Meatless Monday in NYC Schools
Author: Anne Hus, David Brower
The Big Apple has taken a big bite towards living up to its fruit-friendly name. In early March, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that starting in the 2019-2020 school year, all New York City public schools would serve meatless meals on Mondays. This means that the district's 1.1 million students will have access to vegan or vegetarian food for breakfast and lunch.
The Meatless Monday program, which is a part of New York City's Free School Lunch for All program for public schools, was tested in 15 schools and was shown to be cost-neutral and well-favored among students. By implementing Meatless Mondays, the city hopes to accomplish two goals: improve childhood health and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
With respect to public health, the new policy will decrease consumption of processed meat and encourage consumption of fresh produce. At a time when 65 percent of American children, ages 12 to 14, show signs of early cholesterol disease, Meatless Mondays could be the start of healthier lifestyle choices for New York youth.
Additionally, by encouraging plant-based eating, New York City is taking a stand on the environment. According to a recent analysis by Oxford University, the production of animal products takes up 83 percent of all farmland globally, and is responsible for 58 percent of the agricultural industry's greenhouse gas emissions. By replacing animal products with plant-based foods, New York City schools will reduce their carbon footprint. As Andrea Strong, founder of the NYC Healthy School Food Alliance, notes, if New York City public schools replaced all beef burgers with plant-based burgers just once a month, the city would reduce its carbon footprint by 375,000 pounds a year.
Hopefully, Meatless Mondays will help teach kids early-on the importance and feasibility of protecting not only their own health, but also our shared environment.
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