- Require Food Curriculum in Public Schools
- Expose City Students to Farms and Gardens
- Institute Meatless Mondays in City Schools
For more info, check out NYU's Wagner Food Policy Alliance blog.
There have been both positive and negative responses to the "Meatless Mondays" proposal, in particular. I, for one, am in favor of it—as long as the food being served includes real vegetables and whole grains rather than just pizza, french fries, and ketchup. For example, vegan chili is incredibly easy to make in large quantities for cheap and is packed with nutrients.
One of the main concerns of people unfamiliar with vegetarian eating is protein. Nine times out of ten, the first question is, "WHAT ABOUT PROTEIN?" Contrary to popular belief, once you know what to do (key word: nutrition education), it's incredibly easy. And anyway, as a country, Americans get much more protein than we technically need. One meal without animal protein is not going to cause your kids to shrivel up and die.
While I agree this is a good idea in theory, a lot of the time the meal that children have during their day at school is the best meal of their day, if not their only meal. In an urban setting its really important to consider that. And thought it would be great if they gave children protein some other way than meat sometimes, chances are it probably will end up being pizza and french fries. I'm all for it if they truly will make an effort to provide protein some other way. I sort of feel like these meat-free days will end up being more of a way for the schools to cut food costs than to be nutritious.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, you're probably right. I don't want to be cynical, but it's hard not to be.
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