Public School 244 in New York City is the first elementary school in N.Y.C. (and in the nation) to go all vegetarian, all the time. The Queens school wanted to start serving healthy food options to students so they started serving a vegetarian lunch three times a week, then four times a week, and now they've gone completely vegetarian.
The school has 400 students in pre-k through third grade. Schools' Chancellor Dennis Walcott has expressed pride at the school's "trailblazing" move. Principal Robert Groff shares that children enjoy veggie offerings, including black beans and cheddar quesadillas served with salsa and roasted potatoes. Yum!
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Personally, I think this is a great move. I'm not vegetarian (have been in the past), but I would certainly rather have my children be eating from a healthy vegetarian menu at school as opposed to pink slime and chicken nuggets made out of I don't even want to know what. It's a great way to get young children accustomed to eating a wide array of vegetable offerings and to learn about alternative protein options. I don't consider the processed animal protein products being served to many children our schools a healthy dietary option.
Kudos to the school for going vegetarian. Remember that we are building our children's eating habits and relationship to food. We are training their palates. They spend so much time at school and school lunches offer a great opportunity to educate our children about healthy eating habits and help develop a taste for good for you food. I hope more schools follow suit and even if they don't go all vegetarian all the time, they could still benefit our children by going all healthy all the time.
I know that we can't be 100 percent sure right now if this school will be offering honest to goodness real vegetables, but I wish upon a New York Public Schools star that they are serving "real" vegetables and not canned ones with all kinds of salt and preservatives–that would not be much better than pink slime and questionable chicken nuggets. I live in the San Francisco Bay Area where veggies don't come out of cans and I just assume that's how it is for everyone. But for now, I'll trust and assume they're real veggies, and still be happy with this school's move. Way to go.
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