Last week, The Herald’s editorial staff went to a journalism conference in Mississippi. Since one of our party members is vegan and another gluten-free and lactose intolerant, we asked the president of the conference if there would be dining options for them at the awards banquet. “Sure,” he said. “It’s a buffet,” he said. And we believed him.
You can imagine our surprise when we arrived to find that the buffet consisted of a salad covered in cheese, breaded chicken, bread pudding, buttermilk mashed potatoes and a beef dish. The only “option” without meat, cheese or bread was a tray of unseasoned boiled vegetables.
A 2018 article from Food Insight found that, of American consumers surveyed, 24% followed a diet that was “at least somewhat restrictive of carbohydrates.” According to a 2012 article from Verywell Health, gluten sensitivity affects 6% to 7% of the U.S. population.
In 2019, Vegan Bits surveyed 11,000 adults in the U.S. and estimated that 0.5% of the U.S. population is vegan. These numbers may seem small, but remember that 0.5% of the U.S. population is still about 1.62 million people.
A list from Happy Cow found 164 different vegan and vegetarian restaurants in the state of Arkansas (of which Jonesboro has 12). The fact of the matter is that we can’t simply ignore the presence of people with dietary restrictions.
I said in an article last year that we can’t expect everyone on the planet to suddenly become vegan. But I also don’t think that we can expect every vegan to magically come up with their own dining options for every event.
Unless you expect every person with a dietary issue to carry around a lunch box full of food to every banquet event, you should plan your banquets to be friendly to those with dietary issues, especially if you know that people with dietary issues will be attending.
“But Lily,” you ask, “how can we possibly accommodate every single dietary issue?” Well, the first step when planning a food event is to ask the people in attendance if they have any restrictions — a no brainer.
The second step is to actually take those restrictions into consideration when planning your menu. The thought on your mind should be, “If I had X restriction, could I have a full meal with what’s on this menu?” If the answer is no, fix your menu. If you would still be starving after a meal where the only thing you can eat is boiled vegetables, then don’t make that the only option for the vegans who already warned you they would be attending.
If you really want to make things easy, make your dishes as customizable as possible. A bowl of plain lettuce with bacon bits and cheese on the side leaves salad options open for everyone.
Above all, remember the Golden Rule: Treat others as you’d like to be treated. Or, in this case, feed others as you’d like to be fed.
Categories: Opinion
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