Dark Ages of school food

What disturbs you about vegan eating? I suggest you do some research. The only missing vitamin is B12, and that can be easily obtained either through supplements, or naturally through things like seaweed or fermented products(miso, tempeh), or nutritional yeast.

Vegan diets are much healthier, and will likely lead to longer lives. As anecdotal evidence, my 4 year old (turns 5 in two weeks) has been 97th percentile in height and weight since birth, eating almost exclusively a vegan diet. He excels in sports and in school. (he's the kid who hits the ball the furthest in T-ball, and the kid who gets all the goals for his soccer team). So much for that disturbing vegan diet theory. (but I've done the research, and almost all real studies say it is healthier than animal based diets or any others I've found).

What disturbs me is not is not the fact that they are eating vegan, but the fact that they are being mandated to eat that type of diet. Eating that type of diet should be a choice, not mandated. It's certainly not the norm in the American society today. Whether a vegan diet is healthier or not, is actually the subject of much debate.

While your son is doing well eating that type of diet, not everyone does. I'm sure you take great care to be sure that he gets the proper supplements to complete his dietary requirements. I'm not so sure that that is going to be the case with children were forced to eat vegan for 2 meals and then go home to eat with parents and siblings who don't.

I teach third grade at JCPS, and although I bring my lunch each day I often go through the lunch line for some healthy sides Each day there are raw veggie choices (red and green pepper strips, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots) and fresh fruit (kiwi, apples, bananas, pears, etc.). The veggie entree salad is packed with lettuce and spinach. The new pizza they serve on Fridays is oozing with melted (real) cheese. My school is also lucky that we were awarded a grant that provides fresh fruit and/or veggies three days a week. My kiddos have been exposed to star fruit, mango, melons, dragon fruit, etc.

We were really proud to supply meat to JCPS in the past. In fact just last month we did beef for burgoo and were really excited to be a part of trying to make JCPS lunches better. We know that local is not the cheapest option availible, and especially with local meat. The true cost of agriculture is a tough sell when compared to it's factory farmed competitors, we appreciate that JCPS recognizes what we do is still of value even if they can't serve it everyday.