NYC elementary school cafeteria is one of the 1st in the nation to go meatless

[mike rossi]

New York City elementary school cafeteria is one of the first in the nation to go meatless.

Students at P.S. 244 , the Active Learning Elementary School, are being treated to eclectic fare, including black bean and cheese quesadillas, falafel and tofu in an Asian sesame sauce.

“It’s been a really great response from the kids, but they also understand it’s about what is the healthiest option for them,” principal Bob Groff told ABCNews.com. “Because we teach them throughout our curriculum to make healthy choices, they understand what is happening and believe in what we’re doing too.”

When the school opened in 2008, they started serving vegetarian meals three days a week. The campus became a vegetarian test kitchen for the city, Groff said.

“We then started to try out recipes with small groups of students, see what they liked, see what they didn’t like,” he said.

The recipes were a hit, Groff said, prompting the school to expand its meat-free meals to four days a week and then adopting a 100 percent vegetarian kitchen in January.

“The big thing I would like people to know is, this isn’t just about a vegetarian menu,” Groff said. ”It’s about living a healthy lifestyle and educating students on what options are out there.”

All meals have to adhere to USDA standards, he said, making sure students get plenty of nutrients, including protein, for their growing bodies.

That means nutrient-dense foods such as chickpeas, kidney beans and tofu.

If the herbivore-friendly grub doesn’t suit students, Groff said they’re always welcome to pack their lunch, including meat.

The school operates on an application and lottery system, meaning it’s not zoned to a particular neighborhood. It serves 400 students from pre-kindergarten through grade three.

[burmjohn]

Healthy according to who? PETA?

[Elmo]

Healthy eating comes from having a diverse diet.  Vegetarians tend to have a more diverse diet in general where as the generalization of meat eaters are that they eat nothing but meat and potatoes which lacks vitamins and fiber.  Omnivores who include meat, green vegetables, and fish into their diets tend to be the healthiest.

[WNYBuckHunter]

My daughter has been getting this kind of crap from her school. Ive had a couple of chats with her teacher about how I dont appreciate her being told that meat isnt healthy, as it is not true, and not how she is being raised. I dont think I was the only parent to do so, because I never heard about it from her again.

[josephmrtn]

Healthy eating comes from having a diverse diet.  Vegetarians tend to have a more diverse diet in general where as the generalization of meat eaters are that they eat nothing but meat and potatoes which lacks vitamins and fiber.  Omnivores who include meat, green vegetables, and fish into their diets tend to be the healthiest.

+1

vegan aint the answer...

 

My daughter has been getting this kind of crap from her school. Ive had a couple of chats with her teacher about how I dont appreciate her being told that meat isnt healthy, as it is not true, and not how she is being raised. I dont think I was the only parent to do so, because I never heard about it from her again.

Meat is good for you!!!!!! its the crap they feed meat animals nowadays that makes it bad... my mom lived next to a Tyson chicken farm in Tenn. when she was young to this day she cant eat Tyson chicken... Nothing in the world better for you than wild venison or turkey...

[burmjohn]

I'd also like to add USDA standards are complete BS, there is not a single need for carbs from bread, rice, pasta, grains etc... Fats from foods do NOT make you fat, its amazing how backwards things are and what lobbyists and big money can do to even skew things like healthy eating. 

 

[Elmo]

A lot of what makes certain "foods" bad for you is not the food itself but all the additives and preservatives they put into it.  Those are not natural.  They're chemicals.  Recently, a person had an experiment where they saved a McDonald's hamburger for 14 years.  And after 14 years, the hamburger looked exactly the same.

 

You look at all the other cultures who eat everything as they are naturally grown and they are all healthy and don't suffer from obesity.  Yet, they eat large quantities of what western dieters describe as bad for you.  Example, Asian eat tons and tons of rice.  Italians and other Mediterranean diet on large quantities of pasta and olive oil.  Inuit Indians eat tons of seal blubber and no vegetables during their long winters yet you don't see them dying from heart failure.  What's common among these diets is that none of them includes junk food and chemicals added to their food.

 

Look at the ingredients in your soda.  You have to ask yourself if you separate the ingredients, would you eat any of them individually?  Phosphoric acid is one of the ingredients.  Would you swallow phosphoric acid by itself?  Once you see that then you'll understand what's wrong with the western diet.

[Carbonelement]

ya... read about soy and tofu, good luck with the cancer and hormonal imbalances down the road.  Refined soy is one of the worst things for you. the city is full of a bunch a liberal hippies anyway a few less down the road couldnt hurt

[burmjohn]

A lot of what makes certain "foods" bad for you is not the food itself but all the additives and preservatives they put into it.  Those are not natural.  They're chemicals.  Recently, a person had an experiment where they saved a McDonald's hamburger for 14 years.  And after 14 years, the hamburger looked exactly the same.

 

You look at all the other cultures who eat everything as they are naturally grown and they are all healthy and don't suffer from obesity.  Yet, they eat large quantities of what western dieters describe as bad for you.  Example, Asian eat tons and tons of rice.  Italians and other Mediterranean diet on large quantities of pasta and olive oil.  Inuit Indians eat tons of seal blubber and no vegetables during their long winters yet you don't see them dying from heart failure.  What's common among these diets is that none of them includes junk food and chemicals added to their food.

 

Look at the ingredients in your soda.  You have to ask yourself if you separate the ingredients, would you eat any of them individually?  Phosphoric acid is one of the ingredients.  Would you swallow phosphoric acid by itself?  Once you see that then you'll understand what's wrong with the western diet.

 

 

 

I agree and disagree.

 

Agree with the processed foods, none of that crap can be good for you. I do my best to stay away from it. But comparing diets between different area's is difficult, different lifestyles and activity levels. 

 

Italians in Italy do not each large quantities of pasta though, usually its just a small amount as a side dish, not as a meal like I grew up on .  Olive oil is great for you along with tons of other types of fats. I changed my eating habits bit ago, and did way to much research. Never read up on the Asians and white rice, however i'm sure they have more activity in their lives then a typical american. 

 

Long story short, the less sugar and processed grains (or carbs in general if your strict) you eat the better.  

[sits in trees]

I would send my kid to school with a big tupperware bowl of steak tartare with a side of onions and capers...or maybe jaeger schnitzelI....

[burmjohn]

I would send my kid to school with a big tupperware bowl of steak tartare with a side of onions and capers...or maybe jaeger schnitzelI....

Or better yet a whole pig to share.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD

[apoallo]

its bad enough the schools have whole wheat pizza now this.... if they think meat is bad for you then they would vomit over what I will be doing this weekend. every spring me and a few buddies go to sullivan county for our spring turkey "hunt". However over the past few years. its turned into less hunting and more drinking and eating lots of meat through out the night.

Edited May 4, 2013 by apoallo

[fasteddie]

Veggies are good for you for the most part but ...... a lot of vegetables are Genetically Engineered and companies like Monsanto and others are getting away with a lot .

[Doc]

Ever wonder how much of this stuff has been hyped beyond its true impact? I mean, just how many years is it supposed to add onto your life if you obsess about each and every bite you eat. The doctors, scientists, and media have you reading labels, and not eating this and not eating that to the point where we stress out at every meal. And yet there is no way that they can say that if you eat regularly at McDonalds that it will strip "X" number of years off your life. The way I read it, the whole U.S. population consists of obese, out-of-shape, self-poisoned time-bombs that are at danger of keeling over at any time because of their lifstyle and eating habits. And yet the life expectancy continues to stretch. Oh and before anyone brings it up, I do realize that they have perfected the ability to keep you alive almost indefinitely through drugs and medical devices (Some of that I don't really call "being alive"). But still ... listen to the constant drumbeat of the so-called experts. we're all going to die next year if we don't start taking up a set of "grazing" eating habits. Most likely we are more liable to die from the added stress in our lives over the proper eating  and lifestyle habits.

 

Get me another order of fries and huge dish of ice-cream!