Vegetarians and vegans need another dining hall or more options

This year there is something new to worry about on campus. Gone are the days when students simply had to worry about finishing assignments—students now have to struggle merely to get proper nutrition. While every student is limited in her dining options since the closing of the Cazenove and Beebe dining halls last year, vegetarian students appear to have been hit particularly hard with the new dining services system.

The dining halls used to have multiple vegetarian options at every meal, so that even picky eaters could find something that appealed to them. With our new dining system, however, this is no longer the case. Since there are even fewer choices of dining halls in which to eat, the line for food stretches all the way out into the dining room in Tower and extends down the stairs in the Lulu. Vegetarian students may wait in these lines only to get to the food and realize that the only non-meat option is corn and peas, or some other undercooked vegetable. Corn and peas are not sufficient by themselves, and cannot be considered a nutritious and wholesome vegetarian meal.

Since our dining services provider was switched to AVI Fresh, meat has not just been a prominent feature of our meals—it has been the dominant feature. Some dinners at Tower have consisted of at least three different types of chicken. Is this really necessary? The dining hall should offer choices, not just between how our food is prepared, but also what type of food is served. If a student does not eat chicken, she is completely out of luck for her meal that evening.

While Pomeroy is a vegetarian dining hall, it should not be the only option on campus for vegetarians. Cereal, salad and desserts should not become the only source of nutrition for Wellesley's vegetarians. It is very difficult to find protein without eating meat, and sometimes the only options available are veggie burgers or cold tofu in the salad bar. Almost all of the regular options available are unhealthy—dining services cannot expect vegetarian students to survive on veggie burgers, pizza, fries and rice.

Until last year most students really enjoyed eating at the campus center. However, this semester it looks like dining services has chosen to cut down on the portion size of the hot food and increase the size and number of desserts. The salad bar is paltry to say the least and usually empties out by 8 p.m. Even the main entrées fall short of catering to the vegetarian population on campus on a consistant basis. As it stands now, if a vegetarian wants a substantial meal, she has to resort to using her flex points, of which there are laughably few, at the Emporium on the second floor.

There are a multitude of ways in which the dining halls could improve their options. Offering healthier alternatives such as brown rice or whole wheat pasta would provide a healthy option when there is no vegetarian main entrée. Also, the food that is chosen for each day should have some cohesiveness. Currently, the options in the salad bar rarely go together. One of the most important corrections that could be made is the proper labeling of the food in order to let the students know whether or not it is vegetarian or vegan. Students should not have to question every item they put on their plate, it would not be difficult to provide nutrition information on each dish they put on their plate. At the beginning of the semester, the food was not labeled at all, at least now there is a menu posted next to the line at Tower, but it is not always accurate and does not always specify whether an option is strictly vegetarian or vegan.

Wellesley usually works hard to account for differing perspectives on campus, but when it comes to mealtimes, this system has failed. Students have enough to worry about—our diet should not have to be a cause for stress. Dining services needs to re-evaluate their current system and offer more vegetarian options.