"Children should learn about vegetarian options as part of their curriculum. Learning is all over, not just in the literal classroom."
"Where in the school day is there time to include vegetarianism in the curriculum?"
"Children eat lunch; They learn in the cafeteria by eating vegetarian options."
This was part of a Facebook exchange. The first and third sentences come from your humble narrator. The second sentence is from a woman in the exchange.
The context was Plant Forward Thursdays, a program in the Chicago Public Schools to encourage vegetarian alternatives. Our friend Monica Eng has been reporting on this for Axios Chicago. One of the items is the Lentil Joe sandwich. Not a fan of actual Sloppy Joe's but somehow a lentil version might be more appealing. At least I wouldn't be able to tell the difference.
We've seen Jamie Oliver go into a classroom, asking young students to identify vegetables. Most classrooms don't have that opportunity to have a camera crew with a famous British chef asking them questions.
BalanceofFood.com reality TV coverage
BalanceofFood.com television coverage
There are a few schools that have gardens as a way to introduce vegetables to children. Field trips to a garden or a farm offer educational possibilities.
The woman in the social media exchange has a valid point. The school day is filled enough already. This was true even before the pandemic did a number on education.
The stories we have heard is that children have to rush through their lunch hour. Eating in shifts, the process feels more like a pit stop in a NASCAR race where time is crucial.
Offering a day of vegetarian options at school lunch with even a bit of instruction can go a long way, especially in a school system where they can't throw in extras during the school day.
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We get so caught up in the literal classroom as if that is the only place children learn what they need to know. Children can learn about vegetarian options in the cafeteria. The school could put up a basic sheet kids can read in line while waiting for school lunch. Lentils, peanut butter, avocados, beans, tofu, seitan, tempeh, quinoa, yogurt: some of the many ways to get protein without eating meat or fish.
That same sheet could be e-mailed to parents to help their children understand why lunches one day a week will be different.
Your kids watch enough fast food commercials full of hamburgers, chicken sandwiches, fried chicken, and sub sandwiches filled with meat. One day of alternative proteins is a way to introduce the idea to slightly counterbalance the images they see outside school.
Lentil mystery at CPS solved (Axios Chicago)
Mystery of the disappearing lentils at CPS (Axios Chicago)
CPS launches meatless Thursday (Axios Chicago)
Eng's reporting has shown that not all the schools are getting vegetarian options. Her efforts to see for herself were initially denied.
BalanceofFood.com school lunch coverage
My introduction into the meatless concept did not come from a school cafeteria. My mother mistakenly used a jarred spaghetti sauce with meat for a meal that wasn't supposed to have meat. She shrugged, citing that the sauce had so little meat that it wouldn't matter.
I was filling in on a radio show where I was supposed to do an interview with Casey Kasem, yes that Casey Kasem. He was an advocate for meatless options. I got a bunch of reading material to learn about the subject. I do remember being very cynical, eating Burger King hamburgers while reading the research. This was my introduction to what essentially was Meatless Monday (as I remember it).
Kasem spent much of the interview talking about slaughterhouses in a time of day just after my radio audience just had lunch. I steered the conversation more about healthier options.
Other than listening to a few vegetarians at college, I knew nothing about the vegetarian options, much less those who went vegan.
This was about 3 years before The Simpsons came out with the Lisa the Vegetarian episode from Season 7 in 1995. Lisa bonds with a lamb at a petting zoo and vows to give up meat. She gets guidance from Apu as well as Paul and Linda McCartney, real life vegetarians.
Your humble narrator has learned a lot about vegetarian and vegan options over the years. Learned about complete proteins. How nutritional yeast is good for vitamin B12 and is a complete protein.
"Where in the school day is there time to include vegetarianism in the curriculum?"
Lisa Simpson and real people such as your humble narrator didn't learn about vegetarianism in school or even through school lunches. We learned this outside the classroom. Learning about vegetarianism won't, in itself, turn your kids into vegetarians. Most likely, they will learn a more balanced system of foods where they can incorporate vegetarian and vegan options into their diet.
photo credit: Chicago Public Schools
video credit: ABC
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