Arizona State’s New ‘Daily Root’ Vegan Dining Stations Net PETA Award

Massive peta2 Campaign Prompts Largest University in the U.S. to Offer Plant-Based Meals for Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner Seven Days a Week

For Immediate Release:
January 9, 2015

Contact:
Sophia Charchuk 202-483-7382

Last semester, thousands of Arizona State University (ASU) students joined Katherine Gross (the campus representative for peta2, PETA’s youth division) in rallying for more vegan dining options on campus—and this semester, their efforts are paying off. The first of ASU’s new all-vegan stations, Daily Root, will open in the Memorial Union on Monday, with ASU’s other dining halls to follow suit later this semester. Students will be able to enjoy meat-, egg-, and dairy-free fare for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert every single day, and the first week’s menu is mouthwatering: Vegan waffles, “chicken” linguine, tofu stir-fry, and “beef” enchiladas are just a few of the meals that will be offered.

And in addition to bumping up ASU’s rating on peta2’s Vegan Report Card from a C to an A, the move has netted the school a Compassionate Campus Award from peta2, whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat.”

“peta2 hears every day from students who want their colleges to offer vegan meals, and Arizona State’s Daily Root stations are the perfect example of how it can be done,” says peta2 Director Marta Holmberg. “As the nation’s largest university, Arizona State will surely inspire schools across the country to follow in its footsteps and start satisfying students’ hunger for food that’s healthy, humane, and eco-friendly.”

In the last year, Gross gathered more than 2,200 student signatures on a petition that called for more vegan options for “health, the environment, and animals,” and she and her student group, VegAware, are working with ASU dining services to develop and promote the new vegan options.

Students who choose vegan meals reduce their carbon footprints; spare animals immense suffering on farms, in slaughterhouses, and on the decks of fishing boats; and protect their own health, as vegans are less prone to developing heart disease, obesity, diabetes, and cancer than meat-eaters are.

For more information, please visit peta2.com.