, what happens when a vegan goes off to college, and suddenly might not have access to their variety of nutritious vegan foods anymore? I contacted four vegan/vegetarian students who are attending three different universities to find the answer.
Jessica Booher:
Booher is sophomore mathematics major at Westminster College who has been vegan for a little over two and a half years.
She described eating vegan on campus as generally “difficult,” because she thinks the school’s dining halls lack vegan options. Booher sticks to purchasing premade foods from Westminster, like bagels, peanut butter and jelly wraps, hummus and guacamole, or meals that she can customize there, she explained.
However, Booher makes an effort to get more variety in what she eats by cooking on her own.
“I typically will buy vegan ‘replacement’ items that are easy to cook, like Gardein and MorningStar Farms mock meats,” she said. “They’re a bit more substantial than a lot of foods the school provides, but they can get a little costly, so I try to avoid regularly cooking them.”
Ashley Allmon and Keller Radford:
At Miami University, Allmon is a junior public health major and nutrition minor, and Radford is a junior strategic communication major and sustainability co-major. Allmon has been vegetarian for a year and a half, and Radford has been vegetarian for three years and vegan for 10 months.
Both girls explained that dining halls at Miami tend to be good about having at least one vegan and vegetarian option at each food station for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
“We always have veggie burgers and vegan chicken nuggets, along with a sandwich bar and pasta bar where you can customize your meal,” Allmon said. “Along with those, we have a stir-fry station, which has tofu and a variety of veggies you can choose from.”
The two girls live in a house together this year, though, and tend to make all of their meals there. They described how this has made sustaining their vegetarian and vegan lifestyles much easier.
“Now that I have a full kitchen, I can make things like quinoa bowls, sautéed veggies and vegan pizzas, and I can experiment with new recipes I find online,” Radford said.
Nicole Schmidt:
Schmidt, a junior photography major at the Cleveland Institute of Art, has been vegetarian for over six years.
Since the CIA does not have its own dining hall, Schmidt relies on finding her food elsewhere.
“Whole Foods is amazing, and I probably shop there way too much for being a literal starving artist,” she said.
Schmidt explained that in addition to getting food from the grocery store, she enjoys eating sofritas bowls from Chipotle and salads from a local store’s salad bar.
Having successfully conquered being vegan/vegetarian in college, these students have some advice for others in the same situation. Allmon suggests trying new things and finding a groove in a diet that fits one’s personal lifestyle, and Schmidt advises searching for cheap and easy vegan and vegetarian recipes on Pinterest to gives oneself more variety. Booher recommends that above all else, struggling vegans in college remind themselves of why they went vegan in the first place, in hopes that the reason is more important than any dining issues they may be facing.