Students are frustrated by vegan and vegetarian food in the caf being mislabeled and containing animal products, resulting in one student getting sick.
Alexandra Eckelbarger, acting freshman, said she is vegan and has noticed the mislabeled food.
“It’ll say it’s ‘vegetarian’ on the screen, and it’ll have a ‘vegan’ label on the bottom of it,” Eckelbarger said.
Eckelbarger said she spoke to Emily Anderson, director of dining services, and Executive Chef Chris Barton about the vegetarian and vegan food for a class project.
“I was talking to them about how my proposal was to make the vegan/vegetarian station only vegan, and they were really on board with it,” she said. “I told them how it’s frustrating when you find out all the things are vegetarian, and I can’t have any of it.”
Eckelbarger said, after she spoke with officials, she encountered some mislabeled vegan food in the caf.
“Two days later, there was a soup that was mislabeled,” she said. “It basically had ham in it. I haven’t had ham in three years, and I got really sick. I just thought it was funny that not a day or two later after talking to them about that, I ran into it.”
Allie McMurry, religion freshman, said the food should be labeled correctly so vegans and vegetarians won’t get sick.
“I think it’s wrong and something that should be addressed,” she said. “I think I would get very sick if I ate meat. I haven’t had it in a long time. I would also be very annoyed if I did because I have a long streak of not eating meat, and so, if I ate it and I didn’t want to eat it, I would be pretty upset.”
In a statement made to Student Publications, Chartwells officials said they try to meet everyone’s preferences.
“Our vegan and vegetarian options are thoughtfully built into our menus and are served on a daily basis,” Chartwells officials wrote in their statement.
Chartwells officials also wrote that they make sure to label all of their food clearly.
“We ensure that BalancedU icons clearly display our vegan, vegetarian, avoiding gluten, and balanced so students are able to find what they are looking for daily,” they wrote.
Eckelbarger said she avoids eating food from the vegan/vegetarian tables.
“I just eat Cinnamon Toast Crunch now and wait for them to give me something I can eat,” she said.
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