RANT!

Yesterday in the "good for you" section of our college dining hall they had "vegan alfredo". Skeptical, I asked for the ingredients. Sure enough, the pasta was blatantly made with cheese sauce. This has happened before with this particular dish but this time I actually CARED so I decided to fill out a comment card and complain, to which my boyfriend told me there was a "border between being opinionated and just plain being annoying". Shouldnt I have the right to know whats in my food, and shouldnt I try to straighten things out with my dining hall? grrrrrr it made me so mad, but what made me even madder was that my boyfriend wasnt supportive, he just told me i was being annoying. i dont want to be "that annoying vegan chick", but I dont want to let them get away with labeling cheese items "vegan".

I was so mad. just thought I'd rant to a group of people who understand.

you are quite right to complain.

i went into a shop and they had vegan honey cake. i asked them if they actually knew what vegan was and they thought it was natural food. i explained that i am vegan and honey is not. vegan means nothing from animals. they were quite shocked!

jonathan

wow!

Dump ya boyfriend I wouldn't stand for that kind of nonsense

UGh! YOu are totally NOT annoying! You have every right to correct your college for it's misinformation. I'd say the boyfriend probably has issues with confrontation (my wonderful family has issues with assertion and confrontation as well - on them)! Good for you for speaking up! Ignore his wimpy behind!

I have dealt with this a lot. Now I don't go out and eat a whole lot so I make my own food and it is easy to know exactly what I'm eating.....BUT I know what you mean, because I worked on a cruise ship for nearly 2 years and I never knew what was in the food! So I just stuck to raw fruits and vegetables, natural peanut butter and I had my mom ship boxes full of food to me on a regular basis, and I would buy vegan foods from ports like Ft. Lauderdale, San Francisco, San Diego, St. Thomas, Dover England, etc.

I know if you are in school, or eat at work, or whatever the situation is, this can be very frustrating.

Never feel bad about asking to know what is in the food, and for being persistent for an honest answer.

I think I've even asked people at the Bagel shop to please wash their hands if they touched some cheese to put on a bagel before me. I've done that at a number of places in the past (but as the paying customer I think it is ok to ask someone to wash their hands if you do it politely and explain that you're vegan). Now I mostly only eat at vegan places so I know what's in there.

About the boyfriend, I dont have much advice. I haven't dated much, but I know I wouldn't appreciate being called annoying, and I would want support with important things like that.

So bottom line, don't feel bad about asking what is in the food and support others who are in the same boat, becauase we all know it sucks when we want support and understanding, and don't get it from those close to us.

-Robert

awwwww thanks guys!! this board is full of amazing people.

hi dandylioness,

You were TOTALLY in he right for asking if the alfredo was vegan and also totally in the right for complaining. SCHools or businesses should NOT be calling things vegan if they are not, especially something so blatantly UNvegan like cheese!!!!

I would have done the exact same thing,.

Your boyfriend is the one who sounds annoying , not you!

My school had this problem several times, When the servers were vegan they would point it out, but this was only at one cafeteria the other one open weekends was just dumb and they had cheese manicotti one time labeled as vegan. When I told the manager of the problem she just gave me a look of "i dont care" she did take the vegan sign down but never said a word to me. Had someone gotten sick from the cheese it could have been bad for the cafeteria but ohh no they cannot think that far ahead. My girlfriend never supported me on writing comments either, though I never told her how many I wrote. Tell your boyfriend to wise up if he really cares about you. It might be annoying to him and to the staff, but you are keeping everyone honest which is commendable. Just keep at it, don't let those lazy people shut you up or get you down.