final draft of podcast

Thanks for tuning in to the Current Power podcast, a podcast dedicated to all things alternative protein. I'm your host, Sienna. Today we'll be talking about how alternative protein, or foods that we can eat for protein, that do not come from a living animal, are doing in college dining halls across the country. We'll hear how leaders in the field, such as University of Santa Clara, offer non-traditional options, as well as how schools like DU and Tufts meet the needs of omnivorous students. To begin, I'm here at one of the dining halls at Tufts University to introduce my students about their experiences with the dining facility. My name is Phoebe, I'm a vegetarian, and I go to Tufts University. For breakfast today, I had some pancakes. Other options are not many options. They have oatmeal. They also have some yogurt. They also have a toaster, but no bread in sight. For lunch today, they didn't have any tofu, so I just had to walk away with no protein on my plate. This conversation made me curious. Is this just how vegetarians and vegans eat on college campuses? To answer this question, we're headed all the way to the West Coast to talk to UCSC's Brianna Van Otterloo. My name's Brianna Van Otterloo. I'm the food safety and nutrition specialist for dining services. That position was newly created about just over five years ago, so I'm actually the first person who's held that position. I've been doing almost all of the menu planning for campus, and my general role is to support the executive chef and make sure that we have a good menu mix, not just in terms of vegan and vegetarian versus meat options, but also gluten-free, top-line allergen-free, things that students can eat when they're dealing with more serious medical issues, maybe like Crohn's or IBS. I'm also the person who meets with students that are coming with medical needs and kind of try to ascertain what we can do to support them, what things we already have available, if there's any changes we can make in the dining halls that could better support them, and if we do need to seek additional accommodations outside of dining halls and on-campus dining. Gosh, wow. You must have a ton of free time. Absolutely. Yay. So, what got you interested? I also support a dining sustainability goal, which I know I think what we'll be talking about today. A lot of that is identifying appropriate chico ware and things of that nature, but then also looking at our product. Can we find things that maybe are in bulk and, you know, therefore have better packaging or, you know, we've worked with companies that do, there's a lot more companies that are doing give-back programs. So, we've purchased from a company called Happy Day, and then in turn, they're working with our basic needs department and donating back to students that are struggling with food insecurity and women in that age group around body image and eating and all of that. And so, I was really trying to work on my relationship with food, and I would challenge myself to, you know, find a vegetable that I've never used before. And it was really easy when I worked at the grocery store because people would buy these vegetables that they hadn't seen, and I'd say, what are you doing with this? And then I'd get that, and I'd take it home and try whatever one of my customers had told me. I'd love if you could talk a little bit about what it was like to view the dining hall, how it's changed in comparison to when you were at school. Yeah. Coming back to dining services after having worked in other kitchens and with other cooking spaces as well as cooking philosophy, it's been really interesting to see how dining has evolved. I feel like when I was a student, it was a little bit repetitive. There was a pizza station every day, the grill station every day, the taqueria station every day, and then an entree plus, you know, your salad bar, deli bar, and desserts. And since I've come on, I've really pushed and just making sure that for every entree that we have, if it's a meat-based entree, that we do have a vegan alternative. When I started, there was a lot of like, oh, we have a vegan option. There's tofu. There's tempeh. And, well, I work with vegan students who can't have soy, for example, and so how can we get things that aren't just like, oh, we threw some sauce on some tofu, but something that's actually exciting and nourishing and not just the same every day and provides like a good whole food protein component. We also do a little bit of student outreach with a group of students called the Foodies, and we had like a, for a whole quarter, we would rotate through our different dining halls. We have five dining halls on campus, and we hosted what we called Veggie Voices. So any student that was following or interested in following a vegan or vegetarian diet was invited to come to these sort of open office hours and just get feedback on what they liked, what they didn't like, what they'd like to see more of. It sounds like the student perspective is really important when you're considering menu renovations and new items for the menu. Is there any sustainability goals or maybe like some school-wide or system-wide goals that you have for dining halls and menu planning? The other thing that really does help guide our purchasing and our menuing decisions are these system-wide policies and initiatives. And when I say system-wide, I'm referring to the entire UC system, so the 10 university campuses plus the five health centers. We have what we call, it's like our sustainable practices policy, but basically we're being asked to have campuses to procure at least 25% of what's considered sustainable foods based on the HGSTARS criteria. And that's not exclusively plants, but it does really prioritize plants. And so it is actually a lot easier to meet those requirements through plant-based spend versus meat or dairy. You know, those are options. So, you know, it does come from students, from sort of like the ground up, and it also comes from the top down. You're listening to the Plant Powered Podcast. We'll be right back. After talking to Brianna, I was still confused. Are alternative proteins only a thing in dining halls at schools on the West Coast? Is California really the head of the trend? As a born and bred New Englander, this prospect was alarming. East Coast, West Coast. Just kidding. But to answer this question, I went to one of the dining halls at Harvard to see what I could find. Hi, my name is Candice, and I am a vegan. I'd love to hear a little bit about what a day of eating looks like for you as a BU student. So this morning, I went to one of my favorite dining halls on campus, and there's a lot of options available. But today, I decided to go with a breakfast sausage. And all of the options that BU offers are – there's also like a plant-based option, so I ended up getting plant protein breakfast sausage with a tofu scramble and a side of avocado. I would say that sometimes the food's not super ripe. While there's always a lot of variety, I would say that, like, it does feel unbalanced in terms of people who do eat meat. There's just, like, even more options, which doesn't necessarily feel fair. But yeah, I feel like I'm pretty eating well. What I learned today was that no one school has it perfect. Alternative protein is a newly emerging field that's working at warp speed to meet the needs of the ever-growing population of vegans and vegetarians that populate college campuses. Vegan food doesn't have to be boring or tasteless. There's so much to be explored. With a plethora of environmental benefits, making a commitment to vegan and vegetarian students is also a commitment to the planet. So, whether you're a lifelong vegan, a curious omnivore, or somewhere in between, I invite you to keep exploring, keep learning, and keep sharing the joy of vegan food with those around you. Thanks for tuning in. I'm Sienna, and you're listening to the Plant-Powered Podcast. Until next time, happy eating! you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you