Veganized the Dining Halls at USF! April 5, 2009

Posted by Ryan at April 5, 2009 1:55 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 ) | TrackBack

Written by Meg Malek, president of Students Protecting the Environment and Animals with Knowledge (S.P.E.A.K.)

I stopped eating at our dining halls a while ago, because they really didn't have the food I wanted to eat. I determined that if I didn't eat there, that I would save money and eat good veggie recipes that I actually wanted, or at least better ones than they were serving. So when a couple friends came to me to discuss a vegetarian/environmental club I was all for it, and soon we discussed our dining options. I emailed peta2 for support. In addition to the campaign pack we got, we heard that a peta2 crew would be passing through town, and they could help us petition for the better menus!

Together, we gathered more than 3,000 petition signatures from students!

When we talked to our dining services, things went incredibly well. They told us that their job is to hear our wants in the food service, and they were happy to respond to our requests. We stated our desires and showed them the thousands of signatures that we obtained over two days of petitioning. We discussed their options for vegans and vegetarians. They had choices, but they were uninspired and repetitive. They would frequently put out steamed corn or steamed vegetables and call it vegan, and although they would have several of these options, we explained gently that we still needing of sustenance, not just the side dish here and there to satisfy us. We gave them the recipes that peta2 recommended, as well as excerpts from other Aramark cafeterias of their success with obtaining more and better vegetarian and vegan foods in their menus.



Within three days, they started labeling the items they already sold that were vegan and vegetarian as such, and people were definitely reacting. The dining halls added veggie bacon and veggie sausages, and they're even looking into soy "eggs" for the omelet bar!

There is a very popular ice cream machine that everyone visits before they leave the food halls. It is and always has been vegan ice cream (something that we were unaware of before our meeting), but now it's clearly labeled!



They still serve a lot of the items they had before, such as a seared sesame tofu over rice, but now they're adding things to the dish to make them a more complete meal. In that case, they added sesame vegetables. Also, they implemented a program where students can go into any restaurant and ask for specific items to be combined in a "make your own meal" fashion. All the appropriate signage has been placed now so that everybody knows the new policies.

Quite a success for a group that's only three months old, huh?

The Return of "Giant Douche vs. Turd Sandwich"! August 5, 2008

Posted by Ryan at August 5, 2008 10:49 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 15 ) | TrackBack

You cast your ballots in last month's "Giant Douche vs. Turd Sandwich" contest to determine the biggest jerk who abuses animals in laboratories, and the results are in! After Marta spent many a sleepless night counting the votes, we are proud to announce that Michael Weed (aka "Giant Douche") won the honor of being the biggest of the jerk of the month! As a reminder, he was the one who forces monkeys to ingest alcohol, cocaine, ecstacy, and other drugs, to test their responses. Well done, Mike! You earned it!

But now, it's time for this month's match-up. In this corner, hailing from New Haven, CT...

Nickname: "Giant Douche"
Real Name: Marina Picciotto
School: Yale University
Interests: Feeding or injecting monkeys, mice, and rats with nicotine, cocaine, morphine and alcohol to measure "behavioral assessments", sometimes stating that the goal of the test is to make the animals suffer. In one test, she gave monkeys a Kool-Aid drink mixed with nicotine as their sole source of fluid. One monkey ingested the equivalent of 17 packs of cigarettes per day. Umm, Truth Campaign, you want to get on this?

Visual approximation, compliments of looptvandfilm / CC



Nickname: "Turd Sandwich"
Real Name: Allyson Bennett
School: Wake Forest University
Interests: Taking baby monkeys away from their mothers and forcing them to live without parents. Always the busy bee, Bennett has also researched whether or not binge-drinking might be bad for monkeys (because clearly that's a huge issue in today's society), and in her spare time she dabbles in torturing rats and mice by depriving them of food for up to two days. My my, Allyson, you really should take a permanent vacation.



Visual approximation, compliments of looptvandfilm / CC

So there you have it, folks! Who do you think is the bigger jerk? The "Giant Douche" who forces animals to ingest the equivalent of 17 packs of cigarettes, or the "Turd Sandwich" who forces monkeys to live without parents and binge-drink?

I'm casting my ballot for "Giant Douche". How about you?

- Ryan!