Plant-based meals rock the schoolhouse - nutritional education program aimed at school children

Vegetarian Times, June, 1997

In the little town of Trumansburg, N.Y., the local supermarket now carries whole wheat couscous and practically any raw green you can name. No, the town hasn't become a hotbed of vegetarian culture; it just happens to be home to one of the seven pilot programs in the nation trying to bring food-based curriculum into the public schools.

Conceived by Cornell University nutritionist Antonia Demas, the program introduces elementary school children to the kind of predominantly vegetable- and grain-centered cuisines of cultures outside the United States. Children have hands-on experiences in cooking classes, but teachers also reinforce the new cuisine when studying more traditional academic courses, such as social studies, geography, literature, history, science and even math. "Ultimately we deal with types of foods that parents insist these kids would never touch," Demas says. "But I have seen over and over again that when children are familiar with foods and have actually worked with them, they are more willing to eat them."

In fact, in Trumansburg, Demas' research showed that "children will eat up to 20 times more low-fat, high-fiber foods if they first learn about them through hands-on experience in the classroom." Demas backs this up by offering the same foods in the schools' cafeterias. "Children would go straight for the foods they knew from the classroom," she said. "And I even had parents tell me they were being pressured at home to serve these dishes. I call it the `trickle-up' effect of this curriculum."

Demas is now trying to get the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to adopt the program as a national curriculum. But given the angst the agency went through earlier this year just to get yogurt on the school menu as a meat substitute, it seems like it might take a while for Demas to penetrate the bureaucracy. The meat and dairy industries currently have a real lock on cafeteria offerings.

In March, despite vociferous complaints from the beef industry, the USDA finally gave the go-ahead for yogurt. The National Cattlemen's Association, among others, insisted that there were already plenty of meat substitutes for the children, including cheese, beans, eggs and peanut butter.

Besides the health advantages, proponents argue that the change reflects the eating habits of a growing number of American children, who as toddlers are often given yogurt as dessert, for a snack or as their afternoon meal. Under the regulation, the USDA would have four ounces of yogurt replacing one ounce of meat.

There's a lot at stake for the meat forces -- and most of it involves money. Currently, the 94,000 participating schools in the school lunch program serve up the equivalent of 750 million beef lunches a year, each with about two ounces of meat per serving. That's about 150 million pounds of meat bought by the program annually. Although the USDA mouthed assurances that purchases will not be cut back, the industry is not taking any chances.

Of course, merely throwing in a yogurt or two doesn't necessarily influence children to choose more plant-based meals. Demas' program is a potentially greater headache to the National Cattlemen's Association because it introduces children at an early age to different ways to eat vegetables, legumes and grains.

Demas' program is currently being taught at schools in New York City; Sante Fe; Rochester, N.Y.; and Lynn and Sommerville, Mass.

The typical menus concentrate heavily on Asian, African and Latin American cuisines and dishes range from Chinese bean dumplings to couscous chili to Brazilian black beans to soul stew casseroles of blackeyed peas, corn, collards and molasses.

The program is an unqualified success with kids and parents alike. What can be difficult is getting the initial support of local school boards or parent-teacher associations. "I keep my pitch about the food and not about a philosophy," Demas says. "I never go in using words like vegetarian or vegan. If I said I wanted all your children to be little vegans, I would have been kicked out in no time."