Subject: vegan meal plans

Hello,

I will be starting my second year at UNT in the fall. I have chosen to live in an apartment because of many reasons, but the biggest one is because of the lack of vegan options in the dorms.

Although Bruce Hall has vegan food, there was very rarely anything substantial for me to eat on weekends. Most weekends I had to eat elsewhere. This is difficult when you don't have a car. Although I paid for a 7 day meal plan, and was led to believe that even vegans would love it, I went hungry every weekend. When I would show up to Kerr Hall, often there was nothing for me to eat except a veggie burger, and even those aren't usually vegan (they have egg in them.) Sometimes on Sundays they had beans or something like that, but by no means was there enough food for me to eat. When I would ask to see the manager, they were never very helpful. They would suggest the salad bar. Vegans do eat more than lettuce. On a few occasions, I found meat in my stir-fry in Clark Hall. It made me very sick.

I am just writing this to try to make some kind of difference in the cafeterias. I had to walk to Bruce Hall three times a day to eat. There should be more vegan options in all of the cafeterias. There were always pamphlets near the entrances stressing healthy food choices, but then when I walked inside I was greeted with unhealthy food that was made with animal products. Perhaps if more vegetarian and vegan foods were offered, UNT would have healthier students. It is hard to succeed in school when you are hungry and malnourished.

Thank you for your time
Christa Crawford

Subject: comments

Hello,

I have already written to the Director of Dining Services, but I want to make sure that some kind of change takes place, so I thought I should write you as well.

I was a freshman at UNT last year, and I lived in Clark Hall. I am a vegan from California, and have always been used to to eating very healthy food free of toxic animal products. This sounds dramatic but I am very serious.

One of my biggest considerations when looking at on-campus living was that of having something to eat. I was led to believe that I would not go hungry, even as a vegan in Texas. I thought that since I would be paying about fifteen dollars a day, I would be fed more than iceberg lettuce and salad bar okra.

However, every single weekend that I lived on campus, I was starving. I would trudge down to Kerr Hall on Saturday afternoon for some lunch, only to find meat and dairy dishes, or refined pasta that sits and rots in your colon. I could deal with that, except when I went over to eat some peanut butter with some bread, the peanut butter was laden with corn syrup and partially hydrogenated soybean oil, which is proven to be making America unhealthy. The bread was not whole grain. As I would walk out of the cafeteria, still as hungry as before, I would see cute little pamphlets on eating healthy. I have never been more unhealthy in my life. I was getting awful stomach aches all year long. As soon as I came home after school, they magically went away. Must have been something in the food.

America is getting more and more obese and unhealthy, and I refuse to be a statistic. So, I just did not eat the dorm food, especially on weekends. I spent hundreds of dollars on my own food. My parents even had to ship me food from California.

I am extremely disappointed in the lack of service to the vegans. When I asked to speak to the managers, I was often told to eat at the salad bar, or to have a veggie burger. Those have egg in them.

I am living in an apartment this coming year, where I can make food for myself that will not slowly kill me off and make me fat like the rest of America. I am writing on behalf of future vegans at North Texas. I wouldn't want another person to go a year malnourished and sick.

A balanced vegan meal needs to be available at every time of the day, in every cafeteria. Perhaps if these were options, more people would start eating vegetables, and America would slowly start to become healthy.

Thank you for your time.

Christa Crawford