5 Ways to Get More Clean, Plant-Based Options On Your College Campus

Being a college student typically entails big time budgeting and lots of food on the go. It’s not that students don’t want to eat healthy, but cooking? Paying the good food mark-up? Shopping for stuff that has to then be washed and cut at home? That’s often outside the boundaries of many busy students.

I remember one of my best friends eating “ketchup rice” for a week when his funds needed to stretch. I remember quasi-nutritional lunch meal plans as a freshman, when I opted for a giant cheese sauce (we weren’t all born plant-based, people) covered baked potato most days. I remember worrying about getting lunch much more than making sure it was healthy.

That isn’t to say I didn’t care, and now, ten years later, things in the world are a bit different. GMOs are scaring the hell out of people in the U.S. (they were scaring people in Europe when I was in college). The word is out on the horrors of factory farming. I’ll say what no self-respecting thirty-something is ever supposed to say: folks today have got it going on a little better than we did.

Still, as a concerned citizen, one that has veganized and cleaned up, one wanting the best for today’s university youths, I’ve come to help you feed the good stuff to that big brain of yours while attending college:

1. Brown Bag It

Or even better, reusable lunch box it. You are probably not that far removed from high school, and school lunches have long lacked in the clean and vegan categories. What did you do then? Brought a packed lunch. There’s no shame in doing that at college. Many a fine day can be spent picnicking on the lawn somewhere. Here are some quick, clean solutions to your lunch day dilemma.

2. Request It

It’s one thing to go into the cafeteria and be annoyed at the lack of options, but in order for that to change, it will take someone asking for it to do so. Talk to the food vendors. Talk to the dean. Find someone who can help, right on down the line and talk to them. Eventually, something will happen, and that’s how things change for the better.

3. Organize and Revolt

If you are a college student worth your salt, you should probably be thinking about this anyway. If you don’t like what’s on the table, start a petition. Get folks together to boycott the campus cafeteria that has ignored your request for clean, vegan fare, and make sure those in charge know what you are doing and why and, most importantly, how to get you to stop. This is what college is all about!

4. Group Work

If your current situation is such that there are no clean, vegan food options, and you need them immediately. If you don’t have time to make lunch every day, and if your friends feel the same, start working as a group. Someone different makes lunch for the group each day. It might mean more work once or twice a week, but the rest of the time, you’ve got a healthy lunch for that day of effort.

5. Take Advantage of the Options

With those clean, vegan options that are out there, make sure you utilize them. It’s important to eat what clean, vegan food there is if you want people to provide you with more clean, vegan options. Make sure they know you’ll eat whatever new options they provide. That might mean eating all your fruits and veggies, developing a taste for what there is rather than what exactly you want, just the same as eating local stuff in season.

You want to eat clean as much as possible. If you are trying to do so, you’re already well on your way to good things in life: sound health, a better environment, and a clean conscience to boot. Well done. As a former student who too often settled for whatever, I encourage you to be better than I was, to not only take good care of yourself, but also to speak out for all — because that’s how you get more clean eating and plant-based options on your college campus!

Image source: Casey Lehman/Wikimedia Commons