Coast Guard receives award from PETA for elevated vegan dining

The Proggy is an annual award that PETA issues to those they identify to be champions of animal welfare. The activist group recognized the Coast Guard facility for its thought, action, and follow through in providing their service members with a higher volume and quality of plant based dining options.

According to a press release, PETA hopes that this award will prompt other military installations and other branched to follow suit. The same press release stated that the award is on its way to the Yorktown Training Center at the time the release was issued.

PETA President Ingrid Newkirk said in a statement, “From passionfruit panna cotta to Beyond Bolognese, students at U.S. Coast Guard Training Center Yorktown delight in high-quality dishes that are kind to animals, the Earth, and their arteries.” She added, “As demand for vegan fare skyrockets, PETA looks forward to seeing every military base progress to offering healthy, compassionate, and eco-friendly foods.”

The vegan friendly initiative was the brainchild of Petty Officer 2nd Class Ian Swoveland, a culinary specialist in the Coast Guard and Culinary Institute of Virginia alum. The idea came to Swoveland at the start of the COVID-19 lockdown.

At that time, roughly 10% of base personnel kept vegan. Once those individuals could no longer go off post to pursue vegan dinning options, they had a hard time finding appropriate meals on post.

PETA points to the numerous vegetarian, kosher, and halal options available to troops and highlights the low availability of complete vegan options. They’re hope is that the military as a whole will begin to put more focus into providing high quality vegan meals across dinning facilities, and in the field in the form of vegan MREs.