University and Meal Plans

[Emily]

I'm going away to university next year and I'm a little worried about being vegan since I won't have my own fridge or cooking utensils. I will be living in residence and I will probably have to go on a meal plan. Will I be able to cope being vegan and stay healthy? Has anyone ever gone to university with a meal plan as a vegan?

Emily

[cuoremia]

I am worried about the same thing!!! I'll be going to college in the fall of '03. I want to go to either Ann Arbor or Madison...I've looked into their meal plans and they seem alright. They don't say anything about vegan meals though...just vegetarian. What college are you going to Emily??

[Emily]

I'm hoping to go to the University of Toronto. I really hope this works out.

Emily

[Corinne]

I'm worried about the same thing. I want to go to the University of Victoria in the fall of '03, but I was there for 3 weeks this summer staying in the dorms and wasn't too impressed with vegan options. They did have soy milk and rice milk though, and occasionally tofu!

[OUTxFORxBLOOD]

I guess I'm pretty lucky. I too will be going off to school for the first time this fall (Cal State U- Los Angeles) I'm moving there from Massachusetts, so it's gonna be hard at first finding places to buy food, but all the dorms are set up as apartments, meaning we have full kitchens with stoves, refrigerators, and microwaves. So I'm really lucky about that, and it will make being a vegan so much easier. Now trying to convert my 7 other roomates is the hard part!

[CarlaJ]

Ann Arbor should be a great place for a vegan student! They have a high population of vegan and vegetarian students on campus and I'm sure their meal plans would have to accomadate them. Ann Arbor has some INCREDIBLE vegan restraunts and even sells vegan hot dogs at the hot dog stands!

[scarlet]

If you're worried about being able to find vegan meals at college, you should definitely talk to your meal advisor. I'm planning on going to St. Cloud State University in Minnesota, and I know they offer vegetarian selections, but I still have to talk with someone about vegan meals, though I'm sure it won't be a problem.

Are you sure you can't bring a fridge with? It probably wouldn't be necessary, but it would be nice to be able to have some soy milk, fruits, veggies, etc.

[aeris]

I went vegan my last year of college, it was diffucult but not impossible. I was usually able to find something at each meal. My cafeteria alwasy had veggie burgers and a decent salad bar. There was always tofu available, so if all else failed I'd make myself a veggie and tofu sandwhich, peanut butter and banana sandwhiches were great too. My advice is locate your cafeteria comment board and use it! I constantly made comments and let them know how they were doing, telling them if the vegan options were lacking, what they should get, and telling them when they did a good job as well. Be persistent. Speak with the mamager if you get the chance. The workers at my cafeteria were usually friendly and helpful. Keep demands simple, it is not too much to ask that their is always some soy milk and tofu available. another piece of advice is to invest in a little fridge and microwave to keep in your room, keep some vegan goodies inside for when late night study cravings attack, that way you don't find yourself at the candy machine down the hall. Good Luck!

[Mystican]

A refrigerator would probably help if you can get one, especially for times between meals and late at night, when there either may not be anything open on campus that has much in the way of veg*n options... or may not be anything open at all. Also, although I don't really like using microwaves, if it's possible for you to get one it could help you to vary your in-room diet by providing a way to heat up veggie convenience foods. If you can get a hot plate, that would be even better, but it would of course necessitate a bit more in the way of utensils and dishware... not to mention that many university housing policies prohibit the use of toasters and hot plates and such, due to the fire risk they pose.

Hopefully the dining services at your universities will already be aware of and provide for veg*n students, but if they don't, it is possible to instigate changes, even if those changes seem minor and take time to come about. For example: I was at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa last year. Near the dorm where I lived, in an apartment-style residence complex, there was a university-run convenience store. They had the usual junk food, like chips and candy bars and sodas and ice cream, etc. etc. etc. They also had pizza (cheese and pepperoni as well as plain cheese) and sandwiches, and a few heated meal options.

I was semi-vegetarian, still eating turkey and tuna, during the Fall semester, then became completely vegetarian at the start of 2002, and then finally made the decision in March to progress towards veganism. Making this progression over the course of my year at UHM, I was able to see quite clearly the new difficulties and challenges I would face with each new step. I never ate the pepperoni pizza. The cheese pizza I would often get (before I cut out dairy), if there was still some left by the time I got to the store for my late night sustenance. None of the sandwiches were vegetarian, much less vegan, so those I pretty much ruled out starting in January. And all the heated meals were meat and/or dairy-filled, and none too appetising anyway (if I even found anything with meat or dairy appetising, that is, which I don't anymore). Anyway, to finally get to the point of this example ... :rolleyes: ... the convenience store had comment cards, and I eventually filled out a couple, asking for vegetarian sandwiches, and left them in the little comment box. I'm no longer at UHM, for a multitude of reasons, but I was still glad to hear a few days ago from a friend (who still attends the university) that they now do have vegetarian sandwiches at the store. :D Now of course I'm not sure if the sandwiches are vegan... My friend (a carnivore) probably wouldn't have thought to check whether they were vegan or not. Still, it's nice to see that they did listen. I'm probably not the only one who submitted a comment card (although for a while it did seem as if I was the token vegetarian on campus) but ... the point is, change is possible.

If you need some more information on what you can do to get veg*n options offered by dining services at your universities, PETA has some good material at: http://www.peta.org/feat/bigten/ and at: http://www.peta2.com/tc/t-cafeteria.html

Sorry for the length of this post. :) Hopefully I actually said something of use? (I think I've already established through my previous posts in the forums that I'm long-winded. ;))

Cheers,
Erik

[hear_bush_oink]

I looked at the University of Toronto's website, and they are decently vegan-friendly, though I've seen more impressive school menus. You will survive at that school and most others, though.

[CookingWithHeat]

I've been out of college for a while, but even back then, the dining service went out of their way to work with me - they special ordered things like brewers yeast and TVP for me, and got ingredients lists from their supplier to let me check. So definitely don't just accept what you see in the dining hall - push the system a little. You'll be paying ridiculous sums for the meal plan, and you should get something for that money.

[celtic-womble]

I'm a few years out of college and I usually hang on the baby board but I'm bored today.

When I was in college (as a lacto-ovo) there was always a salad bar available and one of the 3 options for lunch/dinner was vegetarian. Not usually vegan but usually something easily converted (veggie enchiladas minus the cheese for example) or if it wasn't convertible the kitchen made something else for the token vegan in my hall. We had a few dairy free people so side dishes were pretty much always vegan.

LIke someone else said, you're paying for the food, might as well get something you can eat.