Hendrix College Serves Up First-Ever Hearty Meatless Monday Breakfast Spread
Hendrix College, located just outside Little Rock, Arkansas, cooked up a hot plant-based breakfast idea worth sharing. Working with Meatless Monday, the dining hall served students a fully customizable and sumptuous oatmeal bar.
To celebrate National Oatmeal Day on Monday, October 30th, Cindy Mosley, Associate Director and Dietitian of Dining Services, introduced the first-ever oatmeal bar on Meatless Monday, offering a medley of fresh and dried fruit, nuts, and other delicious toppings.
Meatless Monday caught up with Cindy to discuss her decision to offer the oatmeal bar and hear the warm responses the dining hall staff received.
What inspired Hendrix to hold a Meatless Monday Breakfast event?
The last few years, our dining hall has been working with The Monday Campaigns to create events and ideas to encourage students to take a break from meat one day a week. The focus has been with lunch and dinner options – never for breakfast. I felt it was time to encourage some additional choices and find ways to encourage students to make whole grain choices. The observance of National Oatmeal day was the perfect time to stage it.
I came up with the idea to implement a do-it-yourself oatmeal bar to provide a unique breakfast experience. Just by giving them one place to find all the toppings, students ended up eating three times the amount of oatmeal than normal. None of the items were new to our dining hall, but for one morning, they were all offered in one convenient location.
What were the favorite toppings?
Mixed berries, chocolate chips, and pecans!
How did the students react?
The response was positive! Students left comments like, “Because of this bar, I like oatmeal now!” and “This is great! Can you do this everyday?”
After such an overwhelming response, what’s ahead?
In December, I plan to present a Gardein-inspired Meatless Monday during lunch to introduce new, plant-based dishes.
Are you interested in introducing Meatless Monday to your organization, restaurants, K-12 school, university, hospital, local city government, or social media group? We can help to provide everything you’ll need to get started. Our free downloadable guides include simple steps to get going, engaging graphics, proven keys to success, and science-backed research from our partner, The Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future.
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