Vegetarianism: Oberlin’s Meat and Potatoes

by JOESTINE CON-UI Veggie Tales: Oberlin’s plethora of vegetarian options earned it a place in the running for Peta2’s nationwide college competition. However, some students turn to OSCA for more and better choices.

The polls are now open for Peta2’s Most Vegetarian-Friendly Colleges 2009 competition, and Oberlin is in the running to make it to the top for the second year in a row.

Oberlin and Case Western Reserve University are among 32 bastions of Boca nominated by the youth division of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals that will advance to the voting stage of competition. Nominations were based on student feedback found on social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace and the Peta2 blog.

The winner will be determined after five rounds of online elimination voting, followed by one round of finals. Oberlin came in 6th last year, while Indiana University-Bloomington filled the top slot.

Approximately 40 percent of the Oberlin student body is vegetarian or vegan, according to the Peta2 website. Oberlin began offering a separate food line for vegetarians in 1998.

Campus Dining Services has increased both the quality and quantity of its vegetarian options since partnering with Bon AppŽtit Management Company in 2001.

Oberlin chose Bon AppŽtit in large part because “they had a commitment to quality vegetarian and vegan cuisine and in making that part of the program strong and exciting,” according to Director of Dining Michele Gross. “They make the vegetarian and vegan options as exciting as the meat.”

Since 2001, Bon AppŽtit and CDS have re-evaluated the quality of vegetarian offerings and have trained staff in proper practices to eliminate cross-contamination.

Student input plays a large part in Oberlin’s dining options. “It’s nice to be involved, because I think our students are committed and passionate about eating, vegetarian and vegan diets in particular, but all culinary and dietary sort of things,” Gross said.

However, not all Oberlin vegetarians — or all students — are satisfied with the CDS options. Some students choose to dine in OSCA because of concerns about CDS’s vegetarian options.

Others suggest that CDS could do more to promote local foods.

“Being a vegetarian to me is not just about not eating meat, it’s about knowing where my food comes from,” said College sophomore Jessica Gold. “I really like the fact that, eating in OSCA, I know my food is local, and we try to buy organic food first, if we can. In CDS, that’s not something that’s [very] important.”

Peta2’s nomination process did not take OSCA into account. “We didn’t [consider OSCA] or other off-campus dining options in order to be as fair as possible — to level the playing field,” said Ryan Huling, Peta2’s college activist liaison.

Ultimately, the competition won’t just measure the quality and quantity of vegetarian options; size of the student body and the percentage of students who take the time to vote may be the deciding factors.

However, as Beth Kretschmar, the marketing manager for Bon AppŽtit at Case Western, pointed out, being nominated is valuable regardless of the outcome of the competition. “The nomination process itself is a great way of giving recognition to schools.”