American University
OP-7: Low Impact Dining

AU Dining boast an A+ Dean’s List rating from PETA and special recognition from the Humane Society of the United States for vegan and vegetarian options on campus. The main dining hall has a vegan and vegetarian station that utilizes plant based proteins such as tofu, seitan, tempeh, beans, legumes, and pulses. Each station in our dining hall that serves meat has a plant based alternative—for example, the deli features hummus and grilled vegetables. Each menu item is reviewed by our Registered Dietitian and labeled as “vegan” or “vegetarian” to make choosing these options in the dining hall easy and accessible to all students. We celebrate “Meatless Mondays” in our dining hall by replacing our carved meat item with a carved vegetable or vegetable entrée such as Carved Butternut Squash or Mushroom Wellington. We also feature vegan/vegetarian specials at each station on this day, and use marketing materials, community involvement, and employee engagement to increase participation and awareness of Meatless Monday. AU Dining also holds a vegan/vegetarian focus group each semester to take student and staff feedback for improving our program. Retail food outlets at AU also feature vegan and vegetarian options, and all nutrition information is available for students to access. During the Fall semester, AU Dining’s rotating retail concept featured a completely vegan menu in partnership with the Humane Society of the United States.