“Vegetarianism is a choice of the wealthy”
Recently I was part of a clergy group that was eating dinner together at a community space. Our hosts were a group that provides a monthly free meal in that community space to those experiencing homelessness. The hosts were used to providing a meal for a crowd, so feeding a group of clergy was easy for them—with one exception, which the head chef shared with us:
The meal tonight is the same as what we serve the homeless with one exception: the vegetarian entrees. There are no vegetarian homeless people. Vegetarianism is a choice of the wealthy. When you are homeless, you eat what you are given. You can’t afford to be picky. So we are happy to serve vegetarian meals to you tonight, but know we don’t offer it usually because vegetarianism is a choice of the wealthy. Think about that.
The meal was great and the service was terrific. The community is blessed by those serving and those willing hearts who donate time and food to it.
But I couldn’t get that off-the-cuff comment out of my head. And I wondered if other community meals had the same sentiment.
Serving Vegetarian meals to those experiencing homelessness
My local church has a longtime program called Shared Breakfast, serving around 300 hot meals every Sunday—over 15,000 plates each year. It is a crazy efficient operation funded entirely by donations, with 20 volunteers each Sunday—some there from kitchen prep at 6:30am to cleanup at 9:30am. The breakfast is plated and served to each person. If you are in the Seattle area, click here to volunteer or to donate.
So I asked our leaders if any of the breakfast guests (which includes both homeless and housing vulnerable persons) requested vegetarian plates. What I learned was that a small but consistent percentage of meals on a given Sunday are requested to be vegetarian. By replacing the sausage and gravy, typically the hot plate is eggs, biscuit, jelly, cold cereal or oatmeal, coffee and orange juice. Other donations of fruit or extras round out the plates.
How many plates? A volunteer replied:
I would guess that there is somewhere between 10-25 hot plates that are requested to be vegetarian on any given Sunday of 250-340 people that come through.
Others concurred and pointed out that number doesn’t include those who do not request vegetarian plates—but nonetheless eat only the vegetarian portions.
So around 5-10% of a free community meal for the homeless and hungry chooses to eat vegetarian. I doubt any of them would consider themselves to be wealthy.
Privileged Barriers to Vegetarian Diets
While in the Eastern and Southern Hemisphere vegetarian diets are commonplace, in the Western majority culture, vegetarian diets are not as socially encouraged. Meat is mass-produced, marketed, and widely available—and animal agriculture receives enormous government subsidies—-so it makes sense that people would assume that meat is standard and meatless is a glamour choice.
It is true that the wealthy can choose to be vegetarian easier than those who are not wealthy due to some vegetarian specialties costing higher than a McDonalds meal.
But privilege is more than money. Vegetarian diets are often inaccessible to socially marginalized persons because:
- Urban food deserts mean healthy, fresh non-processed food are not found in all communities without driving (which requires a car)
- Part time workers who work multiple jobs often have longer commutes and thus less time to cook healthy meals at home. Feeding a family at Wendy’s takes 15 minutes.
- Having the awareness and taking the time to take stock of vitamin supplements (such as Iron, Calcium, B12, etc) to ensure a vegetarian diet is fully sustainable are not as commonplace (even among meat-eaters, who don’t have to know them because they get them automatically with their meat).
So it is true that with privilege comes an ease in the barriers to a vegetarian diet—but it is also true that those with privilege can use their privilege to get more accessibility to vegetarian diets to an entire community.
Supporting Vegetarian Diets in Homeless/Hungry Ministries
If a church or non-profit wants to provide vegetarian meals and support vegetarian diets in their community, here’s some ideas to especially help those who are housing vulnerable, homeless, or hungry.
- Plant and maintain community gardens to provide fresh fruits and veggies to the local community, especially ones that don’t have a supermarket in their urban area.
- Fundraise and supplement membership fees for CSAs or food co-ops so that families or community housings have regular access to vegetables and fruits.
- Provide Education on quick, inexpensive meals and what options provide a complete protein. Even a flyer on a served meal table or in a food bag can be helpful. Enlist a dietician’s help!
- Advertise, provide, and serve vegetarian plates at free community meals so that people who are vegetarian know they are welcome at community gatherings and they won’t just have leftovers or salad.
Your Turn
Vegetarianism is a choice. But the refusal of social services to provide vegetarian meals is also a choice. I bet if the vegetarian meals were offered, you’d find a lot more vegetarians in your breadlines and in your free community meals.
Offering such hospitality to honor a person’s dignity—rather than merely satisfy a need—is a mark of the mission to which we are called.
Thoughts?
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As a recent convert to vegetarian/vegan… I can say that cooking vegetarian meals is LESS time consuming… prepping TVP for a family of 4 takes 5 minutes in a microwave. Most of the time I can cook completely vegan meals in under 20 minutes start to finish. Planning and prep takes time. If my protein is beans, a crockpot set in the morning…means beans ready to serve by meal time. Additionally, cost is only higher if you look to boutique food manufacturers… premarinated single serve vacu sealed jack fruit is great… but a 20 oz can cost less, feeds more and takes very little effort to prep.
Agreed. Vegetarian eating is much less expensive than carnivorism . I cut my food bill in half and am twice as healthy to boot. I eat like a peasant in most of the world. It should be offered as a first choice for the homeless .
We have been sharing ministry for/with the hungry with the Sikh Temple across the street. They ONLY serve vegetarian because they want everyone to be able to eat. They pack lunches monthly to take to shelters in Dallas and Fort Worth and only serve PBJ for the same reason.
Sounds like Mr. Chef needs to visit a langar meal at a local Sikh Gurdwara. I’m sure you’ve got them there. That they don’t come to HIS homeless shelter…. well duh.
Ironically, I was just at a spiritual retreat at the Monastery of St. Paul of the Cross in Pittsburgh, PA, where Fritz Eichenberg’s “Christ of the Breadlines” is on the wall leading into the main meeting room. The full-sized print caught my eye and held it every time I passed it on the way to a group session. A striking depiction of hunger and the spirituality around it.
It is sad the food that is often given to the homeless and provided in the soup kitchen is canned junk food and no FRESH fruits or vegetables.
I’m a disabled person. I live below the poverty line. I’ve been a vegetarian for 30 years! I have no choice but to use food banks and I do have to go through the bags refuse things, get stuff home read the labels only to find there is beef or chicken stock in it. I will not eat rather then eat anything with meat. Thanksgiving is the worst as they majority of the food is centered around “a turkey dinner” I’m lucky in November to walk out with a can of cranberry sauce. And the majority of the food you do get is canned crap. Being vegetarian or vegan is not a choice of the rich it’s an ethical choice, some ppl obviously do it for health but for me I’ve been vegetarian most of my life as I will not take part in the killing of another beings and their suffering so it’s ethical. If this was under a religious practice I bet they’d change quickly, well actually there ARE religions that promote vegetarianism. Frankly I walk out with far less food then someone who eats meat and NOT healthy food. Same crap all the time mostly to the point if I gotta even look at another can of beans I’m gonna scream. If I lived somewhere maybe a little more progressive like possibly California, I did google vegetarian and vegan food banks before out of frustration and found California seems to have the majority I may actually get a decent meal more then once in a blue moon. I’m not gonna change my ethical beliefs I will NEVER again in this lifetime eat meat so the world needs to get more progressive. Back when I became vegetarian actually vegan it was actually cheaper now “vegetarian and “vegan meals” because they are labeled as such are MORE expensive, it ridiculous!
I am with you on that, Lisa. I too will never consume the flesh of an innocent creature as long as I live. “It all comes down to pain and suffering. Not intelligence, not strength, not social class or civil right. Pain and suffering are, in themselves, bad and should be prevented or minimized, irrespective of the race, sex, or species of the being that suffers.” ~ Joaquin Phoenix | EARTHLINGS
When I was homeless, there were a few times that I didn’t get very much to eat at all because I am an ethical vegan. Sometimes, I would get to eat one item in a meal. At other times, I would hand the entire meal over to someone else because there was nothing in it that I could eat. There was also a mission that would give me lots of the vegan food in place of the meat, dairy and eggs. They would accommodate me. In any case, I never actually went hungry. even if it was a little bit, I always had something to eat.
I would rather die of hunger than to eat anything that is laced with any sort of animal products. It is very much like how Daniel refused to eat any food of the king that was not vegan. The thing is, I was a vegan long before I was a Christian. To understand the ethical vegan mindset, I highly recommend that you watch the documentary Earthlings. You can find it at earthlings.com … it’s free to watch.
May God bless you,
Holise
Many people eat what they know. I know of a soup kitchen that stopped second homemade cookies and started serving only oreos, because those would always be gone and the homemade cookies would sometimes end up in the trash. When something is donation run, you have to get the most bang for your buck. That being said, when I was living on very little, I lived off frozen vegetables, canned beans and rice. It was way cheaper, faster, easier than any fast food, but that’s also because I was privileged enough to have been taught how to cook and to have a freezer.
Plenty of homeless people are vegetarian and vegan.
Amma’s group serves excellent vegetarian dinners a couple of times each month at St. George’s church in NYC. They make a lot of food and serve two dinners each time, one right after the other. Any food left over can be taken with.
Amma’s group serves not only homeless but anyone who walks through the door.
Yes! I used to volunteer at a soup kitchen for the houseless in London every weekend and there were a good handful of regulars that were strictly vegetarian! A few for religious reasons and a few NOT for any religious reason! I hope that chef realizes he has to feed a diverse COMMUNITY and not his myopic view of what he thinks the community looks like.