Vegan Diet-Student 1
- What dietary plan do you follow? How long have you followed that dietary plan? Is your diet a medical necessity or a personal choice?
- I follow a vegan diet, which I have followed for four and a half years. I follow this plan due to a personal choice.
- What does your diet mean? What foods can you eat/what can you not eat?
- My diet means that I don’t eat any food that is produced from or due to an animal. I eat a plant-based diet, which I prefer to eating a lot of foods that are touted as substitutes.
- Did you experience the on-campus dining at West Chester? What are your thoughts on the dining options?
- Yeah, I did experience on-campus dining at WCU. I found the vegan options to be kind of bland and not a lot of variety in the options. I wish there had been more options that fit into a vegan diet so that I could have had a more well-rounded diet.
- Where on campus did/do you typically eat? Lawrence, Sykes Student Union, specific spots within Lawrence?
- I split my time eating between Lawrence and Sykes and also spent money on food outside of the university. I would eat at Lindsay’s Garden whenever they had good vegan options, but if they didn’t have something I liked I would make a salad or get foods from different stations.
- Did you find it necessary to supplement your diet often with food outside of your dining plan? Why or why not?
- I did find it necessary to supplement my diet while living on-campus. I don’t remember how much I usually spent, but I was going to the store about every week or so, buying the plant-based food.
- Did you feel like you were satisfied with the options offered by Aramark dining? Did you find many options that fit within your dietary plan?
- I was okay with the options offered by Aramark dining, but I really wish there had been more options that fit a vegan and plant-based diet.
- How did the options compare to the food you saw that fit into a “standard diet”?
- There were a lot more options that fit into a standard diet rather than what fits into a vegan diet. There were a couple that offered vegan food options, but all of the other stations fit into a standard diet.
- How would you suggest Aramark and West Chester University move forward with their dining hall and meal plan options?
- I think they just need to offer more information on the food they serve to students. I’m sure there were food options that fit into my diet that I didn’t know about because the nutrition cards were hardly ever updated on the bar stations.
Flexitarian Diet – Student 2
- What dietary plan do you follow? How long have you followed that dietary plan? Is your diet a medical necessity or a personal choice?
- I follow a flexitarian diet. I’ve been following a flexitarian diet for about a year and a half now. I chose this diet for a personal decision.
- What does your diet mean? What foods can you eat/what can you not eat?
- My diet basically means that I can eat meat and animal products, but I focus more on plant-based foods. I incorporate meat when I really want it, but I try to eat less processed foods, and I eat raw foods and plant-based when I can.
- Did you experience the on-campus dining at West Chester? What are your thoughts on the dining options?
- Yeah, I did have a meal plan, and I ate on-campus at WCU. When I wanted to eat meat, there were plenty of options available to me. But when I wanted to eat more plant-based, I tended to have some difficulty finding protein options.
- Where on campus did/do you typically eat? Lawrence, Sykes Student Union, specific spots within Lawrence?
- I ate a lot at Lawrence Dining Hall just because of the large variety of food stations. I sometimes ate at Sykes but not very often.
- Did you find it necessary to supplement your diet often with food outside of your dining plan? Why or why not?
- Sometimes I ordered food from outside the university, and I bought some food from the store every week. It wasn’t absolutely necessary to supplement my diet, but I typically did for personal preference.
- Did you feel like you were satisfied with the options offered by Aramark dining? Did you find many options that fit within your dietary plan?
- I wasn’t unsatisfied with the options from Aramark, but I really like eating plant-based [food], but it is kind of hard to find a variety of options when a lot of the food was focused on meat as the main protein.
- How did the options compare to the food you saw that fit into a “standard diet”?
- Especially since I follow a plant-based and standard diet, I was able to see both sides. I would love to see alternate protein options offered rather than meat.
- How would you suggest Aramark and West Chester University move forward with their dining hall and meal plan options?
- I think Aramark and WCU just need to expand their options. Having food that fits into a standard diet isn’t bad, but they do need to consider all of their students when making meal plans and dining hall choices. I would have eaten at Lawrence a lot more had there been more plant-based options.
All of the above interviews were conducted with anonymous students of WCU. The experience of WCU students, who all follow different diet plans, spans the entire spectrum. Some do not experience the difficulty of finding and eating good food on campus since they are less restricted by what they eat. Call upon the WCU community and officials to change the food options available on campus, so we can match the current diets and needs of students.
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Sarah Croft is a fourth-year Political Science and Spanish Major with a minor in Latin American and Latino/a Studies. SC895088@wcupa.edu