Mystery Meat Yields to Greener Meals in Maine College Dining Halls (Portland Pres Herald)

Harissa chickpea and vegetable stew with golden raisin couscous and green beans, one of the many vegan, locally-sourced dishes regularly served at College of the Atlantic.

Whole grains are huge. Salad means more than vegetables. Vegetarianism is popular among the class of 2019. And everyone is eating more vegan food.

That’s the word from college dining directors as the new academic year gets underway.

At Colby College in Waterville, associate dining director Joseph Klaus said 15 percent of this year’s incoming freshmen report they follow a vegetarian diet. A much higher percentage of students opt for the vegetarian dishes served on campus each day.

Roasted delicata squash stuffed with kale, rice, quinoa, walnuts and gruyere cheese, served with local broccoli (squash and kale from COA's Beech Hill Farm) makes for a delicious lunch at Take-a-Break.

“As a whole, all students have grasped a more plant-based diet and are eating less meat and more vegetables and grains,” Klaus said.

Bowdoin College dining director Mary Lou Kennedy doesn’t have precise statistics, she does “know the volume of vegetarian entrees and salads we go through keeps getting higher.…”

Co-director of food services Lise Desrochers.The Brunswick college, which topped this year’s Princeton Review list for the best college food, features two dining halls that always serve vegetarian and vegan meals, including six varieties of housemade veggie burgers.

Lise Desrochers, who serves as co-director of food services at the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, has noticed more vegetarians this year among the incoming freshman than last. College of the Atlantic earned its No. 5 spot on Princeton Review’s best college food list this year by, among other things, devoting one-third of its menu to vegetarian food.

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