Skip to Content, Navigation, or Footer.

The Daily Root offers vegan options on all ASU campuses

Daily Root
Daily Root is an alternative for vegans in the Pitchforks dining hall, Tuesday, Apr. 21st, 2015 at Daily Root in Tempe.

The Memorial Union’s dining facility opened its newest plant-based station, The Daily Root, at the beginning of the spring semester, officially offering ASU’s first vegan-friendly meal source.

The Daily Root has since spread across all four campuses, giving every student access to daily, balanced vegan meals within their residential communities, which raised the University’s PETA vegan report card from a C to an A.

Following the station’s immediate success, Sun Devil Dining nutritionist Satiria Clayton said The Daily Root will return in upcoming years.

“The Daily Root has been a great success, and we are excited to work with students to continuously grow our plant-based options at all residential restaurants,” she said in an email.

However, plant-based food wasn’t always accessible on campus.

Political science sophomore Katherine Gross, president of VEGaware, said she found ASU’s vegan dining hall options severely lacking prior to recent updates.

Gross and her club formed a petition last semester to make the dining facilities more accessible for vegan students, which eventually led to The Daily Root’s creation.

“Aramark was very receptive in creating new options,” she said. “It was a very easy process because they agreed that ASU needs more vegan options for the sake of (students) on campus.”

Providing vegan options on campus is one way for ASU to support animal rights, Gross said.

“Every year, billions of animals are slaughtered in the oppressive factory farming industry,” she said. “The most important thing that someone can do to fight the abuses of these farms is go vegan.”

Gross said college students are at a prime age to experiment with a vegan diet.

“College students have open minds, are usually open to trying new things and are most likely becoming aware of social issues, and this is pretty much the age where a lot of people start making life choices that will last them a lifetime,” she said.

Going vegan has become increasingly popular among college students. Aramark, ASU’s food provider, found that 25 percent of college students said vegan option availability is “important” to them in 2004.

Gross said she was impressed by how easily ASU implemented its new vegan options.

“This is a huge victory for animals and the environment,” she said. “It really told me that ASU takes the well being of their students very seriously … and I was nothing short of ecstatic about that.”

Biochemistry freshman Emily Kurtyan, VEGaware’s vice president, said students are now more likely to explore veganism because its selection is more readily available.

“It’s becoming more popular lately for people to just eat more plant-based products in general,” she said. “Having more vegan options in the dining hall makes that more possible.”

As for further developments at The Daily Root, Kurtyan said she and her peers look forward to what the station will offer in the future.

“We’re just so grateful that it’s there to begin with,” she said. “I feel confident over time that the varieties will get better and better.”

Reach the reporter at aplante@asu.edu or follow her on Twitter @aimeenplante.

Like The State Press on Facebook and follow @statepress on Twitter.


Continue supporting student journalism and donate to The State Press today.

Subscribe to Pressing Matters



×

Notice

This website uses cookies to make your experience better and easier. By using this website you consent to our use of cookies. For more information, please see our Cookie Policy.