Los Angeles, California has the second-largest school system in the United States, and serves 650,000 meals every day. So it might seem daunting to have such a big institution embrace plant-based diets – but that’s what they’ve done.
Since 2012, the Los Angeles schools have participated in Meatless Monday every week (Meatless Monday is a campaign to get people around the world to go meat-free one day a week). The schools also educate students about the benefits of a plant-based diet, and require that any chicken served other days be hormone- and antibiotic-free. And in 2017, Los Angeles launched a pilot program serving vegan options with every meal in seven high schools.
What’s next?
Change isn’t always easy in such a huge system, but Los Angeles has shown it is up to the challenge. They should expand the program to two dedicated vegetarian days each 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 20 cities commit to serving two vegetarian meals (no meat or dairy options) in all public canteens weekly by the end of 2018. We expect to have at least 100 global cities make this or a greater commitment toward less and better meat and more plant-based meals by 2020.