Eating well in a school cafeteria can be a chore, bore—or both! If you’re a student faced with troughs of mystery meat and are tired of scrounging for steamed carrots and salad, here’s how to help yourself, as well as other students and the animals by making your cafeteria or student union veggie-friendly!

The dining service at the University of California at Berkeley had been serving vegetarian entrées for 17 years, but their cheese-loaded veggie meals weren’t options for vegan students. (A vegan, pronounced VEE-gun, uses no animal products at all. Meat, dairy products, eggs and honey don’t make the grade.)

Berkeley’s Coalition for Healthy Dorm Food was formed to change all that. They lobbied the college dining service to meet the dietary needs of all students at every meal. “The dining hall service was sympathetic, but wasn’t sure they could handle anything else,” explained Leor Jacobi. “They needed a push in the right direction.” So the coalition circulated petitions and went for publicity, setting up a table right outside the dining hall, complete with an enormous bottle of antacid to symbolize their dietary dilemma! After two weeks, they had 1,200 signatures—more than one-fifth of Berkeley’s dorm population!

Meanwhile, the students’ quest attracted media attention and the resulting coverage really gave their drive a boost. “We didn’t want to overdo it, but the attention really helped us press our case,” says Jacobi. Just four weeks and several meetings later, the university’s administration agreed to provide a fully vegan entrée at every meal. On day one, the dining service celebrated with an all-vegan lunch, where the whole campus sampled vegetarian chili, stir-fry, tofu kabobs, hummus, rigatoni and beans, stew, and raspberry sorbet. “They even turned off the milk machines for the afternoon,” exults Jacobi. “There was an overwhelmingly positive student response, even from those who hadn’t tried this way of eating before.”

Ready to make your cafeteria veggie-friendly? Here are Jacobi's tips: • Talk about nutrition and health. Science is on your side—vegans live longer, healthier lives than meat-eaters.”You score lots of points citing doctors and nutritionists,” advises Jacobi. “Be aware of who your audience is and speak their language.” • Make it easy. Let school officials know that you want to work with them, not against them. The food service may not know where to start, so share recipes. The Berkeley students supplied a no-cholesterol, low-fat, animal-free nutrition plan specially designed for institutions from the Washington-based Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM). PCRM’s Gold Plan comes with a manual explaining how to operate the plan, institutional-size recipes, table-top quizzes, factsheets, mini-posters, entrée labels, take-home recipes, and payroll stuffers! Contact PCRM, 5100 Wisconsin Ave., Suite 404, Washington, DC 20015; 202-686-2210. • Get the student government involved. At UC-Berkeley, the campaigners persuaded the student government to unanimously pass a resolution supporting their efforts. • Be inclusive! “Don’t make it vegetarians vs. carnivores,” says Jacobi. “Take a nonthreatening approach and even nonveggies will be on your side.” • Be specific. Explain exactly what you mean by vegan—be sure that the food service knows that meat flavorings or derivatives (which often sneak into soups, sauces and beans) aren’t okay. Details are important—if you don’t want your veggie burgers cooked on the same grill as hamburgers, let them know. • Stay positive! “At first, the administration was portrayed as bureaucrats who were insensitive to the needs of the students,” says Jacobi. “We won when we pitched it as a positive step that would benefit the whole school.” The dining hall at the University of Maryland has been working with a student advisory committee to devise vegan menus. Students can now enjoy delicious soups, eggless French toast, veggie burgers, vegan pot pies, eggplant marinara and jalapeño corn casserole. The sooner students start eating healthfully, the better. A study of 1,532 teens found that 100% had fatty deposits in their hearts and 50% showed signs of heart disease by age 19! And parents—whether your child is a first-grader or a high school graduate—find out what the lunch lady has been cooking up. Follow the above advice to help get veggie options in your child’s school.

The National Association of College and University Food Services held a “Culinary Creators” contest with the emphasis on creating delicious, enticing veggie fare. Participants wowed the judges with the following dishes:

1st place winner Grilled Tempeh with Wild Mushrooms and Fresh Spinach (submitted by Columbia University and chef Rebecca Lopez)

2nd place winner Flaky Vegetable Strudel with Hearty Tomato Mushroom Sauce (submitted by the University of Montana and Laura Del Guerra, R.D.)

3rd place winner Vegan Ravioli with Shiitake Mushroom Ragoût Filling (submitted by California State University and Kerri Dalman)

Other recipes include Vegan Paella, Wild Rice Pecan Cakes, and Vegan Moussaka. To obtain copies of recipes to share with your school’s food service, write to PETA’s Literature Department, 501 Front St., Norfolk, VA 23510.