Eating Vegan on Campus

You may want to share the following article with your favorite college student or college food service personnel.

Many college students follow a vegetarian diet out of concern for animal welfare, the environment, and/or their health. Some students go a step further and choose to be vegan — they use no animal products at all. Following a vegan diet can have a positive impact on the planet, and on your health.

However, eating vegan while at college may present you with some unique challenges. While you may find many like-minded vegetarian or vegan students on campus to share meals with, this may be the first time you've had to fend for yourself at meal times, and the dining halls and restaurants around campus may or may not be vegetarian- or vegan-friendly. Figuring out what foods to choose from the dining hall, local grocery stores or markets, restaurants, and the homes of friends and family members is essential to a healthy vegan diet.

Dorm Food

While most college dorms now offer a variety of vegetarian meal options, finding vegan foods can be more of a challenge, depending on the college you are attending. Some colleges do offer vegan entrées such as casseroles, soups, and veggie burgers or dogs. If your choices are limited, be creative! Here are some quick and nutritious meal ideas:

Sample Menus

The following sample menus illustrate the types of foods to choose when you have a wide variety of choices (Menu 1) or when you have very limited choices (Menu 2).

Menu 1:

BREAKFAST

• Oatmeal
• Fortified soymilk
• Raisins
• Orange

LUNCH

• Whole wheat tortilla with vegetarian refried beans, mashed avocado, tomatoes, shredded romaine lettuce, and salsa

DINNER

• Brown Rice
• Stir-fried tofu, broccoli, carrots, and green peppers in canola oil, reduced-sodium soy sauce, ginger, and/or garlic

SNACKS

• Carrot sticks
• Whole wheat toast
• Hummus
• Almond butter

Menu 2:

BREAKFAST

• Dry Cheerios
• Toast or a bagel
• Orange juice

LUNCH

• Veggie sub with whole wheat roll, iceberg lettuce, tomato, pickles, olives, green and hot peppers, onions, mustard, and oil and vinegar
• Fruit

DINNER

• Salad with lettuce, tomatoes, shredded carrots, garbanzo beans, Italian dressing
• Pasta w/marinara sauce
• Roll or bread
• Fruit

SNACKS

• Bagel with peanut butter or hummus
• Granola bar
• Apple
• Baby carrots

Quick Meal Ideas

Learning how to stock your kitchen with healthy vegan foods and how to prepare meals is probably the most important step to ensuring you will be able to follow a vegan diet long-term.

Even students living in dorm rooms can stock up on nutritious snacks such as cereal, granola bars, baked tortilla chips, and pretzels. They may have a mini-fridge available to stock with ready-to-eat foods such as apples, oranges, baby carrots, cherry tomatoes, soy yogurt or pudding, hummus, bean dip, salsa, soy deli slices, peanut butter and jam for sandwiches, soymilk or rice milk, and fruit juices.

You may find the widest variety of vegan foods at health foods stores (shopping in the bulk section may help to cut costs a little), but mainstream grocery stores are beginning to stock many vegetarian and vegan food items, which you may find in a special "health food" section or mixed in with the standard products. Local food cooperatives and markets are also a good choice for finding fresh produce and vegan foods. Check the labels of all the processed foods you buy for hidden animal ingredients.

You don't have to be a gourmet chef to prepare nutritious and tasty vegan meals for yourself. Some examples of simple meals you can make at home include pasta with marinara sauce, bean burritos or tacos, stir-fries with tofu or tempeh and lots of veggies, beans or lentils with rice, vegetarian soup with pasta or whole grain bread, nut butter sandwiches with bananas or jam, scrambled tofu and veggies, eggless French toast or pancakes with fruit on top, baked white or sweet potatoes with tofu sour cream and salsa, veggie Reuben sandwiches with rye bread, vegan cheese and sauerkraut, soy lunch "meat" sandwiches with lettuce and tomato, pasta or potato salad, and tossed salad with tofu chunks and sesame seeds on top.

Food Service References

Encourage your food service to offer more vegan options. Registered Dietitian Dina Aronson suggests, "Ask for a meeting and be prepared to give examples, keeping in mind that cost is the number one concern of most food service managers." A good time to start is World Vegetarian Day (October 1st of each year) or The Great American Meat-out day (March 20th of each year). You may offer samples of various vegetarian foods in the cafeteria, or the food service manager may actually test some new vegetarian items on the line. Remember that education and promotion are important.

If your food service wants to serve more vegetarian food, the following may be helpful: