Why are schools serving meat?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The entitlement in this thread, wow. For some kids, school lunch is the only real meal they get. Should it be high quality? Yes! But we should not force OP's dietary choices on kids who might not get food elsewhere.

FWIW, I was vegetarian for more than a decade and vegan for several years. I feel much, much better eating meat.

You are a sample-size of one. And it’s only your opinion.

A vegetarian diet is better for kids, better for the economy, and better for the environment.

There is no planet B !

My kids were in a pre-school a few years ago that decide to go with a vegetarian meal service. It was a higher end vegetarian service and our tuitions went up significantly because the food service cost more. If we did not want the vegetarian meal service, we could send in any peanut and tree nut free lunches, but the cost of the meal service was baked into the tuition. By Christmas, I was back to packing lunches because my kids only ate half of what was served and they were hungry and cranky by the end of the day, so we started packing lunches. By Spring break, they were throwing away so much food and more than half of the families were sending in lunches. The school canceled the meal service and adjusted the tuition the following year and everyone just packed and sent lunches.

My kids will eat vegetarian periodically, but they said that the lunch options were not good unless you were vegetarian all the time. But many of the omnivorous children did not like the vegetarian choices that were offered. So many of them were eating the sides and not the entrees and not getting enough to eat. I think less than 1/4 of the children were actually eating the lunches when they discontinued the service.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The entitlement in this thread, wow. For some kids, school lunch is the only real meal they get. Should it be high quality? Yes! But we should not force OP's dietary choices on kids who might not get food elsewhere.

FWIW, I was vegetarian for more than a decade and vegan for several years. I feel much, much better eating meat.

You are a sample-size of one. And it’s only your opinion.

A vegetarian diet is better for kids, better for the economy, and better for the environment.

There is no planet B !

My kids were in a pre-school a few years ago that decide to go with a vegetarian meal service. It was a higher end vegetarian service and our tuitions went up significantly because the food service cost more. If we did not want the vegetarian meal service, we could send in any peanut and tree nut free lunches, but the cost of the meal service was baked into the tuition. By Christmas, I was back to packing lunches because my kids only ate half of what was served and they were hungry and cranky by the end of the day, so we started packing lunches. By Spring break, they were throwing away so much food and more than half of the families were sending in lunches. The school canceled the meal service and adjusted the tuition the following year and everyone just packed and sent lunches.

My kids will eat vegetarian periodically, but they said that the lunch options were not good unless you were vegetarian all the time. But many of the omnivorous children did not like the vegetarian choices that were offered. So many of them were eating the sides and not the entrees and not getting enough to eat. I think less than 1/4 of the children were actually eating the lunches when they discontinued the service.

The problem was: surely they gave up too soon.

What they should have done was to continue the service, and also encourage the parents to go vegan / vegetarian at home.

[Anonymous]

Serving meat to public school children is the polar opposite of climate justice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can't believe this thread has gone so long. Most kids aren't vegetarians and won't become one. There are many, many kids who won't touch anything green and would rather starve.

There are other kids who need all the fat, calories, and protein they can get because they don't get much at home.

High quality fruits and veggies are also expensive. Most schools don't have the budget for it.

Disagree. There is soo so much food waste in school. Schools would be better focused on doing away with “hot lunch” and offer raw whole fruits that aren’t expensive (apples, oranges, bananas), PB sandwiches (or nut alternative), whole white milk. Schools are making the poor overweight kids even more overweight. No one starving in the US

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why do we call it meat? It should be called flesh, or dead animal, or killed animal. That’s what it really is.

For me to live, something else must die. That's true no matter what is consumed, even treated water.

[Anonymous]

Not everyone can be vegan. Some people cannot tolerate legumes. Migraines and kidney stones are not fun.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not everyone can be vegan. Some people cannot tolerate legumes. Migraines and kidney stones are not fun.

If you can tell me about protein rich foods that are not legume or wheat based, I am listening (legumes include soy and peanuts). Plus, no cashews.

Beyond quinoa

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not everyone can be vegan. Some people cannot tolerate legumes. Migraines and kidney stones are not fun.

So what? Most people CAN be vegan, and most kids should be (at least in public schools).

Most kids do not have a peanut allergy so you let most eat peanut butter but provide a nut free table.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What are you going to serve instead that most kids will eat? Give me a 5 day sample menu.

20dollar bag of Kayle chips. And Patchouli water

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The entitlement in this thread, wow. For some kids, school lunch is the only real meal they get. Should it be high quality? Yes! But we should not force OP's dietary choices on kids who might not get food elsewhere.

FWIW, I was vegetarian for more than a decade and vegan for several years. I feel much, much better eating meat.

You are a sample-size of one. And it’s only your opinion.

A vegetarian diet is better for kids, better for the economy, and better for the environment.

There is no planet B !

My kids were in a pre-school a few years ago that decide to go with a vegetarian meal service. It was a higher end vegetarian service and our tuitions went up significantly because the food service cost more. If we did not want the vegetarian meal service, we could send in any peanut and tree nut free lunches, but the cost of the meal service was baked into the tuition. By Christmas, I was back to packing lunches because my kids only ate half of what was served and they were hungry and cranky by the end of the day, so we started packing lunches. By Spring break, they were throwing away so much food and more than half of the families were sending in lunches. The school canceled the meal service and adjusted the tuition the following year and everyone just packed and sent lunches.

My kids will eat vegetarian periodically, but they said that the lunch options were not good unless you were vegetarian all the time. But many of the omnivorous children did not like the vegetarian choices that were offered. So many of them were eating the sides and not the entrees and not getting enough to eat. I think less than 1/4 of the children were actually eating the lunches when they discontinued the service.

+1. Supplying fresh vegetarian meals is expensive and too many kids will refuse to eat it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The entitlement in this thread, wow. For some kids, school lunch is the only real meal they get. Should it be high quality? Yes! But we should not force OP's dietary choices on kids who might not get food elsewhere.

FWIW, I was vegetarian for more than a decade and vegan for several years. I feel much, much better eating meat.

You are a sample-size of one. And it’s only your opinion.

A vegetarian diet is better for kids, better for the economy, and better for the environment.

There is no planet B !

My kids were in a pre-school a few years ago that decide to go with a vegetarian meal service. It was a higher end vegetarian service and our tuitions went up significantly because the food service cost more. If we did not want the vegetarian meal service, we could send in any peanut and tree nut free lunches, but the cost of the meal service was baked into the tuition. By Christmas, I was back to packing lunches because my kids only ate half of what was served and they were hungry and cranky by the end of the day, so we started packing lunches. By Spring break, they were throwing away so much food and more than half of the families were sending in lunches. The school canceled the meal service and adjusted the tuition the following year and everyone just packed and sent lunches.

My kids will eat vegetarian periodically, but they said that the lunch options were not good unless you were vegetarian all the time. But many of the omnivorous children did not like the vegetarian choices that were offered. So many of them were eating the sides and not the entrees and not getting enough to eat. I think less than 1/4 of the children were actually eating the lunches when they discontinued the service.

The problem was: surely they gave up too soon.

What they should have done was to continue the service, and also encourage the parents to go vegan / vegetarian at home.

You're being ridiculous. If they had continued the food service and tried to encourage parent to go vegan/vegetarian at home, many of the families would have looked for alternative preschools for their children and this preschool would have had trouble staying in business.

Vegetarianism is a choice. And not one you can force on people. You are a tiny majority of the population and the much larger majority doesn't want to be forced to follow your choice. And ultimately, the school was a business and they were going to lose clients if they continued on that path. The school opted to stop the meal program entirely and just have the parents provide their children's meals.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well they can't serve peanut butter like most kids used to eat...

We have sun butter which is better than meat

Kids won’t eat that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well they can't serve peanut butter like most kids used to eat...

We have sun butter which is better than meat

Kids won’t eat that.

They certainly will; if you do not give them other choices.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well they can't serve peanut butter like most kids used to eat...

We have sun butter which is better than meat

Kids won’t eat that.

They certainly will; if you do not give them other choices.

Picky kids will starve rather than eat something they don’t like.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We know that the meat industry is inherently bad and more expensive. Why are we spending all of this money on school lunches (in a normal year) promoting bad eating habits?

Frankly I wouldn’t mind straight vegan but I know there would be some objections to that one.

Meat is good for you.

The question is why are they serving products with soy proteins