Gone and back again: the vegan bar returns to The J

Across campus, there are many places that offer meals to everyone. The J, Cal Poly Humboldt’s central dining hall, has long been a hub for students seeking convenient meals. Earlier this semester, the vegan bar, a cart offering plant-based items, was removed, making it harder for vegan and vegetarian students to find satisfying meals on campus.

While the standalone station has been restored, the University explained they initially decided to move the vegan options from the standalone station to the main serving stations, as this shift helped consolidate operations and ensure students could find those options alongside other menu items, according to Melissa Hutsell from Marketing and Communications.

Students felt confused why the vegan bar was missing without notice. Todd Larsen, Senior Executive Director for Enterprise Services Dining, explained that the vegan bar was not necessarily removed, but merged with the main food station.

“The J Dining Hall prides itself on the variety and quantity of vegan options offered at all 3 meal periods,” Larsen said. “We offer tofu and chickpea-sourced recipes daily. We made a decision to improve the quality and level of service for our vegan options by moving the small, standalone station to the main serving stations. We are providing as much if not more vegan options than we have in the past.”

Students began noticing the changes early in the semester when vegan proteins and hot entrées disappeared from the daily rotation. Some students said they’ve found themselves eating the same small combination of foods every day.

Junior transfer student Guillermo Garcia Zacarias, who eats at The J regularly as a vegan, said the change made it difficult to maintain proper nutrition.

“It’s like what am I going to do with just tofu and oranges and rice every single day,” Zacarias said. “I talked to my doctor about it, I also talked to the health provider here at the Health Center and she wrote me a letter of support… she was like, ‘Yeah, I don’t want you to eat this’ so she wrote a letter for me to withdraw from the mandatory meal plan for next semester.”

Students who don’t have any dietary preferences at all also recognized the changes.

“I haven’t tried it yet personally, but I’m really glad to see it return because I have many vegetarian friends who have definitely been neglected by The J before, ” Taea Siegler said, post return of The J’s vegan bar.

Since the vegan bar’s return, Andrew Reynolds believes there seem to be better vegetables to choose from in the bar than in the main trays.

“The J doesn’t always make their veggie choices taste too good. Like, I would eat a lot more healthier if their vegetables tasted better, but they don’t,” Reynolds said.

Uncertainty continues as students relying on plant-based diets say they don’t know what will be available when they walk into The J each day. However, Dining Services recently confirmed that the standalone vegan bar has officially returned after being gone most of the semester.

“Beginning the week of November 17, we reopened the dedicated vegan/ vegetarian station to give students an easy-to-find location for plant-forward options. This allows us to refocus and clearly highlight our vegan offering,” Hutsell said.