On Monday October 1, 2012, Harris Refectory served only vegetarian entrees at dinner in honor of World Vegetarian Day. World Vegetarian Day marks the beginning of the North American Vegetarian Society’s (NAVS) Vegetarian Awareness Month.
Although Conn has a strictly vegetarian and vegan dining hall on campus (Freeman Dining Hall), Director of Dining Services Mike Kmec felt that having Harris serve only vegetarian entrees for a meal would help the College raise awareness about sustainability and highlight the benefits of a vegetarian diet on the environment.
Harris advertised the celebration of National Vegetarian day three times on the Connecticut College Dining Services Facebook page, and posters made the by World Vegetarian Council were also hung in Harris a week in advance. Dining Services also advertised the World Vegetarian Council’s challenge to go meat-free for a day, week or month with the possibility of winning a cash prize.
Despite Harris’ efforts to notify the student body, some people were still unaware of the holiday and were surprised to find a purely vegetarian meal in the dining hall that night.
Kmec said he received mixed feedback from students after the meal. Students seemed to appreciate Harris’ efforts to promote vegetarianism, but were not impressed by the entrees served that night. “Yes, they accomplished their goal of providing only vegetarian options, but most of their options seemed to be the normal vegetarian options in Harris,” said Emma Weisberg ’16, “I thought they could’ve been more creative with their choices.”
Laura Ciancolo ’16, a vegetarian, said although she did not particularly enjoy the meal that Harris served, she liked that Dining Services is endorsing vegetarianism. She feels that the College does a good job of catering to the vegetarian community through the Freeman dining hall, but thinks that Harris could serve a wider variety of vegetarian options on a regular basis.
