Dear Harvard University Hospitality & Dining Services, We are writing in response to a recent petition to eliminate meat options at certain meals during the week. While we share their concerns for health and the environment and would like to see more awareness of these issues, we feel that is the wrong approach for a number of reasons. We ask instead that HUHDS continue its health and sustainability initiatives and increase the diversity of options for both meat eaters and vegetarians. First, we feel that eliminating meat at certain meals or reducing the variety of meat entrees offered at each meal will have a severe negative impact on student choice and our dining experience. Students make their dining choices based on many factors, and having several options allow us to select the one that is right for us. Some students cannot eat certain types of meat. Other students like to select the more healthful meat entrée. Many students wait all week for that General Gao’s chicken or country-fried steak that reminds them of home. Serving less meat would inevitably mean that more students cannot make their own decisions in regards to the food they eat. Second, we feel that the petition does not address a real problem, which is a lack of diverse offerings for vegetarians. Not only do vegetarians have few options at every meal, what options they do have are often, frankly, not very good. We don’t believe that eliminating meat at one meal will do much to improve this situation. We believe better vegetarian options would naturally decrease the amount of meat consumption. We think that everyone would benefit from a variety of meat and vegetarian options at every meal. Please improve options for all. Thank you.