The Students for Animal Welfare club has incorporated an easy compromise for students stuck between wanting to help animals, but not wanting to give up meat consumption completely.

The idea of Meatless Mondays has been ongoing since the beginning of February. Usually stationed outside Starbucks or walking around campus, the club hands out brochures and has students sign to pledge. So far they have gained over 100 pledges from students who promise not to eat meat every Monday.

Usually, the club hands out leaflets about animal abuse or about environmental and health issues related to meat consumption. They typically screen documentaries and do fundraisers, but Meatless Mondays was started by the club’s  president, Fiona Crews. Crews is one of 30 national campus organizers for the sponsoring organization, the Humane League.

“They are a farm animal rights organization, and they work really hard with dining services,” explained Crews. “Which is why we’re doing Meatless Mondays. The major reason was really to try to get dining services to recognize that students want more vegetarian options. So we’re trying to get a lot of pledges to show them that.”

Changing the way dining services work at COD is not just a goal of the club, but something they’ve already accomplished. “I’ve contacted [dining services] recently, and they’re making a special Meatless Monday menu for April,” said Crews. “But of course, dining services is really hard to change. You can’t do it very quickly. It’s a slow process but we’re getting there.” Creating this special menu for students is one of the Animal Welfare club’s first steps toward creating a more vegetarian and vegan-friendly campus overall.

Crews has found that the cafeteria does serve “veg-friendly” options, but those options don’t go past salads. “I would say there are not too many [veg-friendly options],” said Crews. “There may be more vegetarian, but vegan is much more hard to find. One of my friends in the club gets rice and beans. That’s so boring! You need something else to eat, like a burrito or something! We’re just trying to show them there are people who want more vegetarian options.”

The club has a goal of 300 pledges.

“When we started doing the Meatless Monday, we kicked it off with the pay-per-view and showed people a two-minute video that isn’t too graphic but shows people what’s going on in factory farms,” explained Crews. “We paid a dollar for everyone who watched the video; we gave out around $50. Most people didn’t even want the money.”

Pledges and student responses proved that being aware of farm animal abuse and making changes is what students want to do, but not all are willing to give up their beloved bacon forever.

“People want alternatives but not necessarily to cut out meat completely,” said Crews. “It gets people thinking about it and taking a step in that direction, especially if they can’t afford the organic, grass-fed foods. Meatless Monday is a great alternative to doing that, just cutting back and incorporating more vegetarian or vegan meals.”

Since Crews has been president, the club has focused on an angle of farm animal welfare that goes ignored: the environmental and personal health side. “I figure people know about the abuse; we try and talk about points that people don’t really realize. The environmental effects of animal agriculture and health. Most people don’t think about environmental [issues]; it’s pretty cool telling people. Usually people are interested in one of these topics and want to make a difference. Participating in Meatless Monday is a great way to get involved.”

The club has put together everything students need to survive their 24 hours of being meat-free, including a personal menu emailed out every Sunday so students are aware of vegan and vegetarian items on campus.

“I’ve been a vegetarian my whole life, and I became vegan two years ago,” explained Crews. “I think all the reasons together are why people should try to lessen their meat consumption. I think it’s important for the world and the animals. People usually know about the abuse part, but the other aspects, they don’t know about or haven’t thought about.”

Pledging to be a part of Meatless Mondays will continue throughout the semester. To register, you can go to cod.meatlessmondaypledge.com.