<p>The menus are to the lunches as the education pronouncements are to the realities of school.</p>
<p>As others have said earlier, it’s not the one vegetarian meal that causes concern, but the children for whom this one school meal might be the cornerstone of their daily sustenance. Can someone eat a well-rounded vegetarian diet filled with the necessary complete and incomplete proteins? Absolutely. But for a child who’s family may not be able to afford even regular protein sources at home, something tells me that’s not going to happen. Foods like greek yogurt and protein shakes are even more expensive by mass than ground beef, chicken, or even fish. </p>
<p>Created a well-rounded diet of any kind includes work, but vegetarians and vegans especially have to put in an extra effort. Which is part of a life decision to eat in this kind of manner. Isolating one meal and making it vegetarian won’t be a problem for children (omnivores and herbivores alike) who have their bases covered at home, but that’s an assumption the education system especially has no right to make.</p>
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<p>Numerous people around the world get their protein mainly from low cost vegetarian foods like rice and beans, bread and lentils, etc… Plenty of kids in the US willingly subsisted on peanut butter sandwiches until schools banned peanut products due to life threatening peanut allergies in some students. Others will happily eat pizza all day long even if there are no meat toppings.</p>
<p>It is not like budget constrained school lunch programs necessarily have high quality meat. Cheap meat is often low in protein, being mostly fat.</p>
<p>I’m a vegetarian and I get twice the recommended daily amount of protein per day without trying, even though I eat less than 2,000 calories a day. It’s not that hard.</p>
<p>As I said earlier, I am a vegetarian. However, I have never had a problem finding alternatives in places like school. I attended NYC public schools in the 1970s and 1980s and never had a problem. I find the very limited choices and imposition of a vegetarian menu very troubling, however, it isn’t a huge school and it does hold a predominantly Asian population – although one can’t assume that all Asians are vegetarian. I still believe that a school that serves at least two and likely three meals a day should have more options, but it is a small school. In a larger school I would be truly outraged. I absolutely love vegetables, enjoy beans and grains, but that menu looks absolutely loathsome to me. Just the thought of how badly those menu choices would be prepared in a school kitchen makes me slightly sick. I also think the menu is a little too specific in its direction. I wonder if anyone is monitoring to see if the kids are actually eating the food and am hopeful that any kid who hates the menu as much as I would has parents who can pack lunch and prepare breakfast.</p>
<p>Do we actually have any evidence that the school is buying “better quality” vegetarian food with the money it’s saving from meat (sorry if I missed this in the article).</p>
<p>Based on my experience with government and public schools, it seems much more likely that they’re spending less and getting more-or-less the same food as ever. Maybe it’s just the cynic in me, but I doubt they’re buying fresh local organic free-range humane baby carrots - more likely they’re still buying the freeze-dried reconstituted artificially-colored preserved carrot pulp stick-patty from concentrate.</p>
<p>I also stand by what I said before - black-bean quesadilla with roasted potatoes doesn’t strike me as being a perfectly balanced meal. It sounds like vegetarian junk food. My wife was a vegetarian for years while we were dating and I think it bears mentioning that “vegetarian” doesn’t mean “healthy”. Plenty of junk food that non-vegetarians eat is completely vegetarian. And vegetarian food that non-vegetarians don’t eat is sometimes loaded with sugar and salt to make it more palatable, with the effect that it approximates non-vegetarian options but is significantly worse for you.</p>
<p>To my mind, hot meals are a luxury. It would be comparatively easy to feed kids who buy school lunches a bowl of fortified cereal with milk; almost everybody should be capable of eating that (almond or soy milks could be available for those who can’t do dairy) and kids would end up with better nutrition. It’s hard to get these products wrong, they’re produced in bulk and probably cost less than most other options. Make it high-fiber, throw in an enriched no-sugar-added fruit-juice cocktail and you’ve got yourself cheap and nutritious meals for everybody who wants them.</p>
<p>I guess others don’t see the limited menu as a big deal because most elementary schools only serve one option. It is unfortunate that NYC public schools seem to have decreased the number of meal choices.</p>
<p>On the topic of kids not eating their food - my elementary school only offered one option for lunch, so I usually brought my lunch to school. Some days, they would serve cheese pizza, so my parents let me buy my lunch those days. There were a few times though when they must have changed their mind or something, because the cafeteria was serving pepperoni pizza instead. Since there was only one option, I just ended up not eating anything.</p>
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<p>It seems at least as healthy fritos and ground beef, which would have been the corresponding meal at my elementary school.</p>
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<p>Your suggested meal sounds even more unbalanced, since it is likely nearly all carbs/sugar in terms of macronutrients (based on typical cold cereals, even those marketed to adults these days; note the fruit juice concentrates the sugars in the fruit while losing the fiber).</p>
<p>A black bean and cheese quesadilla made with a whole wheat tortilla gives you complete protein and much more.</p>
<p>Here’s the nutrition information listed for that exact dish from an online recipe:</p>
<p>"Per serving: 377 calories; 16 g fat ( 5 g sat , 8 g mono ); 13 mg cholesterol; 46 g carbohydrates; 0 g added sugars; 13 g protein; 10 g fiber; 679 mg sodium; 581 mg potassium.</p>
<p>Nutrition Bonus: Calcium (25% daily value), Folate (23% dv), Iron (19% dv), Potassium (17% dv).</p>
<p>Carbohydrate Servings: 2 1/2</p>
<p>Exchanges: 2 1/2 starch, 1 1/2 lean meat, 2 fat"</p>
<p>Because it’s a little high on carbs, I’d question adding the roasted potatoes, but if my vegetarian daughter made herself a black bean and cheese quesadilla for lunch and had some vegetables on the side, I’d consider that a healthy, well-balanced lunch. And I’d probably ask if she could make one for me, too. Sounds tasty.</p>
<p>I agree with bclintonk. But even with the potatoes on the side, if they are skin-on and don’t have a lot of added fat, that’s not empty calories. A side of broccoli or low-fat slaw would be idea.</p>
<p>I still think that, in general, this is an improvement, both from the standpoint of inclusivity, and from the standpoint of nutrition.</p>
<p>I do understand the concern about the amount of carbs in this meal, but I think it’s important to note that that’s a concern for school lunches in general, and it’s a direct result of the federal requirements. Right now the federal government requires that elementary school students get an average of 2 servings of grains with each meal, and that one of their vegetables each week should be “starchy” (their terms, not mine). </p>
<p>I know for our school, and I think think our school lunches are significantly better than they were when I grew up in the same district, this means that there are more carbs than I might serve at home. For example, the kids get a whole wheat dinner roll with any pasta dish (mac and cheese, lasagna, chicken chow mein) and crackers whenever they have sandwiches. Corn shows up as a side a lot. When they have chili and cheese enchiladas (the only thing that’s wrapped in a tortilla like the quesadillas) they have with rice and corn and fruit. </p>
<p>I think that whether that much carb is absolutely the healthiest choice is a good discussion to have, but it’s separate from the vegetarian/non vegetarian question.</p>
<p>I should add that in addition to the 13 grams of protein in the black bean and cheese quesadilla, the meal shown in the news story linked in post #1 shows the quesadilla next to a carton of milk. An 8 ounce serving of milk provides an additional 8 grams of protein. So that’s 21 grams of protein–well over half, almost 2/3 of the 34 gram Recommended Dietary Allowance for a child aged 9 to 13. For a child aged 4-8 it exceeds the 19 grams RDA for protein, in a single vegetarian meal.</p>
<p>The idea that it’s hard to get adequate protein on a vegetarian diet is bunk. Vegans need to be more careful, but this school is not serving vegan meals.</p>
<p>[Nutrition</a> for Everyone: Basics: Protein | DNPAO | CDC](<a href=“http://www.cdc.gov/nutrition/everyone/basics/protein.html]Nutrition”>http://www.cdc.gov/nutrition/everyone/basics/protein.html)</p>
<p>Here’s a recent NY Times article on this topic:</p>
<p>Comic writer Dan Zevin writes a spoof on what PS 244 students might be saying about the new vegetarian lunch menu.</p>
<p>May 11, 2013
P.S. 244: The Zagat Review
By DAN ZEVIN</p>
<p>The New York City Department of Education opened the first all-vegetarian public school lunchroom a couple of weeks ago. Does the move represent a new generation of health-conscious kids eager to join the ranks of their nonsmoking, non-jumbo-soda-drinking parents? Perhaps it’s best to wait until the reviews come out.</p>
<p>With “throw-uppy” meatless cuisine dished out in authentic “cafeteria style” digs, N.Y.C.’s first “totally not fair” lunchroom is already packing in crowds “crying for more” food and just “crying.”</p>
<p>Pick up a G.M.O.-free “no-chicken nugget” and hurl it at the “super mean” cafeteria lady with “chin hairs” because she is a “dumbhead” who sent my “B.F.F.” to the principal’s office just because he stuck the Carrot and Celery Stick Medley up his nose and said, “Look, I’m a wart hog.”</p>
<p>The lunchroom scores an A+ for ambience, and the “best seat in the house” is a private but “stinky a little” stall in the boys’ or girls’ room, where “in the know” third graders “sneak eat” the “old school” roast beef, turkey, ham and salami sandwiches they “smuggle in” from home. Except if you get busted, the aides might not let you ever go to the bathroom again, which is supposedly what happened to this one kid I know who took a tuna fish sandwich. After lunch, take a cue from the regulars who “throw away” their “yucky,” “grossest thing ever” choice of American Chop Suey Seitan With Side Order of Kale Chips, or “ewww!” Tofu Tater Tots that “taste like underpants” and sidle up to the school nurse with a “tummy ache” that will get you sent home from school so you can play Wii while “pigging out” on the “Leftover Spare Ribs With Barbecue Sauce Your Mommy Ordered For Dinner Last Night.” Hint: “feel better” in time for recess, when the “too cool for vegetarian school” crowd leads top-secret “scavenger hunts” in search of “two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun.”</p>
<p>Dan Zevin is the author of “Dan Gets a Minivan” and “The Day I Turned Uncool.”
<a href=“Opinion | P.S. 244: The Zagat Review - The New York Times”>Opinion | P.S. 244: The Zagat Review - The New York Times;
<p>Like I said before, I don’t particularly care what schools serve, as long as parents can still send their kids in with lunches.</p>
<p>Over the years, I’ve found myself doubting federal agencies that I had previously only ever believed. I’m not so sure that the American people are always told the entire truth; instead, I feel like we’re told what the government thinks we need to hear to keep the economy from derailing. I can’t imagine what would happen if the government were to suddenly recommend something like the “paleo” diet. It seems pretty convenient that the majority of our calories are supposed to come from huge national food interests that hold immense sway over national politics.</p>
<p>[/paranoia]</p>