University of California, Davis
OP-T2-4: Vegan Dining

UC Davis Dining Services has been offering vegetarian and vegan alternatives in Resident Dining since 1989 when there was a special dining facility devoted to vegetarian and “natural” food. Since then, many demolitions and renovations later, the menu has evolved and includes vegetarian and vegan options at all dining rooms, all meals and in the retail dining venue, the Silo, as well.

Two new ‘format dining’ facilities were opened in 2006, each including a completely vegan format called the Blue Onion. Examples of entrees served at this format currently for lunch include: Roasted Vegetable Panini, Green Curry Soup w/ Noodles, Seitan au Vin and Jungle Curry. For dinner, students enjoy such dishes as Felafel Lentil Cakes with Romescu, Mushroom strudel, Gorditas with Bean toss and Chipotle Cumin Cream or Seitan Fajitas.

The menu signage used in Resident Dining is color coded and indicates whether any given food is vegan, vegetarian, or neither using colored font.

In June 2007, the house-made vegan desserts program was launched. Examples include: peanut butter cookies, ginger snaps, chocolate raspberry bar and banana oat cookies at lunch, with orange creamsicle cake, chocolate espresso cake and oatmeal fruit nut bars at dinner. When ‘frost your own cupcake’ bar is featured, vegan cupcakes and icing are part of the set-up. When there is a ‘make your own sundae’ event, Larry and Luna’s Coconut Bliss is available. Education on why a vegan lifestyle can be beneficial to human health and the health of the planet is presented regularly to market these selections.

In September 2007, UC Davis Dining Services began offering a completely vegan grill twice a month in Resident Dining. September 2007 also marked the beginning of promotion of the Meatless Monday campaign (in conjunction with the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health) in Resident Dining.

Dining Services began producing seitan from hi-gluten flour in September 2007 for use as vegan protein in recipes. The flour used is Food Alliance certified Shephard’s Grain flour. This seitan is made in theculinary support center for use in all dining units as a vegan protein – the product can be ground, cut in strips, or used in steaks for a wide variety of meatless dishes and sandwiches.

In September 2008, a new Vegan Corner concept was established in each Resident Dining facility.

The vegan council, a student advisory group, was formed to offer suggestions and help make decisions on which foods to add to enhance the vegan corner area of the dining room. Currently offered are: sprouted wheat bread, soft tofu, vegan spread/dip (rotates daily – includes romescu, hummus, babaganoush, etc. with pita chips), tahini, seed mixture for salad/entrees, Bragg’s Liquid
Aminos, and nutritional yeast for sprinkling on anything.

In 2010, UC Davis was voted among the top 10 for PETA’s “Most Vegan Friendly American Colleges.”