NYC School Sees Student Gains After Going All Veg!

Need more proof that veggie kids can and do thrive? The first U.S. public school to begin serving only meatless meals in its cafeteria has noticed gains in student attendance, test scores, and energy.

P.S. 244 in Flushing, NY began serving strictly vegetarian meals after finding that “the plant-based choices were better than the carnivorous ones offered by the city,” reports New York Daily News.

“We believe that [students] achieve better when they have healthier food choices and are educated about those food choices,” said the school’s principal Bob Groff.

The school, which serves children from pre-K to grade 3, also offers up weekly nutrition classes and allows children with lagging energy to take “energy breaks” with activities.

Students at the school are still allowed to bring their own lunches containing meat, but nearly 90 percent of the students are opting in to the full-veg school lunches still.

So far, Groff  has also noted that “after one semester, the number of students at the school who were classified as overweight and obese dropped 2%.”

What a great change for these children! A veg-only lunch promotes more of the good stuff, and allows students to see that a meal does not need to equal meat. We hope to see more of this kind of move at schools all over the country soon!

Image source: USDA / Wikimedia Commons