2022 LSU Gumbo - Book - Page 153
Students petted baby goats, ate vegan foods and
listened to music in celebration of sustainability at the
recent sustainability event.
LSU dining hosted Grateful for Spring, an event
meant to celebrate and promote plant-based,
sustainable foods for students to eat during Earth
Month. The event attracted crowds of students to the
various vendors.
The event was put on by Chartwells Higher
Education Dining, the company that handles all of
LSU’s dining needs. They partnered with Campus Life
and Facility Services.
The event had several vendors serving plant-based
foods, including pizza, meatballs, pasta and churros.
There was also a petting zoo with baby animals, a
photobooth, face-painting and a flowerpot creation
station.
The event also had a “Thankful Wall” for students
to write what they are grateful for and what they can
do to be more environmentally sustainable in their
daily lives. Chartwells CEO Lisa McEuen said that they
include the wall at each of the Joyful Series events.
The recent event was the fourth installment in a
series of events Chartwells has been hosting across
hundreds of college campuses called the Joyful Series.
McEuen said the Joyful Series was created to celebrate
community in response to the COVID-19 Pandemic
harming student’s ability to interact socially.
Senior marketing director Eric Rouse said that the
Grateful for Spring event was organized to educate
students on ways to reduce food waste and to provide
students with a greater sense of community. He said
that overall, plant-based foods are better for the
environment.
“Basically, our mission today is to celebrate Stop
Food Waste Day. That’s why we offered a vegan, plantbased menu today for students just to introduce them
to that cuisine,” Rouse said.
Senior executive chef Jon Jackson said all of the
items offered at the event are offered in the LSU
dining halls. He also said that they plan to continue
hosting events from the Joyful Series in the future.
“Basically, it’s a post-COVID, kind of, ‘get back to
normalcy’ kind of event,” Jackson said. “This event is
a celebration of Earth Day. Basically, we’re trying to
feature sustainable products, sustainable zero-waste
containers, plant-based foods that we’re serving out
here today, things that go with our company mission.”
Jackson said that although plant-based foods are a
little expensive, the price is going down as demand for
them increases.
McEuen said that Chartwells hosted similar events
across the roughly 300 universities that they service
across the country. She said that each of the events
had some sort of a giveback associated with it. For the
Grateful for Spring Event, they gave the leftover food
to a local homeless shelter.
“Students are a lot more...not so much in groups
anymore and they spent a lot of alone time in COVID,
so I think this is a way to bring people back together
through food,” McEuen said.
McEuen said they are planning four more events,
two in the fall and two next spring.
Photos by Dylan Borel
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