New York Public School First in the Nation to Go All-Vegetarian
A public school in Flushing, Queens, has officially been recognized by New York City officials as being the first public school in the nation to offer its students an all-vegetarian menu.
P.S. 244Q, The Active Learning Elementary School, is charged with serving both breakfast and lunch to over 400 students from pre-K through third grade.
"The founding of our school was based on health and nutrition and teaching kids how to make healthy choices in the belief that they would be more successful academically and in their life," said principal and co-founder Robert Groff, who started the school in 2008.
Over time, the cafeteria began to reduce the number of days per week it would serve the students meat-based entrees, until it finally did away with them altogether this past January.
Now, in lieu of chicken nuggets and "mystery meat," the school serves black bean quesadillas and tofu vegetables wraps with a side of plantains.
"Each meal has the same amount of mandatory USDA protein requirements as their meat counterparts have in other public schools," reports NBC News.
And the kids seem to love it.
"This is so good," 9-year-old Marian Satti exclaimed to the New York Daily News. "I’m enjoying that it didn’t have a lot of salt in it."
For what it's worth, pizza is still available every Friday. Plain cheese only.