vegetarian and school cafeteria?

Question

i'm a proud vegetarian and i never buy my lunch at school. i always pack my lunch. all my friends, who buy there lunch, say that our cafetria serves vege pizza for us spiecal ani-meat people. but everyday all i see is hamburger, chicken, yada yada yada. I want to change this. Well, not completely. I want my school to have a "meat lovers" menu and a "vegetarian" menu, so that vegetarians can actually enjoy lunch.
do y'all have any suggestions on how i can approch this with my princapal? and be presuasive?

thanks

thanks for all the adivce! i'm going to get started right away! even though this is my last year of middle school (8th grade) i hope that if this all falls through with y'alls suggestions help, they will keep it up when i'm gone.
thank y'all soooooooooo much!

Answer 1

"Work with your school or office cafeteria to ensure that more vegetarian options are available on their menus. This is one of the most effective ways to help stop the abuse of animals on factory farms—every vegetarian meal served is a victory for animals. Providing information about vegetarianism to classmates and coworkers while making sure that they have access to cruelty-free food is a sure-fire way to effectively promote compassion!" - PETA

I'm a high school teacher and every year on the National MEATOUT Day, I give out samples of Chocolate Silk and Riblets. Most people are amazed at how good the things taste. The crazy questions I get are hilarious..."Will this food hurt me?" My answer, "no, not any more than the pus-filled milk or dead animal that you eat every day." That's a winner.

Have you seen "Super Size Me"? There's an excellent part of that movie all about an alternative school with a vegetarian cafeteria.
See it! The effects on the students were inspiring!

Good luck! Bring your lunch and continue to be a good example!
Here are a couple of good websites about schools that accomplished what you're attempting!

Answer 2

you could also push the idea that it will help with the growing numbers of obese teens, as they will be getting more vegetables and less saturated fats. just make sure you propose healthy vegetarian foods and not fried, fatty, cheese filled "vegetarian options" Think about salads, rolls, sandwiches and wraps, vegie sticks and hummus, etc. Propose that your school seek some kind of government funding as its probably a lot cheaper for them to keep serving processed meat products than to do something fresh. Jamie Oliver (the English TV chef) did a program called school dinners where he tried to get healthier foods into school cafeterias. even though these weren't vegie things, if you can find this on the net or somewhere it could give you an idea of what the problems were in a similar situation. You can always claim it is a discriminatory food policy to not offer a veg menu :)

Answer 3

Schools seem to be getting more health concious about the foods they serve (pulling soda from vending machines, etc.). Why don't you suggest to your principal that having more non-meat choices in the cafeteria would also help with this goal? You could do some research into vendors of fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grain breads, pastas and non-meat sauces that your local school system may be able to work with to update thier menus, while still appealing to the majority of students. (Most people eat salad if the veggies are fresh, same goes for spaghetti w/ marinara.) Present this research to the principal along with your request. He or she will probably take you more seriously if s/he sees how much effort you have given to your presentation.

Also, many fast food restaurants such as Subway and Little Ceasar's cater to high school cafeterias. If your school is one of these, you might put a request in for a certain percentage of the food delivered each day to be meat-free.

Answer 4

According to federal law they have to offer a meat free choice. At most schools it's a salad bar, yogurt or a Peanut Butter & Jelly sandwitch - not too bad but there are better options. The problem you will come up against is the "funding" the district will argue these options are the most cost efficent since there are so few participants. You could look into other low cost vegitarian options as well as find out how many students would participate if the options were offered. Some kids who are watching their weight or are diabetic would welcome the change and there is power in numbers. I would emphasise "Healthy Options" over Vegatarian options to get more supporters. Most people don't understand vegetarian but they get the "Healthy" slant. This way you could probably get PTA support as well. I would suggest Fruit juices, cheese selections and a variety of sald items including fresh and dried items. Good Luck!

Answer 5

Ask if it would be ok to talk to him/her about some concerns that you have about what is served at lunch. Let them know that you are a vegetarian and you would love to eat the food that they have in the cafe if they offered a vegetarian menu. Do you know if there is other vegetarians in the school? if so form an alliance with them and do it togther. hope this helps!

Answer 6

motives: a million. First and the main effective reason is that vegetarian ingredients supplies us greater nutrition's however the non vegetarian products provide basically great quantity of fat (this is often no longer sturdy for wellness) 2. Many vegetables could nicely be eaten uncooked yet can somebody eat meat as a uncooked? 3. ingesting sparkling vegetables are incredibly cautioned via the docs for sturdy wellness yet have you ever heard any wellness care professional recommending you to eat the beef interior the common foundation(common and each-time) 4. Cooking vegetables choose much less spices and little oil or no oil yet does each and every individual had the beef with much less oil & with much less spices (greater than a number of the non veg products are deep fried interior the oil to augment the flavor, maximum of persons & even infants like deep fried meats) 5. ingesting vegetarian nutrition never supplies any side-outcomes yet many time the non veg merchandise will become nutrition poison for a individual. 6. you will locate vegetarian nutrition and the vegetables colourful(organic colour) to eat pleasantly yet do you get any colourful non vegetarian ingredients without including any vegetables or nutrition colours to it. 7. To have a vegetarian nutrition is quite powerful in conserving the physique determine yet have you ever seen each and every individual who isn't fat even after the common intake of non veg. ingredients? 8. in the time of affliction some cooked vegetables could nicely be fed on yet can any physique have the coronary heart to eat the cooked meat in even small factor in the time of their ailment. finally, the alternative is that vegetarian nutrition is greater sturdy for the wellness however the non vegetarian nutrition is often undesirable for the wellness while it replaced into fed on frequently. desire you would be happy with my motives. sturdy success.

Answer 7

write an essay about vegitarianism( hmm. is that a word). explain that your diet differs from others and there are probably more students in the school that are vegitarians( get them involved in the process as well) tell the principal that this will save money because not as much food would be wasted, include an example menu in the essay.... get parents involved as well. also rent the movie "Supersize Me" and state the facts from the movie in your essay-good luck !!!

Answer 8

Gather some other students who support this draw up a kind of plan on how the menu should be. Then approach the principal with this idea.

Answer 9

Come up with a meal plan and menu. Get food ideas, and don't forget to include how much it might save the school. Also, do research on the health statistics for the new meal plan.

Answer 10

your going to have to prove that changing things up will benefit more than yourself, so if I were you I would start by getting a petition going in the lunch room to prove that there are enough people that will eat veggi food. After that , most principals attend PTA meetings, so that might be a good place to approach him. Anyone is welcome to go to them and bring up new ideas for the school.
Good luck!