<p>That’s a heavily Asian community. I suppose many are vegetarians anyway.</p>
<p>Not all Asians are vegetarians.</p>
<p>Looking at the menu/pictures I see some pretty tasty stuff–vegetarian fast food. Quesadillas, black beans, cheese, salsa–lots of flavor packed in. The school version of Taco Bell minus the taco meat. Egg dishes pack a good bit of protein and can appear in thousand different ways for variety. If I was a kid at school I’d probably go for it. It has to be at least as nutritious as what passes for meat in school cafeterias these days and probably a lot better in the long run.</p>
<p>Not all Asians are vegetarians, no, but many are. And pork could be out for some as well, if there is a sizable Muslim population. I know a lot of the meat dishes my kids get served include sausage. Of course, this is the south and we are big fans of pork down here anyway 
But it’s often relatively cheap too so…</p>
<p>If even a sizable minority of kids don’t eat meat and the school doesn’t have the resources to offer multiple options, it may make more sense to strive for a balanced vegetarian menu. Around here a lot of people are Catholic and the public schools typically do not serve meat on Fridays during Lent–it’s either fish of some sort or sometimes pizza with no meat. I doubt that even a majority of the kids in many public schools are Catholic, but enough are that it just makes sense. If your balanced meal has a major component that is off-limits for even 20 or 30 percent of the kids, I think you need to change things up.</p>
<p>Re: #24</p>
<p>Yes, it is easier for the school to deal with various religious restrictions if the food is vegetarian, since many of the religious restrictions involve meat. (Of course, some religious restrictions are not solved by merely having vegetarian meals.)</p>
<p>If there’s a sizeable Asian population, then religious dietary restrictions are probably a large motivator, given that
- Muslims can only eat halal meat, and no pork (amongst other restrictions)
- Hindus and Sikhs cannot eat halal meat, rather their meat must be jhatka - a method of slaughter designed to be very quick rather than ritualistic and slow as halal and kosher slaughter is. In addition, Hindus cannot eat beef, and many are entirely vegetarian - if you go to India then vegetarian is the default setting, and anything with meat in is referred to as non-veg. </p>
<p>Essentially, there’s no way that you can serve one meat dish to all three of those major religions. In addition, vegetarian food is invariably cheaper per kg, so on the same budget they will be able to do something substantially higher quality. No one needs meat to be healthy, but of course both meat-eating and vegetarian diets can be unhealthy - McDonalds includes meat (clearly) and french fries and dark chocolate are both vegan.</p>
<p>whatever the reason(s), this seems like an excellent idea. more power to them!</p>
<p>I’m an omnivore myself, but I don’t see maintaining a vegetarian diet as an overwhelmingly difficult thing to do. Vegan would be harder, but with a vegetarian diet your biggest concern is making sure that you have a variety of complete protein sources. The menu linked includes milk, eggs and soy, as well as meals that combine legumes with whole grains. All of those will fit the bill. There are also plenty of B12 containing foods on the menu they showed. Milk and eggs are natural sources, and many breakfast cereals are tofus are fortified with it. For a 4 - 8 year old 2 cups of fluid milk, which are is always served with breakfast and lunch, meets the US RDA, and for 8 to 13 year olds 2 cups of milk and an egg, or a 1/2 a cup of breakfast cereal meets the requirement.</p>
<p>In my experience with low income kids, their diets are more often lacking in fruits and vegetables than they are in protein. Our lowest income students get so excited when we bring in new or interesting fruits and vegetables to try, and they happily eat the vegetables included in their meals. Removing the meat from the school lunches, should give schools more resources to spend on higher quality produce. It also provides an opportunity for students to sample and learn to appreciate vegetarian proteins such as black beans and chickpeas (in the felafel), hopefully leading to some changes in their diets at home. </p>
<p>Overall, I think this could be a good thing.</p>
<p>It is ridiculous. My kids would have either bring their own lunch or have food delivered. The only meal I wouldn’t have meat would be breakfast, but I wouldn’t necessarily impose my dietary preference on anyone. By the way, I am Asian.</p>
<p>I’d go nuts because I’m kinda anti-vegetarian. Not that I eat school lunch. But I hate the government (school is technically a part of government) not allowing people choices in what they can eat. It’s stupid.</p>
<p>In my experience at the elementary level school lunch has never involved choice. You get hamburgers on hamburger day and fake Chipotle burritos on fake Chipotle burrito day.</p>
<p>and some other mystery meat on every other day…</p>
<p>hopefully the campus will incorporate a student-led on site garden as well. teach students about sustainability and nutrition at the same time.</p>
<p>I live in NYC…Remember Bloomberg decided we couldn’t get super sized drinks? Well, I went into my regular lunch place one day to order a large soup. When they gave me the soup, it was a lot smaller than I was used to. I asked, “what happened to my soup? I ordered a large. This looks tiny.” The cashier said, “The mayor said this is the largest size we could sell.” I said, “This wouldn’t be able to fill me, I’ll be hungary in half an hour. This is bull, I should be able to eat as much as I want.” I caused so much commotion they decided to give me another one. Why should my food be rationed?</p>
<p>In my school system, at the elementary school level, there are three choices. There’s the normal lunch, PB&J, and then an alternative like a sandwich or a salad depending on the day (as in, Mondays is x alternative, Tuesdays is y alternative, etc.).</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Are schools that serve meat in their school lunches imposing their dietary preferences on vegetarians?</p>
<p>yes, bloomberg is going a little overboard on certain issues, lol. but i see this particular issue differently. he shouldn’t have changed the size of your soup! haha</p>
<p>
No, because most of the time there would be salad, cooked vegetable, pasta, bread, cheese…that vegetarians could eat.</p>
<p>But unless someone is an actual carnivore, there is also something on the vegetarian tray that a meat eater can eat. In fact, there’s a complete meal they can eat, as opposed to a few calories worth of sides. </p>
<p>Are schools that usually serve meat imposing their dietary preferences on cheese pizza day?</p>
<p>Was your soup made out of soda? (seriously, I never heard of a ban on large soup sizes before.)</p>
<p>The problem of children refusing to eat some of the meal and missing out on some nutrition has nothing to do with whether the meal includes meat. We don’t have any evidence that the kids were eating the chicken quesadillas and are now rejecting the bean quesadillas. </p>
<p>I’m pleased to see the whole-grain tortilla and skin-on potatoes in the picture. Nothing on the tray was empty calories.</p>
<p>If a school found that it could save money and still provide kid-pleasing nutrition by instituting a dairy-free, bean-free, or wheat-free menu, I don’t see a problem with that. Other than fruits/veg, there isn’t any one category of foodstuff that is necessary for a healthy or delicious diet.</p>