Laying off the Meats and Cheeses? Here are Elon’s Best On-Campus Vegan Options

“I chose to go vegan on a whim junior year of high school as a personal challenge,” recounts Francesca Pucci ‘21. “It was after a week of successfully being on a vegan diet that I decided to educate myself and watch some documentaries about the health, environmental, and moral benefits. After learning about all these things and realizing that being vegan for a week hadn’t been that tough, I decided I’d stick with it.”

Pucci has been a vegan for four years now and was excited to answer some questions to help other vegan students find quality options around campus. 

Since her freshman year in 2017, each dining hall has changed substantially and she argues that Elon has improved significantly at providing vegan options.

“Even just the little things like always having at least one vegan option at late night, which they never used to have freshman year, Pucci said, “They also just added vegan ‘impossible meat’ at Qdoba this year!”

When following the vegan diet, people sometimes struggle to get their necessary protein, but Pucci believes that “the dining halls have plenty of nuts, beans, leafy greens, and vegan meat replacements to meet protein requirements for sure”

Pucci has no trouble using her meal plan around campus, and doesn’t think she spends any more money on food than the average student. 

She “can confidently say that every single dining hall at Elon has at least one vegan section,” which allows vegan students to find suitable food with ease.

Pucci’s personal favorite dining hall is McEwen because she loves their “salad and potato bar and their vegan section always has a lot of variety. Some days they have curry chickpeas, some vegan chilli, even vegan barbecue.”