Baltimore City Public Schools first district in nation to adopt Meatless Monday

October 5th, 2009

Photo via Flickr: Back_garage

The tater tots may stay, but it looks like sloppy joes will have to be saved for another day of the week — Baltimore City Public Schools (BCPS) recently became the first school district in the nation to adopt Meatless Monday. Slated for the menu: Kid-friendly nutritious veg fare like black bean nachos, eggplant parmigiana, and baked potatoes with broccoli and cheese.

This is amazing news. We’re not talking about some private prep academy in Northern California, where the kids are already doing downward dogs in gym class and toting bento boxes for lunch; this is an inner city school district of 80,000 students in one of the most obese cities in the country. Encouraging students to eat vegetarian — especially when the emphasis is on locally grown produce, as it is at BCPS — will go a long way toward addressing this public health crisis.

With 67 percent of the children in the district eligible for the federal free- or reduced-price lunch program, shouldn’t our tax dollars be invested in healthy meals for our youngest citizens? Otherwise, we wind up paying twice: Once for the lunches themselves, and again for increased health care costs down the road.

Obesity is adding 9.1 percent to the annual cost of health care. If we truly care about reducing insurance premiums and making health care affordable for everyone, we should be implementing Meatless Monday at every school across the country.

–Jennifer Grayson