High School Opens Vegetarian Lunch Line

[deadparrot]

ATLANTA - Miriam Archibong remembers the food offerings her high school cafeteria used to serve for vegetarians: bland salads and greasy cheese pizza.

But salads are "not sufficient to survive," she says. "Cheese pizza — that's not healthy because of all that grease."

Archibong often brought her own food, lunching on applesauce, carrots and water. Finally, she and other vegetarians at Grady High School demanded — and won — some changes two years ago.

Today, Grady High has a separate vegetarian lunch line with a menu as varied as veggie eggrolls, pasta salad, vegetarian pizza and sloppy joes made of tofu.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060109/ap_on_he_me/fit_veggie_lunch_lines

[WillParkinson]

1. Good for them!

I hope it works out for the long haul.

[catmother]

2. i agree. nt

[I Have A Dream]

3. That's really good news. n/t

[marylanddem]

4. Way to go, vegetarians. eom

[LizW]

5. This is good

especially because the meats served in school cafeterias are often questionable "mystery meat" of indeterminate origin.

My kids' schools have always had some vegetarian options. There's not a lot of variety, though. There's always a potato bar and the usual salads and raw vegetables and fruit. It would be nice to have an actual vegetarian entree choice.

[stop the bleeding]

6. Been a Vegetarian for almost 5 years and my lady has been one for

12 years. It is a lifestyle that is well worth looking into. Bear in mind that there are all different types of vegetarians, some are stricter than others.

Thanks for posting this - this country could use a little more health conscious diets.

[On the Road]

7. This is Good

It's sad that it's latest breaking news.

And it's too bad that it's a separate line. Eating vegetables is not only for vegetarians.

[aaronbees]

8. Sloppy joes made of tofu ....

sounds good to me! Thanks, lunch lady :) This is quite cool news to hear, but it sure is strange and surprising that it's one of the first of its kind in the country (at least according to the article).

[DemBones DemBones]

9. Execellent move. We've been vegetarians

only four months but our daughter has been vegetarian for 19 years, vegan for the past 7 or so, and is incredibly healthy and thin. We are hoping to become incredibly healthy and thin, too!

Anyway, when my daughter was in college, the food services director thought it was enough that they served vegatables and peanut butter was always available for sandwich-making. Fortunately, she was able to live in campus housing with a kitchen and got a doctor's note to exempt her from the meal plan. Now the college has gotten with the program and has a vegetarian meal line.

All high schools should offer good vegetarian foods and better education about nutrition. Did you know that it's a fad in Georgia high schools to ladle pools of ranch dressing on top of the cheese and meat-topped pizza that's served? The kids get their pizza and then go to the salad bar and drown the pizza in ranch dresssing -- and probably don't even eat salad. I saw this going on in schools where I taught and mentioned it to a dietician who's an administrator in the state's school lunch program. She told me it wasn't just where I taught but across the state. And then there are the soft drink and junk food machines in the schools -- insanity.



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