Tag Archives: food service

Vegan options for the Coast Guard

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Green beans being cooked at the Coast Guard Academy

The U.S. Coast Guard’s Yorktown Training Center has embraced vegan food options in its dining facility. From passionfruit panna cotta to Beyond Bolognese, students at the training center can now delight in high-quality vegan dishes. They launched the vegan program during COVID-19, when vegan trainees were unable leave the base to seek alternative food sources, with Petty Officer 2nd Class Ian Swoveland, a culinary specialist, serving as the brains and hands behind these dining options.

The menu is so popular that it attracts more diners than just the vegan students. Since Yorktown is one of the largest Coast Guard training centers in the country, the success of its vegan meal program is sure to have an impact on other locations. We have previously reported on other military installations offering vegan options, but overall there’s a lack of vegan options across U.S. military dining facilities and in rations. Sometimes a military member is forced to bring their own food to the field to self support, due to lack of options due to a lack of vegan Meals Ready to Eat (MREs).

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Universities Veg-up this Fall

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University of WashingtonCollege just got more veg friendly. Aramark, the nation’s largest campus food service company, is increasing its vegetarian and vegan options after a survey it commissioned showed that over a quarter of students said that vegan options were important to them. This is great news for students at local colleges and universities such as the University of Washington

Aramark has over 80 vegan entrees available for incorporation into their residential menus. The line up includes dishes such as Tofu-Potato Hash, Vegan Home Style Pancakes and Spiced Breakfast Quinoa to Southwest Sweet Potato, Butternut & Black Bean Chili, and Chickpea Panchmael. There’s even vegan snickerdoodles for dessert.

About 40% of  students say that the ability to customize meals is one of the top five most important attributes at limited service restaurants, so Aramark is planning on setting up veg action stations where students can design their own made-to-order dishes.

Formerly the focus of many a joke and horror story, we’re happy to see the improvements in college dining. We’ll spare the students the usual rant about how boomers used to have to walk five miles in the snow to campus only to get a serving of motor oil and sawdust!