Veracruz, Mexico
First Mover!*
First Movers are cities, local governments, or public institutions (like universities, schools or hospitals) that have at least one meal per week that is completely dedicated to vegetarian foods. This is often alongside other great programs like public education and organic sourcing, but the main criteria is having at least one dedicated vegetarian meal or day per week.
Veracuz’s “Come Consciente” program is brand-new, but we’re excited about it. Launched in April 2018 in Collaboration with Mercy for Animals, the program requires that all schools in the state of Veracruz (the second-largest state in Mexico) serve vegan meals on Mondays. The program aims to improve students’ ability to learn by fighting both childhood obesity and malnutrition.
Through this program, schools will serve almost a million vegan meals each year. Schools will be supported in this effort through demonstration videos and a guide to cooking Veracruzana vegan recipes.
What’s next?
We can’t wait to see the positive changes that are sure to come with this new program. Maybe next Veracruz schools can have two vegan or vegetarian days a week by 2020!
Greenpeace’s global challenge:
Our supporters are challenging cities to race to the top on meat reduction to protect our climate, forests, and water. We aim to have at least 50 cities commit to serving two vegetarian meals (no meat or dairy options) in all public canteens weekly by the end of 2019. We expect to have at least 100 global cities make this or a greater commitment toward less and better meat and more plant-rich meals by 2020.