"Hey, Is This Vegan?": Exploring Vegan and Vegetarian Youth Experiences in Life and School

Eating a vegetarian or vegan diet can have many positive impacts including reducing the demand for meat and dairy which helps prevent more animals from experiencing inhumane treatment in factory farms, reducing the amount of greenhouse gas emissions, and improving one's individual health. The largest segment of the population that is adopting a vegan or vegetarian diet or lifestyle are Millennials and Gen Z. There is extremely limited research on vegetarian and vegan youth, so I conducted qualitative research to understand the following research questions: 1) What are the experiences of students in grades 4-12 along the Wasatch Front who are vegan or vegetarian? 2) What are their experiences with access to vegan or vegetarian school-supplied meals? In order to answer these questions, I gathered data through focus groups with participants along the Wasatch Front and the following five themes emerged: 1) vegan or vegetarian dishes are not consistently offered at school; 2) vegetarian and vegan students desire to feel included and respected; 3) there is a lack of awareness of what veganism is; 4) vegetarian and vegan youth experience microaggressions because of their diets; and 5) there are positive outcomes because of supportive families and with families and friends changing their diets.