Mean Greens Dining in Cattle Country?
If I describe a scene for you of college-aged young adults enjoying freshly made biscuits and gravy for breakfast – chocolate gravy that is and not sausage gravy - where do you think this might be taking place? If I described the same group of eager and hungry students waiting and watching as enticing meals of freshly roasted vegetables are prepared before their eyes, and where nearly everyone one of them will leave the cafeteria holding a soy-based soft serve ice cream cone for their dessert, would you assume they are in Boston? Perhaps LA, or NYC, or San Francisco?
Wrong! The scene is taking place daily on a university campus in Denton TX! Yes, you have read that correctly! This vegan dining experience is featured at the new Mean Greens dining hall at the University of North Texas in Denton. Named to honor the UNT Mean Green football team, this popular new dining hall might be a surprise to many since it is located in an area described as “Texas Cattle Country.”
No animal products are used or served in this new dining hall, and that includes not only meat but also eggs and milk. Instead students and faculty/staff have options including vitamin water, bowls of vegetable soups, vegetable sushi, and much more. They have paninis made from freshly baked focaccia along with aromatic and freshly roasted vegetables seared on the griddle before their eyes. There are some 20 plus choices on the lunch menu alone in this vegan dining hall.
Does this mean that Cattle Country’s UNT is largely attended by students who are vegan? Not the case, they simply like the healthy choices offered at this innovative dining hall and as one student is quoted as saying “It’s healthy. I was just trying not to gain the freshman 15, but I actually like it!” Well, there you have it. The university states that many students, though not vegans, simply want to eat healthy and find this is their dining hall of choice.
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