When Homewood freshman Archana Shah wants a quick meal on the go outside of University residential dining life, her choice is between Taco Bell and Subway.
Shah, a lifelong vegetarian, finds very limited options. "Although I feel the trend is going towards eating more healthy, I still have yet to see a full acceptance of vegetarianism in the mainstream fast food world," Shah said.
Fellow freshman Maria Marsh agrees. "I don't eat much fast food because it's not particularly healthy in general, but also because I don't eat meat," Marsh said. "It's hard to find a decent vegetarian meal in a fast food restaurant". At home in California, Marsh still has few fast food options. "There's a place called In N' Out that has a cheeseburger without the meat, but its not listed on the menu," Marsh said. "You have to request it." Marsh explained that Burger King is the only place where she's been able to find a garden burger, and it was only in Hawaii.
As vegetarian college students, Shah and Marsh are not alone. As many as 20 percent of college students consider themselves vegetarian and that number is rising, according to a 1999 survey conducted by the National Restaurant Association in conjunction with the National Association of College and University Foodservice.
There are several different reasons why so many students are becoming vegetarian, such as health and ethical issues. Marsh has slowly turned vegetarian progressively since taking an animal rights trip with a friend. "We stopped buying products that tested on animals, and decided that we'd try to be vegetarians for a few weeks," Marsh explained. "After a while, I realized that I couldn't really go back to eating meat after everything that my friend and I were learning about. I never ate that much meat to start with, so it wasn't a huge sacrifice in my life"
Now, Marsh claims that being a vegetarian is almost out of habit. "It would be hard for my body to get used to eating meat again, and just the idea of it doesn't really appeal to me."
"For me it's about eating healthy," said Shah. "I like being vegetarian because it eliminates most of the high cholesterol foods at fast food joints. If I take out anything that's fried, I could almost have a healthy meal."
Freshman Marilyn Perez turned vegetarian only after coming to Johns Hopkins. "I just wasn't too sure what was being served in the meat, and a lot of my friends here were vegetarian anyhow," Perez said. "It just seemed the safest and healthiest way to go. I have noticed the extreme difficulty in finding a good, fast place to eat and I really can't think of one particular fast food joint that has made any effort to change that."
While it is true that some of the most popular fast food services such as McDonald's do not represent any of their foods as being vegetarian [according to their official Website], there is a growing awareness in the industry of the need to cater to vegetarians. New franchises like Baha Fresh are attracting lots of vegetarians, while established joints like Burger King have begun to offer items like veggie burgers.
Shah says that there is a long way to improve in the dining halls at Hopkins. "I just usually end up grabbing a sandwich from UniMini or Subway because the food I find at Terrace or Wolman is not very appetizing."
Marsh stated that at first it was a little difficult because there used to be very few hot food items for vegetarians. "More than once I discovered ham in the soup or hamburger in the tomato sauce after a few bites," Marsh said. "But when people started to complain, they did make some significant changes." There is now a separate section for just vegetarian dishes in Wolman. "Granted, there are usually only two dishes there, but it's a step forward," Marsh said.
A recent survey list compiled by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) of the best vegetarian- and vegan-friendly university dining halls included the following colleges: New York University, University of California-Santa Cruz, Columbia University, Indiana University, College of Wooster (Ohio), Virginia Tech, Vassar College and Elmira College. Current freshman class president and an instrumental member in changing the new meal plan, Cristal Ng, hopes to one day see Hopkins on that list.
"One of the biggest complaints and factors we had to deal with was the meal options for vegetarians. I am hoping that the changes we have made will have gone in some effort to better cater to their needs."
Perez admits that for now, she usually just ends up eating her mother's homemade pasta.
