Since my letter “What would it look like if we started over? Bringing sustainable food to OSU” was published in October, fellow students reached out to express their own interest in replacing the mayonnaise and cookies in our dining halls with Hampton Creek products. Seeing that this was a widely held sentiment, I started a Change.org petition to encompass the campus interest and encourage University Dining Services to invest in more sustainable food products. That was over a month ago, and today more than 700 current and former OSU students have supported the initiative. Since then, University Dining Services has taken notice and scheduled a meeting with me.

As the petition momentum shows, sustainability is an issue close to the hearts of OSU students, staff and faculty. Today, I am asking for more of you to join me and more than 700 others in this movement. Make your voice heard! Let dining services know that switching out one or two products to far more sustainable alternatives is something that, like me, you wholeheartedly support. While many universities nationwide seem to be doing more and more to reduce carbon emissions and environmental degradation, we at OSU have work to do. With more than 60,000 students, we have a massive effect on the environment. Luckily, this puts us in a unique situation — any small improvement holds far-reaching effects.

We have the power to reduce our carbon emissions by millions of grams each year — like Yale, Harvard, Cornell, University of Illinois, University of Wisconsin, Connecticut College and hundreds of other schools have. Hampton Creek products are delicious, sustainable and affordable. It is for these reasons that I ask my fellow OSU students, staff and faculty to continue to voice their support of this initiative. We can make sustainability a reality.

 

Stephanie Sopczak

Third-year in anthropology