State University of New York at Geneseo
OP-7: Low Impact Dining

Approximation. Currently, our systems don’t enable us to separate out and track expenditures on animal products

Each of our eight restaurants and cafes across campus as well as our food truck offer at least one hot vegan entree at every meal. Many of our restaurants offer made to order options or offerings that are highly customizable allowing students to choose create a variety of delicious vegan meals. These stations include but are not limited to pasta sautes, hand tossed salads, stir-fry, sandwiches and grill items. Non-meat protein options in these areas include Gardein, tofu, beans, portabella and hummus. Two of our restaurants have vegetarian/vegan stations or complete vegetarian/vegan kitchens that provide foods tailored to students following this lifestyle. Vegan and vegetarian lifestyles are promoted throughout the restaurants by dining services. Nutrition and Wellness boards are present in all restaurants that provide a key for the nutrition icons (including the vegan VG symbol and the vegetarian VT symbol), the nutritionist's name and contact information, and tips for how to eat healthy on campus including how to eat healthy within a vegan lifestyle. Vegan and vegetarian lifestyles are also promoted from a sustainability standpoint. Information from the Environmental Working Group is posted in the restaurants, showing the link between eating less meat and cheese and an improvement in health as well as a reduction in environmental impact. In addition to this, our full-time on-staff nutritionist meets with a group of vegan and vegetarian students at least once a semester to discuss their specific needs and issues. These forums provide a lot of insight into the needs, wants and concerns of our vegan and vegetarian students and allows an open channel of communication. SUNY Geneseo also received an “A” from PETA on their Vegan Report Card.

Another effort that has been made by dining services to reduce the impact of its animal-derived food purchases is to alter its recipes to be naturally vegan or vegetarian. The nutritionist works with the culinary team when creating menus, and offers suggestions on how to replace bases, stocks, and other ingredients that traditionally contain animal-derived products with vegetarian and vegan alternatives. The chefs incorporate these changes into their menus, allowing for a greater variety of naturally vegetarian and vegan options. Another effort involves focusing more on customizable, made-to-order menu items. In addition to creating greater customer satisfaction by having each dish individually and freshly prepared to the student’s specifications, the pricing of the made-to-order dishes varies depending upon the protein chosen, with vegetarian proteins costing less than animal proteins, causing a financial incentive for students to choose a vegan or vegetarian option. The website URL where information about the vegan dining program is available: http://www.geneseo.edu/cas/vegan-vegetarian

Rebecca Stewart