Gourmet Dining Kicks off the New Year with Meatless Monday Campaign

Madison, NJ (January 5, 2012) – As part of its commitment to provide students, faculty, and staff with healthy, sustainable fare, Gourmet Dining is starting out the New Year by participating in the Meatless Monday initiative, a multinational effort supported by the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health to promote environmental sustainability, animal welfare and human health. Gourmet Dining offers meat-free meals in its university accounts seven days a week and will participate in Meatless Monday by offering an increased number of vegetarian meals every Monday and encouraging diners to give them a try.

Starting in January 2012, Gourmet Dining will implement Meatless Monday at all of its accounts including Seton Hall University, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Kean University, Fairleigh Dickinson University, Bergen Community College, Caldwell Community College, New Jersey City University, and Manhattan College.

“Gourmet Dining is committed to ensuring the good health of our students, and being a good steward to our planet and animals, which is why we’re participating in Meatless Monday,” said Julie Aiello, director of marketing and sustainability for Gourmet Dining. “The New Year is a time for people to make a fresh start and resolve to make healthier habits. We hope that eating meat-free meals at the start of each week will help our guests make healthier, more humane eating decisions throughout the week.”

Josh Balk, outreach director of farm animal protection for the Humane Society of the United States praised Gourmet Dining’s participation in Meatless Monday saying, “Farm animals are individuals with distinct personalities and have the capacity to suffer, yet on factory farms, they are often treated more like machines. Going meat-free one day a week can help protect animals and the planet at the same time.”

Many individuals and institutions are going meatless on Monday out of concern for the billions of animals who are raised for the dinner table. Going meat-free one day a week can help improve public health too: People who eat fewer animal products have lower rates of weight gain, dementia, arthritis, high blood pressure, kidney disease, and other health problems.

A 2011 report issued  by Environmental Working Group recommended eating less meat and cheese due to the vast amounts of chemical fertilizers, fuel, pesticides, feed, and water their production requires. And the UN estimates the meat, egg and dairy industries generate a huge portion of the man-made greenhouse gas emissions that accelerate climate change.

Other Meatless Monday participants include Oprah Winfrey, Sir Paul McCartney, Gwyneth Paltrow, Russell Simmons, Simon Cowell, and Al Gore; dozens of colleges and universities; hospitals; and the entire Baltimore Public School System. For more information, see The Humane Society of the United States’ Guide to Meat-Free Meals.