Hot pink, bright yellow high top sneakers and blonde braided pigtails adorned a giant cheeseburger costume as "Patty Melt" strutted her stuff in East Halls' Findlay Commons last night.

The outlandish costume was used in an effort to draw attention to "Meat-In Day," Penn State agriculture groups' protest to National Meatout Day.

Block and Bridle Club, Earth House and the Dairy Science Club joined forces to pass out Beef Jerky Tender Tips downstairs in the Commons while vegetarian foods were featured upstairs.

"We're just here to promote meat and give a face to the animal agriculture industry," National Beef Ambassador Chris Molinaro (sophomore-animal science) said.

Molinaro, who helped organize the event, said the pro-meat groups didn't face too much beef from opposition.

"It's not like we're being aggressive about it," Molinaro said.

They came with about 25 volunteers and 1,300 packs of beef jerky, which was gone within two hours.

Upstairs in the dining commons, the Meatout initiative was far less obvious.

"We didn't really know what Meatout Day was about," Julia Orchinik (freshman-biology) said. Orchinik and her two friends stuck to the regular dining commons food rather than trying the Meatout features.

Every dining commons served some variety of vegetarian foods including maverick chili with trencher, bulghur pilaf with toasted noodles and strawberry banana soy milk smoothies -- all encouraging students to celebrate National Meatout Day by foregoing meat products.

"As the vegetarian advocate for the department, I think it's really important that I always ask our department to recognize the great American Meatout ... it's a moment of awareness," Food Services' Special Programs Training Coordinator Michele Newhard said.

The dining commons have been celebrating Meatout Day for about 10 years.

Still, even on Meatout Day, the dining commons do serve meat products. Findlay Commons, for example, served chicken and steak fajitas last night.

"We could never serve a [completely] meat-free meal," Newhard said.

Meatout encourages omnivores to try being herbivores for a day with a vegetarian diet.

Sharona Ellaurie (freshman-division of undergraduate studies) gave the pilaf a try. "It looked like something better than having the fajitas. I needed some variety," she said.

Even though she did try the feature, she said, "I didn't even know they were doing a Meatout dinner, but it tastes good. I have no objections to it."

Downstairs, though, opposition was evident.

"It's pretty ridiculous to think that an initiative like this could happen at a land grant university," Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Beef Council Paul Slayton said. "I really don't think that there's a lot of support with Meatout Day."

National Agriculture Day was also celebrated yesterday. "We need to be thanked instead of scorned," Slayton said.

Penn State registered Meatout Day with Meatout's national group, Farm Animal Reform Movement (FARM), which started the event.

FARM encourages Meatout Day on college campuses, citing health, environmental and animal benefits.

"Usually there are vegetarian groups at colleges and we try to get them out there to get their peers to give it a try," Jen Riley, national coordinator for Meatout, said.

However, no vegetarian groups were present to grill the pro-meat eaters.

"I think it's interesting," Riley said about Meat-In groups. "Of course they're welcome to express their opinion on the matter. As long as the vegetarian group gets out there and presents the information, it's a matter of presenting the information to people and they can make up their own minds."