Catamount Dining’s vegetarian and vegan options have received mixed reviews from students, leaving some satisfied and others frustrated.
WCU’s Catamount Dining includes two dining halls and several affiliated restaurants. The affiliated restaurants range in their vegetarian-friendliness from Which Wich’s fully customizable sandwiches to Panda Express’s lack of any vegetarian entrées. Panda Express formerly offered Beyond Orange Chicken but discontinued the entree nationwide in early 2023.
Meghan Dempsey, WCU’s registered dietitian, provided a statement on behalf of Catamount Dining via email.
“At Catamount Dining, we are continually working towards bettering our program and providing additional offerings that align with our students’ needs,” Dempsey wrote. “While we recognize that there is always room for improvement, we are very proud of our efforts to design menus which are inclusive of a variety of dietary needs and preferences.”
Dempsey mentioned many of the vegetarian and vegan additions Catamount Dining has added in the past year. These additions are primarily in the new Rise and Dine station in Courtyard dining hall and include vegan eggs, gluten-free waffles and pancakes, gluten-free oatmeal and dairy alternative milks.
“We have a robust selection of 30+ vegan and vegetarian recipes that are a part of our four-week menu cycle not including our daily offerings such as black bean burgers at our grill station, beyond burger patties at our Nature’s Plate station, hummus at the deli and Cajun tofu and vegan mozzarella shreds at the plant-forward station.”
One vegan student, who wishes to remain anonymous, has had an overall positive experience with Catamount Dining.
“The options at Courtyard are pretty good, and Which Wich has nice options. I only get smoothies from Freshens, but they do have a variety of them.”
However, many student vegetarians disagreed with this opinion saying that Catamount Dining’s vegetarian-friendly options are lacking.
Josie Naumowich, a pescatarian, said, “I would say my overall experience with campus dining has been negative. I think mainly Courtyard can work on being more vegetarian-friendly. And there is definitely not any variety for the vegetarian options! Just about the only things I can eat at Courtyard are pizza, burgers and salad. Like that’s just about it. So having more options would be good.”
The lack of options is an opinion held by many students.
Vitoria Domingues, another vegetarian student, has had to find ways to make Catamount Dining work for her. “I got used to having limited dining options and I adapted to the issue, which is probably a passive approach but what else could I do?” Domingues said. “I often find myself taking animal protein out and still paying the full price for an item, even though I am consuming a far less nutritional meal due to not having the plant protein substitution option.”
Domingues also shared that many of the vegetarian-friendly items that Catamount Dining offers only include tofu. She pointed out Freshens’ inclusion of meatless chicken options, offered in the Meatless Mexican rice bowl and as a substitution for other meals. She said, “Vegetarian people don’t only consume tofu and soy protein all day long. Shocker!”
Another concern of WCU vegetarians is the cross-contamination of meat and dairy products. While many students are vegetarians by choice, there are still several students who must eat vegetarian or vegan because of allergies and intolerances.
Jamie, who hopes to keep his last name anonymous, fits into this second category. Despite telling Catamount Dining-affiliated restaurants about his dairy allergy when ordering, Jamie said, “I got Freshens and made sure to order my food without cheese, but still had some shreds in there just from stuff getting mixed together.”
Students say that the lack of vegetarian-friendly options extends to events catered by Catamount Dining. According to the Catamount Dining website, “Catamount Dining is the University’s contracted food service provider and manager for all student, faculty, staff and guest dining on campus. This includes all retail sales, residential dining, and catering at WCU.”
Little information on the three catering menus is provided online. However, Domingues shared her experiences with trying to eat vegetarian at catered events.
“How difficult is it to not add meat to a mushroom soup? Or have bacon on the side instead of shoving it inside the cheese potato? I have experienced several situations where a meal that is normally made vegetarian by nature was altered to include bacon or other animal protein unnecessarily.”
While vegetarian and vegan options at WCU have improved over the past years, students are still hopeful for a continued commitment toward a more diversified vegetarian-friendly experience with Catamount Dining.
