For most students, eating lunch at the U is only as difficult as deciding whether or not to get pizza for the third time that week. For other students, like vegan Natalie Blanton, finding food is a much harder feat.
Blanton is the founder and leader of You for Animal Liberation (Y4AL), a group on campus that supports a plant-based diet and lifestyle. Their Facebook page states their focus is “on compassionate, cruelty-free, and plant-based lifestyles.”
The organization is appealing to Chartwells, the company contracted by the U to manage dining services, to expand vegan offerings on campus.
Last spring, more than 500 students signed the petition over a span of two days. Y4AL will present this document to Reggie Conerly, Chartwells’ resident district manager.
Vegan Options
When asked about his dining options on campus, freshman and vegetarian Josh Jensen summed up his experience in two words: “They suck.”
Options are slim for students like Jensen. The choices are either packing a lunch, venturing to the food trucks and asking for a vegan option — that may or may not actually be vegan — or having to choose from a limited selection of more expensive meals.
At the Union, vendors that don’t have vegan accommodations include Einstein’s, Panda Express and Papa John’s. Jamba Juice offers dairy-free smoothies. Sono, Chop’d and The Deli can be requested vegan but don’t offer vegan-specific meals. Grill Nation’s veggie burger is not certified as vegan on Chartwells’ website and contains mozzarella. Fries are also not specified as vegan. The Soup Station features a vegan soup every now and then.
The Grab and Go open refrigerator has some options. On the shelves are veggie sushi, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, a $6 wrap filled with rice noodles and a couple of highly-priced side salads. The only vegan-specific choice is a snack box that has a small assortment of vegetables, a container of hummus and a palm-sized slice of pita bread priced just under $5.
Another branch under Chartwells is the Peterson Heritage Center Dining Hall which serves students buffet-style. There are sometimes curries and vegetables, but ingredients aren’t immediately accessible and nothing is marked as vegan.
Asking a chef is useful if they happen to know what is in the dish. Otherwise, there’s the salad bar or the sandwich-making station.
The Appeal
PETA2, the university-level version of PETA, conducts an annual vegan-food survey of every university in the United States. This year, the U’s dining services failed to respond to the survey, so the school’s rating depends on students
visiting the website.
The U currently sits at a 57 percent satisfaction rating.
“It’s so much easier to find [vegan] food off of campus,” Blanton said.
Y4AL aims to change that.
The Response
After Y4AL finished collecting signatures, Blanton emailed Conerly to schedule a time to present the petition to Chartwells. She didn’t receive an answer.
Blanton has worked with Conerly in other organizations she has participated in and received a timely response in the past. Her requests weren’t acknowledged until Chartwells was contacted by The Utah Chronicle.
Melody Anderson, the director of marketing and guest experience, said Conerly has been away on business but would be happy to meet with a representative from the vegan community.
Chartwells has been working on improving their vegan offerings with the building of Lassonde Studios. After the presentation of the petition, Anderson said she and Conerly can meet with chefs to see what type of changes to the menu are feasible.
@emilyinorgandy