The brochure, which PAWS president Jenny Palmer ’09 said she hopes will become a “yearly publication,” is meant to draw attention to the demand for vegetarian food and motivate clubs to improve and expand their meatless options.
“I know club officers are doing all they can to make their clubs the best they can be,” Palmer said. “It’s really the head chefs who need to step up.”
The booklet assigns a grade from A to F and provides a short description of the positive and negative aspects of each club’s meat-free cuisine. The reviews incorporate the dining experiences of both PAWS and eating club members and the input of club chefs.
Tower Club topped the rating list with a grade of A-, with its high-quality meatless entrees making up for a mediocre salad bar.
“I’m excited that Tower did so well,” Tower president Stephanie Burset ’09 said. “Our kitchen staff and head chef did a wonderful job responding to requests [from vegetarians].”
Terrace Club, despite what the pamphlet calls its “tree-hugging hippie stereotype,” received a D.
Palmer said that many were surprised by Terrace’s poor performance. “In this case,” Palmer explained, “the issue was really the quality of the food.”
Terrace president Jon Feyer ’09 said, “I was disappointed because we here at Terrace pride ourselves on the quality and accessibility of our vegetarian food.”
Feyer, who is a vegetarian himself, said that he nonetheless appreciates PAWS’ goals.
“I am behind PAWS’ mission 100 percent. I absolutely understand that the rankings were designed to set a very high bar and to affect change in the operating procedures of the dining facilities on campus,” he said.
Quadrangle Club was ranked lowest, with a grade of F, and was cited for both a poor salad bar and vegetarian entrees.
The grade surprised Quad president Christian Harris ’09, who said, “I don’t see how we could deserve an F ... our staff is really receptive to individual menu requests.”
“I question the veracity of this survey,” he added, “I’ll address it because we want to make everyone feel at home and comfortable in the club.”
PAWS graded each of the clubs based on a three-part system.
On 10 nights over the course of several months, an “eating committee” of PAWS members dined at each club and judged the vegetarian fare. The clubs were asked to pick the best possible days for showing off their cuisine.
Palmer named Colonial, Charter, Ivy, Tower and Cloister Inn as the most PAWS-friendly clubs, as they worked willingly with the vegetarian food critics.
“They were very helpful and really welcomed us,” she said.
The clubs that didn’t respond to PAWS’ inquiries were visited “undercover” by PAWS critics who received guest meals from friends in the clubs on randomly chosen nights.
PAWS also surveyed between 20 and 100 members from each club, though some clubs didn’t participate in this step of the process.
Finally, the head chef at each club filled out a questionnaire.
Chefs were asked if they serve vegetarian staple foods like tofu, soy milk, rice milk and chickpeas on a regular basis. The questionnaire also gauged chefs’ awareness of and dedication to serving vegetarian diners.
PAWS plans to further encourage vegetarian options at the eating clubs, hoping to involve the nonprofit group VegAdvantage, a free program that provides menu advice, culinary demonstrations and vegetarian products to organizations that want to attract more herbivores.
In the meantime, Palmer said she expects the clubs to take PAWS’ ratings into account.
Stephanie Kriston ’09, a vegetarian and member of Colonial, was less certain.
“I don’t think the clubs will change anything in an effort to increase recruitment,” she said, explaining that “people don’t [usually] decide on a club based on how good the food is.”
Feyer similarly said he did not believe Terrace’s low grade would hurt the club.
“I would be shocked if a vegetarian didn’t join Terrace just because of this,” he said.
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