130,000 Petition Olive Garden for Plant-Based Entrée

A group of activist organizations recently formed the Good Food Now campaign with the mission to demand that, amongst other initiatives, Olive Garden offer customers a plant-based entrée. The campaign has gained more than 130,000 supporters who signed a petition asking parent restaurant group Darden Restaurants, Inc. to reduce meat and dairy offerings by 20 percent, source meat from verifiable sources with high welfare standards, increase worker wages, and provide more local and organic options. Kari Hamerschlag, director of one involved activist organization, told Washington, DC news outlet The Hill that while Olive Garden has committed to a timeline for phasing out battery cages and gestation crates in its supply chain, sourcing its meat from factory farms remains irresponsible. “To stay competitive, Olive Garden must give food-conscious families what they want: healthier, local, and organic options—including more plant-based entrées and more humane meat raised without routine antibiotics,” Hamerschlag said. The petition was hand-delivered on Thursday to Olive Garden restaurants in New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, and Washington, DC.