These new initiatives aim to make vegan school lunches the norm – VegNews

A few initiatives are underway to ensure that children have the most access to vegan options during the 2022/2023 school year. The availability of vegan foods and dairy-free milk in schools across the United States varies widely, with some regions still serving the same greasy dairy pizzas and chocolate milk while others push for more ethical, eco-friendly meals. environment and healthier for children. A number of initiatives aim to close this gap to help all children thrive.

One of the barriers to providing a full range of vegan options in schools is an outdated cow’s milk policy. Under the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs (NSLP), a USDA regulation that is part of dairy industry lobbying, schools are required to serve cow’s milk in order to be reimbursed by the NSLP for meals. Federal regulations state that program participants “may not discriminate against consumption of cow’s milk before school, after school, on school property, or at any school-sponsored event.” Established in 1946, the NSLP serves more than 30 million children in more than 100,000 schools.

The requirement is based on claims that dairy products are nutritionally important for children, despite the fact that many of them, especially children of color, are lactose intolerant. As for the numbers, research shows that up to 80% of blacks and Latinx people, up to 95% of Asians, and over 80% of Native Americans cannot digest lactose without adverse effects such as diarrhea, nausea , cramps, and bloating.

This week, a group of 28 organizations, including the National Urban League, National Action Network Washington Bureau, NAACP’s Maryland State Conference, Switch4Good, and the Coalition for Healthy School Food, sent a letter of demand to the USDA regarding this policy. , which they claim constitutes food racism. “If black lives matter, so do our health and nutrition, but the NSLP has consistently failed children of color,” Milton Mills, MD, said in a statement. “Either schoolchildren drink the milk they are given and suffer in class while they try to learn, or they deprive themselves of a nutritionally important part of their meal.”

The group calls on the USDA to update the NSLP policy to proportionally compensate schools for serving soy milk, which the federal government has recognized as nutritionally equivalent to cow’s milk in its 2020 dietary guidelines “It’s hard to imagine a more inequitable and socially unjust USDA practice than giving cow’s milk to children who get sick from drinking it,” said Dotsie Bausch, executive director of Switch4Good, an Olympic cyclist, in a press release. “If 80% of white children got sick from drinking milk, schools, parents and government agencies would rightly be falling on themselves to find a solution.

Jo Saint-George, legal director of Women of Color for Equal Justice, points out that the NSLP is in clear contradiction to the principles of the USDA Equity Commission, a 15-member group charged with improving fair practices throughout the world. ‘organization. “USDA anti-discrimination regulations require the agency to take action to correct the current injustice against lactose intolerant children,” Saint-George said in a statement. “Failure to act delegitimizes the very existence of the USDA Equity Commission.”

Have a vegan school lunch on the menu

While the USDA’s letter of request aims to give children fair access to dairy-free milk, other developments are helping to put vegan food on the school menu. In Illinois, Governor JB Pritzker signed new legislation in May that will give nearly two million children in school districts across the state access to more plant-based meals. Under the new law, which will take effect in August 2023, all schools in Illinois must provide a plant-based meal that meets federal nutrition regulations to all students who request it. This new law also serves to satisfy other requirements, including those followed by Muslim students under halal food laws.

New York City schools are also trying something new with Plant Powered Fridays, a program championed by city mayor Eric Adams, who regained his health by switching to a plant-based diet after being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. First implemented in February, this program gives more than 930,000 children in the New York City public school system access to vegan food every Friday.

Earlier this year, California made significant strides in that direction by allocating $700 million of the state’s $308 billion budget. This sum will be split into two parts, with $100 million going directly to help schools source plant-based foods, as well as sustainably produced foods, California-grown foods, and foods to meet the needs student food. The remaining $600 million will be invested in upgrading school kitchen infrastructure and training and paying food service workers, who will prepare new plant-based meals and increase cooking scratch.

At the federal level, Reps. Nydia Velázquez (D-NY) and Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) proposed the Healthy Future Students and Earth Act (HR4108) in June 2021. This bill seeks to establish a pilot voluntary grant program which prompts school districts to serve plant-based, planet-friendly and culturally appropriate meals.

In February, vegan musical artist Billie Eilish took a short break from her Happier Than Ever world tour to voice her support for HR4108 on Capitol Hill. “I’m proud to champion this legislation that will help fight climate change, address food insecurity and promote health equity,” Eilish said in a statement.

Veganuary’s Vegan School Lunch Challenge

While many children depend on school meals for nourishment, some parents are able to prepare meals for their children to take to school. This year, Veganuary is aiming to inspire parents to make vegan school lunches with its first fall campaign. Typically, Veganuary challenges people to go vegan for the month of January and beyond. This year, Veganuary is behind the Vegan School Lunch Challenge, which runs from August 16 to September 13 and aims to inspire families to eat plant-based for lunch on at least one day of the week.

To help parents prepare a vegan school lunch, Veganuary has teamed up with vegan brand Forager Project, which makes cashew milk yogurts for kids, to create a toolkit containing a variety of nutrition resources based on plants, such as kid-friendly recipes.

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Anna Starostinetskaya is the editor-in-chief of VegNews and always keeps tabs on all things vegan in her hometown of San Francisco, California, and everywhere else.