World’s Largest Residential Student University Slashes Milk Consumption

Lovely Professional University, Jalandhar—one of the largest private universities in India with over 30,000 students—is changing its cafeteria menu to introduce two non-dairy beverages and reduce the use of dairy milk by 14 percent in the next six months. Students at the university worked with school administration and animal-rights organization Vegan Outreach (VO) to change the menu and bring VO’s Green Tuesday initiative to the campus. Green Tuesday helps institutions reduce their environmental footprint by making small changes in the food they serve. So far, VO has collaborated with six educational institutions in North India to implement similar initiatives. “This change will not only help animals and the environment, but it’ll also make afternoon tea more enjoyable for the residential students,” Prashanth BV, a student at Lovely Professional University, said. Last year, VO worked with Zostel Agra—a leading location of India’s largest backpacker hostel chain—to implement two vegan meals per week and add vegan options to the permanent menu.