The month of October is most commonly known for Breast Cancer awareness. Little did you know October 1, world vegetarian day, was the annual kick off for Vegetarian awareness month.

“Having a vegetarian diet can be very healthy,” informed nurse Ramona.

By moving toward a greener diet people can benefit from a healthier and stronger body as well as creating a healthier planet. Growing produce rather than raising livestock takes less of an environmental toll on our planet.

Vegetarians have limited their diets for a multitude of reasons. “The biggest proponent is that they don’t want to eat animals and they don’t like the way animals are treated. But a lot of them are not eating balanced,” Nurse Ramona explained.

“Meat is a good source of protein for your body” justified Victoria Santos, freshman, for never trying to eliminate meat out of her diet.

Contradicting Santos’ opinion, Riley Dunnam, senior, explained she, “wasn’t a fan of meat in the first place, but after doing [her] research on animal abuse and how a balanced diet was possible without eating meat, the choice wasn’t very hard.”

A vegetarian diet can have many advantages if a person maintains a well balanced diet.

Brett Ingram, sophomore, has never tried to eliminate meat from his diet saying, “I love it too much.”

On the other hand, people keep a vegetarian diet because of their food preferences. “I really just don’t want to eat meat,” said junior Maya Rawls.

People have also limited their diet for health reasons like Mr. Cheney, who said, “I eat to fuel performance” but do not limit meat out of their diet altogether.

Faith Lutheran is not required to provide vegetarian options for the staff and students, “but we do because we felt that there were enough students that requested it as well as the staff,” informed Mrs. Gentry.

Greg Dabis, Faith Lutheran kitchen manager, supports vegetarian awareness. “There is a handful of students who appreciate it and we are very receptive to requests or ideas.”

People have chosen to keep a vegetarian diet for health reasons, animal protection or preference. Whether a vegetarian or not, many agree that if you remove meat consumption you need to find alternative sources of protein to keep a well balanced diet.