<p>I’m not a vegetarian, but I’m fine with schools not providing meat–or not providing any lunches or breakfasts at all. I’m all for parents feeding their own kids. We are still free to eat whatever we want. Sorta.
My kids eat/ate PBJ every day for lunch (pack their own lunches). Now elementary school (still 2 kids of mine there) is “peanut free.” School has substituted sunflower butter.<br>
While in previous years some classrooms were supposed to be nut free if any kids in them were allergic, this policy was instituted for the entire building for ONE kid. Apparently, his parents claim he has such severe peanut allergies that even the scent of peanut butter drifting across the room could be fatal. I doubt this is true, but, if it is THAT severe, do they really trust others never to bring anything containing peanuts? I say let the parents provide nut-free food and teach the kid never to eat anything not brought from home. Or homeschool. There are kids with celiac disease, other allergies,etc. and they have to bring their own food. All party snacks must now be from an approved list of packaged brands, and checked by the school nurse --when there are all-school parties, the line to get your food checked is out the door.<br>
Another gripe: I generally let my kids eat whatever they want. School has a snack time, and sometimes, especially after certain holidays, my kids want to take candy for their snack. A few times they’ve come home and said that their teachers “disapproved” their snack, saying it “HAS to be a HEALTHY snack.” Sheesh.</p>
<p>I agree with Hanna. The vegetarian menu doesn’t provide any more or less choices than the typical “Standard American Diet” one, which seems ordinarily to be based on hot dogs, chicken nuggets, and pizza. Just different choices.</p>
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<p>I’ve never heard that but one of my sister’s best friends could end up in the hospital for contact with peanut residue. They had to designate two tables nut free (one was a barrier where nobody could sit during her lunch shift) and the nurse had to disinfect them before her lunch. She also gets sick for other reasons (missed half of sixth grade for being in the hospital) so now she has to be home schooled…</p>
<p>I was very surprised by ban of large size soup also. At first I thought they were yanking my chain. I have since been back to that lunch place, but I haven’t ordered soup since because I didn’t want to cause a scene again. Instead, I go to various Japanese places to order large ramen soup.</p>
<p>yeah, I think they were making that up, or misinterpreting. there was no soup ban.</p>
<p>Oldfort - it sounds like the store was using the ban (which never went into effect, btw) as an excuse for cutting back the sizes of their soup portions, easier to blame the mayor rather than the stores desire for increased profits.</p>
<p>The switch was not part of the mayors initiatives. For those that know the area, Flushing has a large Asian population, mostly Chinese and Korean right now and while all Asians are not vegetarians, my guess is that many of these kids are either first generation or even immigrants themselves, so their diet is probably more traditional than second or third generation Asians. Indeed, school lunch was never a democracy, the government always decided what a “healthy” meal was coupled with whatever the Federal government was offering to institutions at that time - blocks of cheese, SPAM, etc. Even when lunches were cooked at the school lunchroom it was using federally offered food.</p>
<p>If the kids don’t care, why should we? If they weren’t eating the food, the school would have to change the menu. Perhaps they even prefer it, who knows. Who are we to put our preferences above theirs?</p>
<p>This is a big deal over nothing, IMHO.</p>
<p>THe ban on large sized drinks was a lot more comprehensive than the press would have led you to believe. It was not, ever, just soda.</p>
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Are you kidding? Where does that happen? Certainly not NYC. The preferences of kids are not even involved in the decision. Any vegetarian (of which I am one) who didn’t choose to eat meat, could simply not eat it. Kids who want meat could have it. This is too restrictive a menu for the NYC public schools. Oldfort and I have kids in that system and we know that to be true. The choices also seem very specific to personal tastes. Lots of kids get their only meals in schools and if they aren’t eating the food, that is not good.</p>
<p>Not only did I have kids in the system, I was in the system. And I had close relatives teaching in this particular neighborhood. If NONE of the kids were eating the food, there would be changes. This is not too restrictive for the population they are serving. How presumptuous of us to force OUR opinions on this particular school, don’t you think? My understanding is that these kids are just as happy with this menu as they have been with their previous menu. School menus change, not often, but over time, however I will admit, not quite this drastically. It’s really neither our business nor our place to impart our opinions on this schools population who, from my observations, is happy with this change.</p>
<p>I think this is fantastic! Full disclosure, I am a vegetarian (although I wasn’t one in high school), but that’s not why it makes me happy. Meat in many public scools is truly disgusting - it is not a fresh porkchop or some ground beef. Anyone who is interested can easily look into the suppliers, and all the truly awful ingredients/preservatives that the ‘meat’ has.</p>
<p>pink slime, anyone?</p>
<p>Isnt ammonia an important nutrient? ^^^
:p</p>
<p>If we really wanted healhy kids, we would never cut PE so they could spend more time on testing & they would have recess every day.</p>
<p>I am a vegetarian but even my friends (none of whom were) often ended up taking vegetarian options at lunch in high school over the processed meat that the school served. In our school, that meant my friends and I usually ate Domino’s pizza, french fries, or cookies (served warm, 3 for $1) for lunch if we had to buy it in high school. I’m thrilled to see a school focusing on healthy choices.</p>
<p>…what’s the big deal? So what? Is there a banner up in the cafeteria with picture of a cow’s corpse, under which in bold font it is stated “IS THIS WHAT YOU WANT KIDS?”</p>
<p>Vegetables have several times the nutri content of meat and are lighter in general. The main thing lacking is protein, but that can be obtained from stuff like cheese/greek yogurt/protein shakes/etc, so i think its a good thing. I don’t think some fish/tuna/chicken would be so bad but this works fine too.</p>
<p>Also, want to quote Einstein here…well, I may be paraphrasing but it went something like this. “The surest way to save the planet is to morph to a vegetarian diet.”</p>
<p>I need to correct boomting–I can’t comment on halal slaughter, but kosher slaughter is designed to be quick. Extremely sharp knife, one stroke.</p>
<p>Veg vs. meat aside… who serves potatoes with bean quesadillas and bananas? Yikes! A whole plate of white food.</p>
<p>The rest of the week’s menu looks good. Spinach wraps w/ cucumber salad? Yum! However, I worry that an all veg menu will eventually look like today’s lunch… starch, starch and more starch.</p>
<p>Islamic ritual slaughter severes the carotid & jugular with a sharp swift incision on both sides leaving the spinal cord intact to be as quick & painless as possible.</p>
<p>Cavemen diets not withstanding, I didn’t think our digestive systems were set up for more protein than fibrous planty foods.
Mine isnt anyway.
Except for ice cream.
I have fond memories of the window at my junior highs cafeteria,through which they would sell french fries & milkshakes after the adults had decided that we had time to finish our lunch.
;)</p>
<p>I sound like an old lady from my swimming class but I swear I didnt know any overweight kids when I was a kid. (& actually few afterwards)
Large boned, but not obese.
I think we need to get more nutrients in kids & fewer calories.</p>
<p>@mommusic kosher and halal slaughter are very similar. They are designed to be quick, but a) whilst that might have been one of the best ways 1500 years ago in the desert, technology had moved on, and b) we have bred animals to be far larger than they were then (cattle, especially, but other animals too). This means that they take substantially longer to die. </p>
<p>If you were going to have your throat slit, would too prefer to be conscious or unconscious when it was done? </p>
<p>Anyway, I digress. Hindus and Sikhs can’t eat halal meat, Muslims cannot eat jhatka meat, so to satisfy the local Asian population, the easiest thing to do is to not serve meat. Incidentally I have Jewish relatives who decided that they couldn’t be bothered with kosher food regulations, so the simplest thing to do was to go veggie… And they were only catering for one set of religious dietary needs.</p>