Canadian universities aim to boost plant-based options on menus in 2024 to meet student demand

Before he went to Western University, Parum Patel’s family warned him that vegetarian food on campus would be hard to find. But now, Patel says, all he has to do is walk into one the school’s seven dining halls.

At the university in London, Ont., vegan chicken fingers, sweet potato stew and chili tofu are just a few of the options on the menu.

“It’s nice not to have to resort to cold or pre-made foods all the time. There are always options for warm, fresh food,” said Patel, a first-year student.

Universities across the country are introducing more plant-based food in their dining halls, something institutions say is an ongoing demand from students for more variety and a larger push for more sustainable practices.

At Western, students are the driving force behind the increase in vegan and vegetarian meals.The university set a goal of having a 40 per cent plant-based menu at all dining halls by the new year, but it hit the target — and at some points even surpassed it — this year. A fully vegan outlet will open in 2024, and the school wants to reach a 50 per cent target in 2025.

Colin Porter, director of hospitality services at Western, said when students initially complained about the lack of nutritious and healthy options, the school had to “take responsibility and align with sustainability values.”

The push to have more plant-based menus on campuses is happening across the country. At the University of British Columbia, 55 per cent of the food in dining halls is plant-based, and the Vancouver school hopes to reach a goal of 80 per cent by 2025. Also that year, Concordia University in Montreal plans to reduce its purchase of meat, dairy and eggs by 30 per cent.

Similarly, Dalhousie University in Halifax aims to offer a menu with at least 50 per cent plant-based food options by 2030. And while plant-based options represented less than half of the University of Toronto’s food services offerings two years ago, they now account for 61 per cent.

A plant-based menu is the No. 1 priority for university food services in Canada: chef

David Speight, the executive chef and culinary director of food services at UBC, explains how 55 per cent of the university’s menu is plant-based — and what this represents for universities in Canada.

From side dish to ‘star of the show’

In addition to meeting student demand, training chefs to prepare these meals was a big challenge, said some in the food services field.

“The plant-based aspect is often the side dish to a meat, chicken or seafood dish, and not the star of the show,” said David Speight, UBC’s food services executive chef and culinary director.

Western University’s executive chef, Kristian Crossen, agreed. Even as professionals in the industry, many did not know how to prepare a full plant-based meal because it was not on the curriculum when they went to culinary school, he said.

Both UBC and Western teamed up with chefs who specialize in plant-based cuisine to learn recipes, build a new skill set and bridge the knowledge gap of cooking without meat, dairy and seafood.

Dietitians joined the effort to ensure the meals were rich in protein and nutritionally balanced.

That collaboration allowed chefs to expand their repertoire and serve the community, but also enjoy the process of trial and error with the students as an educational venture.

Some dishes are particularly popular, such as the smoked black bean brisket and the kimchi fried rice, Crossen said.

Chefs are always learning as they expand their repertoire. “We’re starting to feel the influence from our student base, and we’re committed to the sustainability efforts of our universities,” he said.

‘You have to look at the whole food system’

Other than accommodating student preferences, the damaging environmental impact of animal-based agriculture is another reason why institutions are moving toward plant proteins.

According to a study that appeared in the journal Nature Food, animal-based products represented almost half of total food-related greenhouse gas emissions globally, about twice as much as plant-based products.

Western University’s Porter said it’s studies like this that encouraged the school to take action. The impact of food on the environment also had an influence at UBC, where a 2021 climate action plan found that food consumed on campus was the second-largest contributor to the university’s extended greenhouse gas emissions, after commuting.

The school’s sustainability department and faculty of land and food systems partnered with food services to support the shift toward more plant-based meals and help reach lower emissions targets.

But there are some experts who say the contribution of animal-based agriculture to climate change is not as straightforward as some reports suggest.

Tim McAllister, a research scientist at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, said he doesn’t think that eating more plant-based foods will significantly reduce the agricultural sector’s contribution to climate change in Canada.

“It’s quite complicated, and you have to look at the whole food system to make an assessment,” he said in an interview.

McAllister said using carbon and other greenhouse gas footprint estimates to promote plant-based agriculture can overlook important facts, such as how turning grasslands into farmland for crop cultivation releases a lot of carbon. A significant portion of fruits and vegetables found in grocery stores is also imported, with transportation costs for the environment.

Kirk Jackson, co-chair of the Canadian Cattle Association’s food policy committee, said the majority of the country’s cattle farmers produce both crops and beef cattle, and the systems depend on each other. For example, byproducts from plant crops such as canola meal and pea cream are used to feed livestock.

Is eating vegan really better for the environment?

Want to reduce your carbon footprint? Consider curbing how much meat you eat. A new peer-reviewed study out of Oxford University in the U.K. says that people who eat a vegan diet are responsible for 75 per cent less greenhouse gas emissions than meat eaters.

“This interconnected nature of growing food maximizes the use and distribution of nutrients, minimizes waste and results in a strong circular production system,” Jackson said in a statement to CBC News.

The Chicken Farmers of Canada said producers play their part to advance sustainability. In a statement, the association said that chicken farmers lowered their carbon footprint by 37 per cent over the last 40 years and that 62 per cent of the energy used to raise chickens comes from renewable sources such as solar energy and biomass.

“The most important thing is that people eat a nutritionally well-balanced, diverse diet,” McAllister said. “That can be obtained when you’re eating both meat and plant materials and with the vegetarian diet — you just have to make sure you have the nutrients required.”

Universities still consider the increase of plant-based menu items a good step to reduce their environmental footprint. Chartwells Canada, a large food provider to campuses across the country, said including more plant-based options caters to student demand and helps achieve a commitment to reach net-zero emissions by 2050.

Focus on education, local economies

Both the Canadian Cattle Association and the Chicken Farmers of Canada said they have seen no consumer-driven shifts and that demand for meat continues to grow.

At UBC, the increase in plant-based dishes pushed other students to ask for more meat options on the menu.

Chefs say they will continue to offer meat and work to accommodate all students. “Our goal isn’t trying to turn people into vegetarians or vegans,” the UBC’s Speight said.

Instead, a number of schools aim to educate people about their food choices with new strategies, such as food labelling.

UBC recently introduced its “climate-friendly” label, and the University of Calgary’s food provider has a new “spotlight” label program that identifies dishes that produce fewer emissions. Magdalena Goss, U of C’s associate director of food, hotel and conference services, said the school also wants to encourage more ethical purchases, such as ocean-wise and fair trade-certified food.

But for the universities taking on these sustainable goals, it also means investing in their communities.

At the University of Saskatchewan, priority is given to seasonal foods from farmers nearby “to reduce the environmental impact, provide fresh ingredients and to strengthen Saskatchewan’s and Canada’s economies,” the school said in a statement.

McAllister said promoting local food producers is a positive step that helps reduce food-related transportation emissions. “It contributes to regional economies and makes people more in touch with food production, which is something you’ve lost over the years as people moved to urbanized settings.”

Almost half of UBC’s food purchases are from the province, and Speight said the school tries to buy from small-scale businesses close to campus as much as possible. Western University also collaborates with local purveyors.

“We want to be leaders within our industry, and people are probably looking at us,” Porter said. “Why wouldn’t we be the ones who take that leap of faith and show others a way forward.”