Clare college has been slammed for “tokenising” their green initiative after fellows were seen tucking in to duck and fish at a supposedly vegan formal last Thursday (09/05).

The formal, part of the “Clare goes green” initiative, had a menu of plant-based and sustainable dishes for students. However, Clare fellows instead enjoyed a menu brimming with meat and other animal products.

The fellows’ menu consisted of “cured loin of salmon” and “roasted breast of duck”, alongside a dessert containing eggs. One student in attendance mocked the menu for being “not quite a meat feast, but it felt pretty ironic that every course had animal products in it”.

This is not the first time a Clare vegan menu has been polluted with meat, with last term’s fellow’s menu including a “chicken liver parfait” and “rack of lamb topped with lamb fat crumble”.

The organisers of the event told Varsity that they were unable to control the fellows’ menu. However, another college’s green officer claimed that they were able to convince their fellows to go pescatarian for their Green Week formal.

Clare’s dining services have been criticised for failing to take their green initiative seriously, after they recently scrapped a meat free day from their catering.

One student in attendance told Varsity that the fellows menu “undermined the whole event” and “made the green initiative as a whole feel very tokenistic.”

“There we were sat with our vegan meals whilst we saw piles of duck go past us to a table of fellows who seemed basically unaware of the point of the formal,” they continued.

These concerns were echoed by Clare Goes Green, the organisers of the event, who told Varsity: “We feel it was ironic at best and certainly disappointing. However, it is only symptomatic of a larger reluctance towards making sustainable changes across the university.”

“Regardless, we feel the community among students that such an event creates still renders the formal a success. It is this sense of collaboration that is and will be essential for tackling such problems as we move towards a more sustainable future,” they continued.

Clare college was contacted for comment.