NYU Students Rally for All-Vegan Dining Hall

With Support From peta2, Students Seek Permanent Vegan Menu

For Immediate Release:
April 24, 2017

Contact:
Megan Wiltsie 202-483-7382

After more than a thousand students endorsed an all-vegan cafeteria at New York University (NYU), staff at NYU’s Lipton Dining Hall agreed to test-drive a new healthy and humane menu for the next three days. Spearheaded by the student-run Animal Welfare Collective (AWC), the campaign is receiving support from peta2, PETA’s youth division, to help make the move to eco-friendly, plant-based fare permanent.

peta2 staffers will be tabling alongside NYU students outside the dining hall during the trial period, raffling off peta2 merchandise, and documenting students’ enthusiasm for the new menu on social media.

“NYU is a temple of learning, and now, one of its dining halls is on the cusp of becoming a temple of empathy and sustainability,” says peta2 Director of International Youth Outreach Ryan Huling. “peta2 is calling on schools nationwide to hear the growing demand among young people for vegan fare and to provide their students with compassionate, flesh-free dining halls.”

peta2—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—emphasizes that meat, eggs, and dairy foods contain no fiber and are loaded with artery-clogging saturated fat and cholesterol. And vegans don’t just improve their own health—each person who ditches animal-derived foods also spares more than 100 animals a year immense suffering. In addition, switching to a vegan diet is more effective at countering climate change than switching from a standard car to a hybrid.

Groups on campus that signed AWC’s petition include Earth Matters–NYU, the American Association for Blacks in Energy, the Student Animal Legal Defense Fund, and Oxfam America–NYU, among others.

For more information, please visit peta2.com.