Claire Holman, an ESL teacher at USM and a vegetarian, recently discovered that the yogurt parfaits in the cafeteria aren’t vegetarian friendly. They contain gelatin, which is used to give the yogurt its consistency. Gelatin is made from the bones and sinews of animals – usually cows and pigs.
“Because it’s a meatless food it should be a vegetarian dish,” said Holman. It wasn’t until a friend said something that she realized she should have asked about the ingredients sooner.
Aramark sells Stony Field yogurt right next to the parfaits. Holman said having the vegetarian yogurt next to the parfait had lead her to assume both foods were vegetarian-friendly.
“If there was another way to go I would change it just like that,” said Chris Kinney, food service director of the Portland campus. ARAMARK’s distributor in Portland, Sysco, doesn’t offer a yogurt in bulk that is vegetarian friendly.
John George, Aramark’s executive chef in Gorham, says he’s received complaints over the yogurt parfaits.
“I’ve been going to Hannaford and buying StonyField plain yogurt for them,” he said. He makes the parfaits with the vegetarian-friendly yogurt by request.
Both Kinney and George said that they would change to using vegetarian friendly yogurt in the parfaits if they could purchase it in bulk.
Kinney said alternative diet products should be combined into one clearly marked area. He said he would like to see different items put together where “people could feel they’d made the right choice that day.”
For Holman the issue extends beyond the yogurt parfaits and segregating vegetarian friendly foods.
“I’m a little distressed at the fast food emphasis,” she said. “The University should be a leader, and emulating fast food restaurants is the antithesis of leadership in food service.”
Students interviewed at the Woodbury Campus center said they were happy with the food overall.
“They have as much as you would expect,” said Edward Erikson, a Political Science major and a vegetarian. “They have mildly fresh vegetables that you can put into a sandwich and they have hummus.” He also said he didn’t feel it would be good for him to get his meals from the cafeteria everyday.
Other, non-vegetarian, students said they were satisfied with the cafeteria. “It’s excellent here,” said Craig Robinson, a Nursing major. He says the food is much better than Portland Hall’s cafeteria, which he described as “mediocre.”
“I think there’s a pretty good variety for not being a huge place,” said Melissa Toohey, a Sports Medicine major.
“Where we have a real problem is the darn space,” said Kinney, the campus center’s food director. He said that he would love to see a whole new campus center built, with much more room for the cafeteria. With more space “we can have different types of concepts that can be more inclusive.”