Oakland, 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.
From 2012 to 2015, the city of Oakland, California pioneered an extremely successful program in its elementary schools that was extremely effective at reducing meat consumption and increasing use of organic, more-sustainable meat.
The program, a partnership with Friends of the Earth and the Center for Good Food Purchasing, involved Lean and Green Mondays, with plant based meals and California Thursdays, with foods coming from regional farms. They also reduced meat in other meals – for instance, they replaced half the beef in chili with beans. This allowed schools to spend the savings on organic meat. These simple steps saved the schools $42,000 each year and reduced their carbon footprint by 14%.
What’s next?
Oakland has made great strides with one dedicated vegetarian day each week and reducing meat in other meals. The next step is to add an additional dedicated vegetarian day each week!