Old Dominion University Student Nets PETA Award

PETA Campus Representative Na’sha Robertson Persuaded School to Open Its First All-Vegan Café

For Immediate Release:
December 5, 2019

Contact:
Nicole Meyer 202-483-7382

A Star Student Activist Award is on its way from PETA to Old Dominion University (ODU) junior Na’sha Robertson, a PETA campus representative who pushed the school to set up its first fully vegan on-campus eatery, the Vegan Café. Options at the café include sloppy Joes, mushroom street tacos with cilantro cream sauce, tofu fajitas, and much more. The addition of the café brought ODU’s score up from a B to an A on PETA’s Vegan Report Card, which ranks universities across the country based on their animal-friendly dining options.

“It took a lot of hard work from a lot of dedicated people, but in the end I think ODU is glad it took the step,” says Robertson. “I’m grateful to everyone who helped make our school a kinder place for animals.”

“From vegan chicken paella to Mexican casserole, the Vegan Café is showing students at ODU just how delicious vegan eating can be, and it’s all thanks to Na’sha,” says PETA Senior Director of Youth Programs Marta Holmberg. “PETA is honoring her for being an animal ally—and thanking ODU for embracing healthy, humane, and eco-friendly vegan fare.”

In today’s meat, egg, and dairy industries, chickens’ throats are cut while they’re still conscious, piglets are castrated without painkillers, and mother cows are separated from their beloved babies shortly after birth. In addition to combating deforestation, decreasing their own carbon footprint, and sparing the lives of nearly 200 animals a year, each person who goes vegan reduces their risk of suffering from heart disease, diabetes, cancer, obesity, and other health conditions.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org.