Los Angeles, USA
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.
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.