Plant-Based Eating Review: Allison Dining Hall

Common vegetarian offerings from Sargent dining hall for breakfast (left) and lunch (right). Credit: Lindsey Nickel

For the next steps of Real Food Real Talk as a column, I am going to be exploring the different plant-based eating options at each of the dining halls. I am personally vegetarian, so I will be eating vegetarian options for a full day as the basis for each of my articles, but I will also be considering vegan options as part of my analysis. I hope that, through this, I will be able to help students find the best options on campus for eating plant-based. 

 The first dining hall I will be exploring is Allison. I did a full day’s eating at Allison and then reflected on what I had eaten, the quality of the plant-based food, and the variety. Overall I had a good experience, but I am also used to going to Allison the most because it is the closest to my dorm on south campus.

For breakfast I had scrambled eggs, an orange, and a yogurt bowl with granola, hemp seeds, and nutritional yeast. I feel as though this is a pretty good selection for vegetarians. I like to try and get protein with my breakfast.  As a vegetarian, yogurt and eggs are great for this, and I’m glad they are offered every day. However, for vegans there is not much in the way of protein, only the same tofu scramble that is always offered. Recently, Allison has been lacking plant-based meat options, and the vegan pancakes/french toast are noticeably inferior to their non-vegan counterparts. I would give Allison a 7/10 for breakfast, because there are good non-meat options, but they are rather repetitive dishes especially for vegans. 

For lunch I had some sweet potatoes, french fries, chickpeas, rice, corn, and a banana. This was a completely vegan meal, and I was pleasantly surprised with the variety of options available. All of these items are somewhat staple at Allison, but there is still a high variety, from chickpeas for protein to healthy starches like sweet potatoes. There are great opportunities to eat plant-based, and healthily, in all food groups. 8.5/10 for lunch. 

For dinner, I had some paow (fake chicken) with rice and peas, as well as au gratin potatoes, spring mix salad, some grapes and cubed pineapple, and a cookie. I was very happy with this dinner selection. Allison has been doing the best job of any of the dining halls at having a variety of meat substitutes, especially recently. They have tofu, tempeh, paow, and other fake meat on a regular rotating basis, all of which are great sources of protein. They are also good at providing different types of potatoes and healthy grains. 9/10 for dinner. 

Overall I will give Allison an 8/10 for plant-based eating. They have repetitive offerings at times, and sometimes lack protein choices for vegans, but usually they have a nice variety and various options that make plant-based eating accessible for everyone.