This year Active Learning Elementary School in New York made the transition to serving only vegetarian lunches. While this may seem outrageous, the school was originally founded on the belief that educating kids about eating healthy would help them perform better academically. Before the school made the switch, adults noticed a majority of children were already bringing vegetarian meals from home. The school then decided to follow a vegetarian menu three out of five days each week, and in January they made the transition to complete vegetarianism. Students, of course, are allowed to bring any meat they wish from home.
One difficulty the school had was serving lunches that met the new federal requirements for the amount of protein needed. The school solved this problem through the use of tofu. The tofu used to be served as a plain block with some meals, but now it is made into smaller, seasoned pieces and served in many different meals. How do the students feel about this menu? Most of them approve of it. “When you’re healthy, you can do better on tests and you can fight more diseases,” said student Nick Lin.
Representatives from Active Learning Elementary School said they hope other schools follow their example by going vegetarian at least a few days each week. However, I cannot see this happening across the country. In larger schools you have a much more diverse group of students, and people would certainly complain if the school did not serve meat on some days. Even though kids are more than welcome to bring their own lunches, or sometimes even leave campus for lunch, schools should offer lunch options with and without meat daily. Fresh produce and tofu are also more expensive than what most school currently serve. This would cause a multitude of problems concerning the school and family budgets.
Although going vegetarian is not likely to happen with schools across the country, the experiment has been successful for Active Learning Elementary School. Their goal was to educate kids about the importance of eating delicious, healthy food, and so far they have accomplished that.
The Fish Bowl 