Tomorrow marks my first week back in New York; my first day of classes was Wednesday. I didn’t eat in the cafeteria until the first day of classes and I was hopeful of all of the new vegan options that were said to be offered. As I walked into the cafeteria during common hour, the busiest time for the c

afeteria, I discovered that nothing had changed. I was upset, but I was more upset because I had emailed the Quality Assurance Manager for the deplorable lack of options for those following a vegan diet. I was asked what I would like to see changed and after providing a list of what I believed covered everything they replied that they could accommodate for all of what was suggested. I left the cafeteria the first day of classes disheartened to see that I hadn’t actually helped make a change and to see once again that I had to scrounge for things to eat. I’ve eaten salad and vegan sushi rolls, just a cucumber and avocado roll with a piece of tofu in it, every day since classes started. I went to the pasta station once to see vegetables contaminated by the cheese in the container next to it, something that also occurred at the salad bar as well. I am actually afraid to eat in the cafeteria because I don’t trust that it is actually devoid of animal products. I decided to wait a little bit before contacting them again, but yesterday what started it all happened again.

 

Let me explain how the lovely “Café 101” works on the weekend: the only stations open are the Grill (think like burgers, nuggets, and fries) and a small buffet type line of about 10 options. I originally went to the cafeteria to get pasta to have to settle on the greasy grill. After my roommate, who is a vegetarian, ordered a veggie burger (which is different from the “vegan” burger) I went to order vegan nuggets. But guess what!! They didn’t have any vegan nuggets. The first week of classes and they already had no vegan options at the grill, just like what happened at the end of last semester. And to top that off all of the buffet options didn’t have markers for if it was vegetarian/gluten free/vegan so I literally had no options to eat. I lost it. I spoke to the manager working the cafeteria at the time, who was very nice and trying his best, and then the chef who was in-charge at the time. While they were nice, they were only giving me excuses; “the system was down so it’s not the normal labels, it’s an all new staff, it’s the first week and we’re working out the kinks”. He then told me that by the end of next week if it’s not better to contact him. To me, that is just saying that for the first two weeks of the semester I have nothing to eat.

The bigger issue here is that I have no trust for the cafeteria to serve me food that I can actually eat. They can tell me the burger that I ordered is vegan but it could be the normal veggie burger, which contains either dairy or egg (I can’t seem to remember). A soup can be labeled as vegan but it contains ingredients that contradict that. I, and other students who are also vegan or with food allergies, are not given a place that can sustain us; the cafeteria should be a place devoid of stress and anxiety and unfortunately, that’s not the case at Café 101.