college vegan

I am worried that when I go back to college in a couple weeks it will be really hard for me to stay began. I rely on the D-hall for most of my meals, and I know that they only serve one vegan meal a day (same one for breakfast and dinner). I can switch it up a bit with the salad bar, or make a pb and j and grab some fruit, but I know im going to get sick of the same thing everyday. they have soymilk, but only vanilla. i liek plain. i know i will go to the grocery store for dorm room food, but i dont have tons of money to spend at the grocery market like when im home and i can just get my mom to pick me up some stuff. also there is no natural food marketplace type thing there. it is so nice to be able to cook my own foods here at home, but i rarely have time/resources to cook at school. I've only been vegan since this summer, and i am commited to follow through the school year. i just dont want to starve myself. I mean I AM a college student, low budget and all. any tips?

Yeah, eating vegan while living in the dorms can be really difficult. Luckily, I had a group of vegan friends in my dorm freshman year, and we made meals together in the basement kitchen (among the cock roaches - heh). We would take food containers into the dining halls and stock up on staples for our meals (vegetables, etc.) and then bought cheap meat substitutes, etc., in bulk to spruce up our self-made meals. I realize that might not be an option for you, and if your school is like mine, you're probably required to be on a meal plan if you live on campus. Again, since I had a group of friends, we were able to meet with the head of the dining services to discuss getting better options in the halls. Unfortunately, this didn't come into effect until the following year, when we were all living off campus. I have another friend at a different school who actually met with the head of his campus' dining services to discuss getting out of the meal plan all together. He dressed in a suit, did his research to show how the meals on campus we're more expensive and not meeting his nutrition needs and argued the cafeterias were not open at times when he was available.

Peta offers some further advise.

http://www.peta2.com/COLLEGE/c-campaignstrategy.asp

Hope that helps. Good luck!

thanks!

its so cool that you knew a whole group of vegans at school! I know of maybe two at my school. Me and a friend are actually trying to start a group for vegetarians/vegans to join so we can all meet each other. we're going to discuss our problems with the dining hall and find a way to respectfully present them to the company. I know a BUNCH of vegetarains, and we want to have a veggie pot-luck once in a while. but alas no vegans!

cool website, thanks!

thanks!

 

its so cool that you knew a whole group of vegans at school! I know of maybe two at my school. Me and a friend are actually trying to start a group for vegetarians/vegans to join so we can all meet each other. we're going to discuss our problems with the dining hall and find a way to respectfully present them to the company. I know a BUNCH of vegetarains, and we want to have a veggie pot-luck once in a while. but alas no vegans!

 

cool website, thanks!

Wouldn't your vegetarian friends enjoy some healthier vegan meals in the dining hall? They could be part of your group as well. If the school is already offering a vegan meal, they must recognize the demand. Maybe they just don't realize how big the demand is?

I really like your idea of forming a group and presenting your ideas to the school. My friends at VCU did that 15 years ago. At first it was a small group and the school responded by having the faculty chef prepare special gourmet meals for the vegan students. Now VCU offers vegan options at every meal. You could be the one who gets things rolling at your school.

Here the meal plan actually is 60 bucks each week on average (I spend that maybe every two weeks on groceries). Not to mention the almost monthly meal plan "tax" which I dont knwo where it comes from but shows up on the bills. Last semester I was spending 20 bucks a week on food just to have around my room even with the meal plan. Now that I've dropped the meal plan I actually have more money for food. I also found as Brendan's friend did that the cafeteria was pretty inflexible with times. They closed at 8 p.m. and that didnt fit with my school or workout schedule. I still live on campus but the place I live in lets you choose if you want to have a meal plan or not so maybe you can get a dorm room with this setup. I cannot complain about our vegan food though. We usually had vegans serving in the vegetarian/vegan line and they would warn the vegans if something was not vegan or one even fixed a few of the dishes we got to eat. The food was pretty bland and low on protein most of the time, but it was something to eat and I could eat a lot which was a bodybuilding benefit. I would add soy grits or groud soybeans to the food to give it more protein. I could go for some vegan ravioli about now.

vegan ravioloi??? wow, where do I find it??!!!

WWHHHAAAAATTTT????!!!!!

vegan ravioli

College dont keep us in suspense - tell us where we can get us some vegan ravioli!!!

yum yum yum

ohh i would tell you if i knew! How i wish i knew! They served it in our cafeteria. It really was not very good. I bet if you found how to make the dough and got the little ravioli cutter you could fill them with whatever. One time I ate a wolfgang puck's restraunt in florida and he had pumpkin raviolis. They were really good, I dont know what the ingredients were, it was years ago so I wasnt asking but they didnt have meat i know that much.

Actually that is a great idea!!

All we would need to do is make the vegan dough. We can fill it up with pumpkin or butternut squash, which tastes amazing in ravioli. Topped with a vegan "alfredo sauce" or "rose sauce". Yum yum yum.

Man I luuuuuvvvvveeee good eats!!!

tell you what, i am going to experiment with this new recipe idea and if it turns out well, i will share and share a like!!!

peace

Sounds delicious to me!

You back at College yet dandylioness? If so, how are you getting on?

My classes start in a week...

I'm now in college, and it's hard. Tomorrow however I have a meeting with the dining services director to discuss accomodations for vegans in the cafeteria, and hopefully I will be able to have my problems fixed. I kinda don't like not knowing what's in my food. Maybe I'm a bit anal, but I like to know the nutritional information of the food I put in my body, I hate eating something and finding out later I might as well just go ahead and inject the fat into my veins.

Oh yeah, I'm a nutrition major. This may have something to do with it.