New York – A New York City elementary school has adopted an all-vegetarian menu, serving kids tofu wraps and veggie chili.
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Public School 244 is the first public school in the city to go all-veggie. The animal-welfare group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals says it might be the first all-veggie public elementary school in the nation.
Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott says he’s proud of the “trailblazing” school.
The Queens school has 400 students in pre-kindergarten through third grade. It wanted to offer healthy food options and started serving a vegetarian lunch three times a week and then increased it to four times a week. It recently went all-vegetarian.
Principal Robert Groff said Tuesday the kids gravitated toward veggie offerings, including black beans and cheddar quesadillas served with salsa and roasted potatoes.
One of my favorite decadent meals is a vegan bacon-chili-cheese dog. I use a whole wheat sausage bun (Healthy Mike’s from North Shore Bakery in Chicago). In it, I put:
1) 1 strip of Lightlife Smart Bacon (better texture) & 1 strip of the Lightlife Organic Smokey Tempeh bacon (better taste) strips fried in either safflower or grapeseed oil.
2) a Tofurkey Italian sausage (Trader Joe’s is the cheapest to buy these) nuked to perfection
3) Simply Organic Vegetarian Chili packet with 1 28 oz can of diced tomatoes, 1 15 oz can of pinto beans & 1 15 oz can of red kidney beans + Lightlife Smart Ground Mexican + some sauteed green & red peppers & onions
4) diced, fresh Texas scallions (a.k.a. bulb onions, like scallions on steroids)
5) I top all this off with Teese’s Nacho sauce (http://www.chicagoveganfoods.com/teese_vegan_cheese/nacho_vegan_sauce/ )
The biggest myth today is that you need to eat meat for protein. Anyone telling you that has never studied nutrition. You can get plenty of protein from plant sources, and besides, the body doesn’t need as much protein as it does complex carbohydrates and the Omega-3, -6, & -9s, which the body needs, but doesn’t manufacture.
Surprisingly it’s on Tilden Ave in East Flatbush, not Park Slope or Brooklyn Heights as one would expect.
#1 :
That’s not food. That’s what food eats!
Lets not forget that this is lunch only and 90% of us working people by default are vegetarian for lunch.
Let’s consider this. What amount of food will be consumed by waste receptacles and will the bean counters be measuring that? Will the parents of these children have an opt out option? Will snacks, laden with lard – when Hostess comes back on line – be sent with the children to school?
Regardless of whether you choose to eat this diet and there’s nothing wrong with it, not taste-wise, looks-wise, or body-wise (I eat chicken and red meat for those who care), children tend to eat what they like. When I went to elementary school, most of the school lunches were mystery meat, mashed potatoes or partially thawed fries, canned vegetables from WWII surplus (I kid you not). Occasionally there were breaded fish sticks. The kids that brought lunch from home in a bag would make major dollars from those who were eligible for school lunch. I imagine that the prohibition style lunchroom speakeasy’s still exist.
My doctor told me to avoid proteins. And one does not “need to consume meat” whatsoever in their diet. Vegans, on the whole, live longer & healthier lives than omnivores. I’ve only consumed meat on Shabbos & Yom Tov.