Living a vegetarian or vegan lifestyle is difficult at Ohio State.
"The vegetarian options are limited and I wear them out pretty quickly," said Sarah Kmonk, a freshman in journalism. "I try to avoid dining halls at all costs, except for the occasional waffle."
Despite several changes in dining services intended to benefit vegetarians on campus, Kmonk and other student vegetarians still said OSU lacks the choices necessary for an animal-free diet.
Some new options, such as the Courtside Cafe in the Recreation and Physical Activity Center and the Marketplace on Neil Avenue, are helping vegetarians, yet other changes have not resonated. Some also believe dining hall vegetarian products do not adhere to strict vegetarian diets.
The self-service Sprouts Café is in the Kennedy Commons dining hall. The Office of Campus and Dining Services Web site describes Sprouts as the headquarters for vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free products. They also offer soy milk for vegans who will not eat anything that comes from an animal.
"It's pretty difficult to be a vegetarian and on the meal plan," Kmonk said. "It's unknown how the food is prepared and although Sprouts claims to be vegetarian, I don't trust it."
Kmonk's speculation was confirmed by a sophomore employee at another dining hall who is also a strict vegetarian.
"In past experiences, both as a customer and employee of campus dining services, I have found there is a blatant disregard for vegetarians," said the employee, who did not want to be identified. "Many menu items, despite being labeled vegetarian, could be considered tainted to very strict vegetarians because of how they are handled."
The employee does not think university officials are apathetic toward vegetarians in their policies or training of dining hall workers. Rather, the employee believes some mistakes are natural in food service, but others could be avoided.
"I think that it's just human error," the employee said. "Sometimes, if meat and vegetarian items are on the same part of the line, it's common for meat to fall in vegetarian items. Not changing gloves between handling meat and preparing a sandwich for a vegetarian customer is a problem I've noticed. Contamination on the line at cafeterias between meat and vegetarian items... can all be cited as problems."
The online menus for Sprouts, Marketplace and other campus dining services have indicators for items that are vegetarian, vegan and low-fat. The serving size is included, along with 11 panels of basic nutritional information such as calories, protein, fat and cholesterol. The Sprouts menu features eggplant parmesan, roasted vegetable salad, spinach quiche, spaghetti pasta and tofu cacciatore.
Some vegetarians are frustrated with what seems like an extensive online menu at a dining hall, only to be disappointed when arriving.
Erin Moore, a sophomore in music education, canceled her meal plan after autumn quarter.
"It's very difficult to eat a balanced vegetarian, let alone vegan diet using a meal plan," Moore said. "The Web site still doesn't list all of the nutritional information for the food being served, and usually the items listed online aren't available when you arrive at the dining hall."
Vegetarians living on campus do have problems eating on campus and attribute some of them to OSU. Recent additions to campus, however, are seen as positive and frequent meal options.
"The Courtside Cafe and Marketplace are my main fixes," Kmonk said. "There are two or three food entrees at Courtside and plenty of grab'n' go items like fruit and tabouleh. The Marketplace is the same, with the addition of a salad bar."
Kmonk, however, often has to drift off campus to get her meals.
"I go to the grocery store and stock up on cereal, fresh fruit and cereal bars. Because of this I can go days without using meal swipes," Kmonk said. "It really is just the mandatory meal swipes and lack of vegetarian options that is discouraging. Being a vegetarian is not as difficult as people like to think, its just that damn meal plan."
Glenn Forbes can be reached at forbes.47@osu.edu.
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