"Coming into Penn, not all of us really knew that much about the food-related aspect of why people are vegetarian," Galli, who is now a vegan, said. He helped create PVS not only to educate college students about what's in their food, but also to guide those who, like himself, need support transitioning from eating meat to a meatless vegetarian diet or a vegan diet, which also omits dairy and eggs.
"Many more people are going through this, now more than ever," Galli said, noting that PVS has grown from 10 members at its conception to upward of 60 now.
Bon Appétit Management Co., which services Penn's dining facilities, has noticed an upswing in the number of students who say that they are vegetarian or vegan, said Terri Brownlee, the regional director of nutrition for Bon Appétit.
The company manages more than 4,000 corporate, college and university accounts. In a 2005-2006 feedback survey among college students at campuses that Bon Appétit oversees, an average of 8 percent said that they were vegetarian, and less than 1 percent identified themselves as vegan. The 2009-2010 survey, however, had very different results: 12 percent identified themselves as vegetarian and 2 percent said that they follow a vegan diet.
Likewise, on Drexel University's campus, Senior Associate Vice President for Business Services Rita LaRue Gollotti has seen a major swing in campus dining within the past 10 years.
"This is the millennial generation, and they've grown up with a lot more information on dining," said Gollotti, who came to Drexel in 1994 as a graduate student, when the dining options consisted of meat and mashed potatoes or macaroni and cheese. "They've grown up on the Food Network, catered birthday parties, and they've grown up experiencing a variety of different flavors.
