About 250 students took a one-day “Veg Pledge” Wednesday and avoided eating meat for 24 hours to raise awareness of issues surrounding vegetarianism.

Non-vegetarians sacrificed meat for the event, while vegetarians also gave up their regular diet and went vegan for a day. VegAware at ASU hosted the event and provided a free vegan meal at the Tempe campus for any students participating in the pledge.

VegAware Co-Founder Caitlin Joseph said the event’s main purpose was to raise awareness about vegetarianism and allow students a chance to try a diet with less meat.

“Students are coming to this event just to celebrate the sacrifice they made today and to learn more about the issues surround vegetarianism,” Joseph said. “They also get to try some really good vegan food, and maybe in the future they might consider eating a diet with less meat.”

At the free dinner, catered by vegetarian caterer Devil Spice, students discussed their vegetarian and vegan experiences with each other and asked leaders of VegAware questions about vegetarianism.

Biological sciences freshman Christopher Orozco took the one-day pledge and said he enjoyed the free vegan dinner and could become vegetarian.

“I thought being vegetarian was going to be hard, but it surprisingly wasn’t,” he said. “I would consider being vegetarian. I’d just need to know what to look out for.”

Music theory sophomore Stephanie Miller, a vegetarian for 14 years, said there are many reasons why people become vegetarians.

“I became vegetarian when I was little for animals, but now it’s for sustainability, for animal rights and to end world hunger.”

Miller became vegan for the day, meaning she could eat no milk, butter, honey or animal products of any kind. She said she wishes people would be more accepting of vegetarians.

“People get defensive and usually attack our lifestyle by saying that meat is necessary to live,” Miller said. “We grow up learning that milk makes you strong and you need meat for protein, that’s not true. I just want people to acknowledge and treat us equally.”

Miller said vegetarians simply live a different lifestyle and are not trying to enforce their beliefs on others.

“We’re not trying to debunk anyone else,” she said. “We’re not saying we’re superior. It’s just a lifestyle we choose to live, and it’s out of respect for animals and the environment.”

Many vegetarians choose the lifestyle in protest of factory farming and the meat industry, Joseph said. VegAware leaders said the meat industry’s practices treat animals unethically, while also damaging the environment.

“The meat industry is really embedded in our society and, honestly, I’d say it’s doubtful they’re even noticing what we’re doing today, but other people are,” Joseph said. “It’s spreading awareness one way or another.”

Reach the reporter at snrodri2@asu.edu.