Recent topics brought up include:

– Mentioned summer camps offering vegan options.

– Parent posted: “I’m looking for quick vegan lunch ideas for toddlers attending a nut-free school. We have twin, 3.5 y/o daughters who are not picky eaters but we pretty much rotate the same 3-4 lunches each week.” Suggestions were given by other families.

– Shared: Are you searching for vegan sporting goods? If so, you might want to check out Eco Sports. Here you’ll find items for both children and adults including basket balls, soccer balls, and volley balls.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/VRGparentsandkids is intended to be a group that offers support for families raising children on vegan diets and for vegan kids around the world. We envision it as a place to get advice about a wide-variety of topics: pregnancy, birthday parties, school lunches, Halloween, non-leather apparel, cruelty-free products, summer camps, and more. Please use it as a place to share your wisdom, seek advice, or just find a sympathetic ear. The goal is to offer support.

Consequently, any profane, defamatory, offensive, or violent language will be removed. Feel free to disagree, but do so respectfully. Hateful or discriminatory comments regarding race, ethnicity, religion, gender, disability, sexual orientation, or political beliefs will not be tolerated. We expect that posts should relate to vegan diets and lifestyles. The Vegetarian Resource Group reserves the right to monitor all content and ban any user who posts in violation of the above rules, any law or regulation, SPAM, or anything otherwise off topic.

Please share this information with any veggie families that you know! Thanks.

Here is a song called Look into my Eyes from a musical I’ve written and this scene is when a young calf is pleading for its life. The story is about a dairy farming family and the youngest neurodivergent daughter who befriends a calf. It is inspired by Animal Farm, Beatrix Potter, Okja and all the wonderful people I’m lucky enough to know. I wondered if you might share it? I’m trying to get a production to tour round schools to hopefully inspire some young people to become vegan. Thanks, Hero HERO DOUGLAS

For short cooking video, see https://youtu.be/84T8Nph3NGU

Enjoy this Chili Fries recipe and other low-cost vegan dishes from Skyler Kilmer. See: https://www.vrg.org/blog/2020/10/15/vegan-at-the-dollar-tree-store/

Ananya was raised in a vegetarian family and became vegan at the age of six. She and her brother began a club called Save Our Earth, which was dedicated to protecting animal rights and human rights. Her reference said she started volunteering for the Utah Animal Rights Coalition when she was 12 years old, and each year had been an integral, regular, and reliable volunteer for their annual VegFest. When she was 14, she spoke at VegFest on a panel comprised of vegan kids. She also helped spread the word about the event by doing promotional interviews with the media. In 2021 she volunteered at the UARC festival booth, juggling the tasks of serving prepared food, selling merchandise, accepting donations, and responding to problems.

Ananya has volunteered for a program feeding the homeless since 2016, and has helped cooked vegan meals for homeless youth. Though not formally in charge because of age and liability, she planned menus, purchased ingredients, and helped oversee activities. Ananya is also a triathlete. When she has participated in overnight camps for this community, she has pushed administrators in charge of these camps to ensure that they provide nutritious vegan meals as an option. She also joined in a live broadcast with Globeracers, an India-based platform for runners and athletes, where she talked about being a vegan athlete. When she first started competing, she and her brother were the only vegans. They encouraged and inspired other athletes to eliminate meat from their diets. She said people are beginning to realize that one can compete at the elite level without consuming animal protein.

Ananya’s future goal is to help us find ways to inhabit other planets by studying Astro-biology and data sciences, to continue to fight for the planet we currently have, and also continue to be a voice for the animals. She believes it is important for those who believe in animal rights to be present in this emerging field in order to encourage an ethical worldview, which centers the importance of sentience and kindness towards beings not like us.

For information on other winners and applying for the next Vegetarian Resource Group college scholarship contest, see: https://www.vrg.org/student/scholar.htm

Deadline is February 20th of each year.

To support additional VRG scholarships and internships, donate at www.vrg.org/donate, call (410) 366-8343, or mail contribution to The Vegetarian Resource Group, P.O. Box 1463, Baltimore, MD 21203.

By Cierra Peterlin, University of Maryland Dietetic Intern

As a dietetic intern, I have spent the past 10 months rotating through different job settings with organizations from hospitals to food pantries to universities and more. Sometimes the work is something that sparks joy and sometimes it is simply a professional experience. My week with The Vegetarian Resource Group was definitely the former! I have been living a vegan lifestyle for the past 2 years for pretty much all of the reasons there are: the environment, the animals, and human health and food security, so I was very excited when I learned that I would have the opportunity to spend a week of my internship with VRG.

When I first got placed in my dietetic internship at University of Maryland I was invited to attend the previous class’ virtual class day with VRG. I hadn’t previously known anything about The Vegetarian Resource Group, so as an interested and eager future intern, I attended. From that first exposure I could tell that VRG was something amazing and wanted to learn more. I spent time after that browsing the site and looking at the many articles and resources. Throughout my dietetic internship I had been referencing vrg.org for my own use as well as referencing certain articles for projects and recommending them to people I interact with who are interested in vegetarian nutrition.

Getting the chance to rotate with VRG, even for the quick week that I did was great. My main point of contact was Dr. Reed Mangels, PhD, RD, who was ever so supportive and helpful during my internship. Before my rotation started, Reed and Charles Stahler sent me a list of projects and asked me to create a schedule for the week that I would be with them. Right off the bat, I knew it was going to be a good week because the projects aligned so perfectly with my interests: not only was the week going to be all about vegetarianism, but the projects I was going to be working on were also focused on food waste and the environment, another passion of mine! Since I am based in Maryland and Reed in California we set up a schedule that worked for both of us to keep my projects moving so that I could successfully complete them within the week.

I learned a lot during my quick week with VRG and got to develop and exercise my writing and research skills. For my scientific review for a research article about food waste, I learned how to focus my writing for the general public. By the use of plain language, making study data relevant and reader-friendly, and with support and guidance from Reed, I was able to convey the findings of a study in more understandable terms. My other project was to write a blog about how to reduce food waste and create some daily menus for low waste vegan meals. In writing this blog it was the first time I had written something specifically geared toward vegans and vegetarians, which was really cool for me to do! One challenge that I faced was figuring out how to conceptualize data on the large amount of food waste created in the United States. Again, with help from my preceptor, Reed, we were able to translate large numbers into a relevant and understandable context. When creating the menus for this blog, I was thrilled to be able to make them completely vegan. In my previous experience with creating meal plans and recipes I had had to consider dairy, eggs, meat, and seafood. This project allowed me to create menus and recipes that are in line with my values as well as in support of greater environmental and human health.

Throughout this experience I was urged to think deeply about how I could hone my writing to reach a broad audience. By questioning how I would phrase things if I was speaking to a friend or family member who wasn’t as knowledgeable in nutrition and research and who didn’t spend their free time reading up on nutrition and environmental research (like me, ha ha), I was able to convey a clear and coherent message that was accessible to the general public. As a future dietitian I feel that it’s so important to be able to bring researched-based information and education to everyone and this exploration and consideration of my own writing really helped to give me a better sense of how to most effectively do just that.

I am very grateful for the week that I had with The Vegetarian Resource Group. The VRG team was welcoming and supportive throughout the brief internship and made it known that warmth would extend beyond my week rotation. The work of VRG is truly inspirational and impactful. Even as someone who has been vegan for a while and has a degree in nutrition, I learned so much in just one week with VRG. I hope to continue working to promote a vegan and vegetarian lifestyle as a future professional and hope that my work with and connection to The Vegetarian Resource Group isn’t over!

For information about VRG internships, see: https://www.vrg.org/student/index.php

To support VRG internships, donate at www.vrg.org/donate

Victoria Erickson, who is finishing her degree in biological science at Chapman University, looked at several articles concerning the environmental impact of cultured meat and wrote the following.

Cultured Meat: Promises and Challenges

Treich N. (2021). Cultured Meat: Promises and Challenges. Environmental & resource economics, 79(1), 33–61. https://doi-org.libproxy.chapman.edu/10.1007/s10640-021-00551-3

https://pubmed-ncbi-nlm-nih-gov.libproxy.chapman.edu/33758465/

USE THIS REVIEW TO FIND MORE PAPERS

This paper comes off as pro-environmental and pro-cultured meat even though they do discuss some concerns with cultured meat. They state that their goal is to initiate the consideration of economic funding for the production and research of cultured meat. Therefore, their intentions are inherently biased towards the pros of cultured meat. They point out the typical pros such as morality, potential use of less resources, and reduced pollution. I can respect that they do mention that the ingredients of tissue culture media are expensive and that a lot of energy is required to maintain live tissue culture due to factors such as temperature regulation, aeration, and mixing.

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Tuomisto HL, Ellis MJ, Haastrup P (2014) Environmental impacts of cultured meat: alternative production scenarios. Proceedings of the9th International Conference on LifeCycle Assessment in the Agri-Food Sector.19-21October2016, Dublin, Ireland.

This paper aimed to determine if cultured meat production does truly result in less greenhouse gas (GHG) than typical livestock meat production under alternative production scenarios including plant-based media instead of cyanobacteria based media and using a suitable bioreactor. They are claiming that these alternative production scenarios would be more suitable for commercialization of cultured meat and therefore they use these conditions as a proxy for the environmental impacts (GHG emissions, energy use, land and water use) of cultured meat. In section 2.2 of the paper where they define the scope, they do a relatively good job at accounting for important factors and cover all the main bases. Once again, this paper does exclude several factors such as production of growth factor and vitamins for the media (although they seem to account for all other components of the media which is good) and production of the animals that donate the initial cells. Overall I am satisfied with the level of detail and coverage they provide regarding their tissue culture process. The concrete conclusion of interest here is that for cultured meat, energy input requirements were at the same level with beef production, whereas GHG emissions and land use were lower than any of the livestock products. They conclude that although uncertainty remains with cultured meat, it does have the potential for lower GHG and therefore this route should continue to be researched. They also make the point that the land being freed up as a result of livestock production stopping could be used to recover the ecosystem and result in even more beneficial impacts of cultured meat. I would like to point out that the odds of that extra land being used for anything that would have a positive impact on the environment are small but there is always the possibility for some positive impact.

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Mattick CS, Landis AE, Allenby BR, Genovese NJ (2015) Anticipatory life cycle analysis of in vitro bio mass cultivation for cultured meat production in the United States. Environ SciTechnol 49:11941–11949

This paper came to the same conclusion of Tuomisto et al. 2014 that cultured meat will have less environmental impacts, but it will require greater energy costs. They overall conclude that cultured meat seems like a suitable alterative to livestock meat production despite the tradeoffs of energy use and unpredictability. They came to this conclusion by evaluating the life cycle energy use, global warming potential and eutrophication potential, and land use associated. I appreciate their acknowledgment of the fact that tissue culture technology will likely evolve in the coming future and that their life cycle analysis is supposed to account for future possible changes. I personally am unfamiliar with the software used to conduct this analysis and therefore cannot comment on the viability of their claim. Overall I feel that this article does not seem to be pushing a pro-environment/pro-cultured meat agenda. Their data and discussion feels unbiased and they go very in depth without excluding too many factors. In fact, this is the first paper I have seen that lists the specific media ingredients they are accounting for and they discuss bioreactor cleaning which is necessary but often excluded in studies.

Chen Zeng, who recently complete his Master of Food Science at Cornell University, reviewed the above and wrote the following.

I think the author did a good job summarizing these three articles.

The first article provides a detailed explanation of the background and history of cultured meat compared to the other two pieces. They also list out some of the topics that are not discussed in the other two articles like demand, supply, and moral and regulatory issues which I think are also important considering that these are also affecting cost of production and resources.

The second article focuses on comparison of the environmental impact of conventional meat and cultured meat under different production scenarios including cyanobacteria based nutrient media with plant-based media and I think they did a good job covering the main factors.

For the third article, the anticipatory life cycle analysis seems reasonable to me and overall I think they also did a good job on it.

One thing I noticed is that these articles are focusing on livestock such as poultry, pork, and beef. I know there are also companies making cultured seafood and I think it would be interesting to add that into the comparison and see how it can affect the result.

NOTE FROM THE EDITOR: We expect that there will be many more scientific published peer reviewed articles coming that look at many factors on this subject pro and con, and that it will be awhile before people make confident conclusions with consensus.

The contents of this posting, our website, and our other publications, including Vegetarian Journal and Vegan Journal, are not intended to provide personal medical advice. Medical advice should be obtained from a qualified health professional. We often depend on product and ingredient information from company statements. It is impossible to be 100% sure about a statement, info can change, people have different views, and mistakes can be made. Please use your best judgment about whether a product is suitable for you. To be sure, do further research or confirmation on your own.

By Cierra Peterlin, University of Maryland Dietetic Intern

When it comes to thinking about the future of our environment, for some people things can seem pretty gloomy. It may be hard not to feel discouraged by climate change statistics especially when we see the many issues contributing to environmental depredation in our everyday lives. Whether it’s driving behind a truck that’s expelling dark gray exhaust, eating in a food court that doesn’t have a recycling bin, walking out of the grocery store with 3 plastic bags full of groceries, or forgetting about those tomatoes you had in the back of your refrigerator, the reality of our daily habits that contribute to the poor health of the environment are ever-present.

With so many issues around climate change, the problems that face our planet today can be overwhelming. As earth dwellers it is natural to want to stop this destruction and do anything we can to treat our planet well and minimize the negative impacts that we have on our environment. Luckily, there are many things we can do as humans to reduce our personal climate footprints such as limiting our plastic use, using reusable water bottles and bags, carpooling or biking, and of course eating vegan.

When it comes to food choices, following a vegan diet that eliminates animal foods and animal by-products completely is the number one thing we can do for our planet. However, reducing our personal food waste is another huge way we can make a difference and that is what we are going to focus on in this article.

It is estimated that about 1/3 of all food produced in the United States becomes food waste (1). The average person is said to waste around 200 pounds of food per year (2). That means that individually we are creating a little less than half of a metric ton of greenhouse gases annually from the food we waste which is about the equivalent of driving an extra 1,052 miles per year (3). Food waste is happening everywhere: in our homes, at restaurants, at grocery stores, in hospitals, and beyond.

When thinking about the food that’s being wasted we also must acknowledge the time and resources that were put into the production of that food, the energy and fuel that was used in the transportation of the food, and the money it cost for the consumer or business to purchase the food. In terms of household food waste, it’s said the average household of four wastes over $1,300 worth of food annually (4). Not only can wasting less food help to protect the planet it can also save you money through reducing food costs by using what you have.

While food waste is definitely larger than just a personal problem, we can each still strive to do our part to minimize it. Doing anything we can to help protect the environment is more important now than ever and one easy thing we can each start with is reducing our personal food waste.

There are so many ways we can reduce food waste in our own kitchens. Things as simple as saving leftovers and planning your meals are some great ways to start. Once you’re comfortable with those practices there is even more you can do to reduce wasted food in your home by zero-waste cooking, following the FIFO (first in, first out) rule, practicing proper storage, preserving foods, and more! Below is a list of tips and tricks to get you started on the path to reducing your food waste.

• Take inventory of what you have

Check your pantry and fridge before you go to the food store. Taking inventory of what you already have can save you time and money at the store while also reminding you to use the foods you have that may otherwise have gone bad.

• Plan some meals ahead of time

Planning your meals is another way to reduce your personal waste. While much easier said than done, even choosing just 1 or 2 recipes that you want to make each week and then shopping for ingredients for those recipes is a great start to avoiding excess food purchases and then not knowing what to make with them.

• Practice FIFO

The first-in-first-out rule or FIFO, means exactly what it says: if it went into the fridge, pantry, or wherever you store food first, use it first. By paying attention to the food that you’ve had for longer, you can use it before it goes bad or before you buy new things and forget about what you already have.

• Save your leftovers

Save your leftovers, whether it’s your leftover meal from a restaurant or something that you made that didn’t get finished. You won’t have to eat the same meal 2 days in a row. Do be mindful of FIFO (just like with other fresh or cooked foods living in your fridge), and don’t let leftovers sit and go bad in the fridge. If your leftovers are a large meal that you cooked at home, you can put it in a container and freeze it. Make sure to label what you freeze with the type of food it is and the date it was made. Another useful practice could be keeping a running list of what you have stored in your freezer and posting it somewhere nearby for a quick reminder of what’s in there.

• Bulk cook the staples

If you make a big batch of rice or other grains in the beginning of the week, you can use that as a base for meals throughout the week. This can help in a crunch when you have some produce that needs to be used ASAP. Simply roast it or sauté it up and serve it over your precooked rice with spices and a sauce for a quick meal.

• Use the whole food

When it comes to fruits and vegetables most of the time the entire item is edible! Things such as strawberry leaves; kiwi skins; carrot, radish, beet, and turnip tops; and most stems are some examples. So, when you’re making a smoothie, put the whole strawberry in, green leaves and all! Ever thought of eating a kiwi whole? It’s delicious with the skin and makes it a lot easier for a quick snack. Carrot tops and other root vegetable greens can be used to make pesto or be chopped up and added to other dishes like salads or casseroles, or sautéed. Even banana peels can be cooked and consumed! There are so many other things that can be done with the different parts of foods that aren’t typically utilized.

• Try zero waste cooking

This concept refers to the practice of eating every part of the ingredient you’re cooking. When it comes to cooking, cook every part of the food. Zero waste cooking urges you to be more conscious about getting the most out of each food item and ingredient. When practicing zero waste cooking it is important to pay attention to how food waste and other waste, such as water and other resources, can be limited or avoided in the cooking or baking process. Concepts such as saving vegetable scraps to make broths, leaving the skins on fruits and vegetables or using them in another recipe, and freezing foods that you are not going to use right away for later use are all aspects of zero waste cooking. For example, broccoli stems taste just like their pretty florets and cook up really similarly or taste great raw and dipped in hummus. The stems of herbs such as parsley and cilantro also taste just like the leaves and can be chopped and added to dishes. Another cool zero waste cooking hack is using stale bread to make croutons, breadcrumbs, and even full meals like Panzanella (an Italian stale bread salad with onions, tomatoes, and cucumbers) or French toast. If there isn’t mold on the bread it is still safe to eat even if it’s hard. While it definitely takes a little thinking outside of the box, there are so many ideas and ways to practice zero waste cooking in your home kitchen. Don’t be afraid to make substitutions in a recipe! Being confident in the kitchen is the first step to cooking zero waste style!

• Store your produce for maximum freshness

Knowing how to properly store your food to maximize its life span will help you waste less produce. For example, keeping the avocado pit in the half of avocado or in guacamole can keep it from browning (but even when it’s a little brown it is still safe to eat). Storing your asparagus, parsley, cilantro, and mint in the fridge in cups of water so that their stems are submerged will increase their freshness and lifespan for up to 2 weeks. Putting a paper towel in with your greens to absorb excess moisture, and keeping broccoli, squash, brussels sprouts, and green beans in a produce bag can extend their life up to 2 weeks. Taking this a step further and thinking of FIFO as well as knowing what foods last the longest (such as potatoes, onions, gourd-like squash varieties, carrots, and apples) and which foods go bad quicker (berries, salad greens, and bananas) can help you use the foods that are going to become waste first and save the hardier ones for another day. Some fresh foods such as cabbage, garlic, potatoes, onions, apples, and lemons can last 4 weeks or longer!

• Preserve food

There are a few ways you can go about food preservation: freezing, dehydrating, pickling, and cooking things down and then preserving it by freezing or dehydrating. When it comes to freezing, you can freeze any fruit or vegetable. If your berries look like they are starting to get mushy and you’re not going to eat them, toss them in the freezer and use them in a recipe or a smoothie later. Same thing for greens like spinach or kale. Once frozen these will need to be blended or cooked when you do choose to use them. Freezing leftover meals or cooked items can extend their life as well. Using a dehydrator or even cooking foods in the oven at a low heat for a long time can also preserve them. For example, dehydrating bananas, mangos, and apples can make chewy or crispy fruit chips.

Composting

There may still be times when a food is truly too far gone such as when it has mold or has rotted. Also, there may be scraps of foods that can’t be used and that is where composting comes in. Composting is the act of recycling organic matter, which includes food, leaves, yard waste, and even some commercial products that are identified as “compostable,” into a type of fertilizer soil that can be used in gardens and given back to the earth. The process of creating compost is pretty lengthy and typically requires a decent amount of work, but collecting compost materials is really quite simple. Keeping a separate bin either indoors or outside that you use for any food waste is a great start. In some areas there are compost collecting services that will pick up household compost, or if that isn’t an option, there are community sites where you can drop off your compost. To find composting options near you check out litterless.com/where-to-compost.

Knowing how to be more sustainable in the kitchen is something we can all benefit from.

Limiting personal food waste encourages creativity and planning to ensure that every part of a food can be utilized, reducing overall waste and contributing to a healthier planet.

All of these tips can be a lot to take in and deciding how to put them into practice in your own kitchen may seem daunting. While reducing food waste may take some extra time, it doesn’t have to be very overly challenging. You don’t need to be perfect, but do what you can.

References

1. Environmental Protection Agency. From Farm to Kitchen: The Environmental Impacts of US Food Waste. https://www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2021-11/from-farm-to-kitchen-the-environmental-impacts-of-u.s.-food-waste_508-tagged.pdf
2. Recycle Track Systems. Food Waste in America in 2022. https://www.rts.com/resources/guides/food-waste-america/
3. United States Environmental Protection Agency. Greenhouse Gas Emissions from a Typical Passenger Vehicle. https://www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/greenhouse-gas-emissions-typical-passenger-vehicle
4. Food Print. Zero Waste Cooking. https://foodprint.org/blog/zero-waste-cooking/

The contents of this posting, our website, and our other publications, including Vegetarian Journal and Vegan Journal, are not intended to provide personal medical advice. Medical advice should be obtained from a qualified health professional. We often depend on product and ingredient information from company statements. It is impossible to be 100% sure about a statement, info can change, people have different views, and mistakes can be made. Please use your best judgment about whether a product is suitable for you. To be sure, do further research or confirmation on your own.

By Reed Mangels, PhD, RD

The city of New York has developed new standards for meals and snacks meals and snacks served by 11 city agencies. These standards, which go into effect July 1, 2023 will regulate the nutritional content and type of food served to schoolchildren, older adults, NYC Health + Hospitals patients, and others who get meals or snacks from city agencies.

The standards emphasize reducing sodium, added sugar, and saturated fat and increasing fiber. They call for a reduced use of red and processed meat and cheese and greater use of whole or minimally-processed plant protein. The standards include:

• A requirement that processed meat (for example, deli meat or ham) be phased out by 2025.
• A requirement, for sites serving three meals per day, that no more than 2 servings of beef be served per week and for sites serving one to two meals per day, no more than 1 serving of beef be served per week per meal type.
• A requirement, for sites serving three meals per day, that no more than 1 serving of processed meat be served per week per meal type and for sites serving one to two meals per day, that no more than 2 servings of processed meat be served per month (or no more than one serving every other week) per meal type.
• A requirement that at least 1 serving of plant-based entrées featuring a whole or minimally processed plant-based protein (for example, beans, lentils, peas, nuts, edamame or tofu) be served per week per meal type (except breakfast).
• A recommendation that 2 servings of plant-based entrées be served per week per meal type.
• A recommendation that cheese be served as a primary protein no more than once a week per meal type.
• A recommendation that seasonal and locally sourced foods be the focus when developing menus.

You can see the complete standards here. The standards are a starting place for moving towards healthier diets. Hopefully, other communities will be inspired to create their own standards that emphasize whole plant foods.

Callie went vegan at age 12 after watching a documentary. During high school, she led several climate strikes, where she spoke, detailing the ways that going vegetarian or vegan can mitigate climate change. Callie invited 2 local veggie food trucks to be at the rally, as well as set up a vegan information stand. She also gave a speech at an animal rights rally and did events for the Northwest Animal Rights Network.

As a local vegan food truck volunteer, Callie helped prepare food, experimented with new products, and marketed the food truck online. She volunteered at a community meals program as a floor manager recruiting new volunteers, managing the making and serving of food, and personally baking vegan desserts each month from freshman through senior year.

Callie said, “It was a huge challenge to get my school to implement vegan cafeteria meals, primarily because adding new foods was more expensive for them … and (I was) told the school would likely not add new options because not enough students were vegetarian… I asked for the help of my school’s environmental club in order to create a petition to show the school how important vegetarian meals are for the students. We got almost 260 student and staff signatures … which was enough to show the school that we needed vegetarian options.”

“The implementation of vegan options required getting up to the district level, because the superintendent and district staff have most of the control over all of the decisions made in the district, including cafeteria food. The vegan options added have included: a daily salad bar, daily rotation of a vegan soup or chili, vegan pasta options, and usually a grain/rice bowl including veggies and tofu. These have all worked well, and students seem to love them. I have tried them all and I like them a lot, especially the chili. These options are still being served in the high schools as of now, and the middle/elementary schools also continue to have vegan options—which are slightly more limited than the high schools—such as vegan pastas and sandwiches.”

Callie’s reference said she does all the above, in addition to working at a local supermarket and taking AP courses. Callie said her “plan is to get my bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science … My goal is to improve U.S. policy in order to improve our treatment of animals, including eliminating the modern factory-farming system.”

For information on other winners and applying for the next Vegetarian Resource Group college scholarship contest, see: https://www.vrg.org/student/scholar.htm

Deadline is February 20th of each year.

To support additional VRG scholarships and internships, donate at www.vrg.org/donate, call (410) 366-8343, or mail your contribution to The Vegetarian Resource Group, P.O. Box 1463, Baltimore, MD 21203.

By Gabriella Walker, VRG Volunteer

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Summer Food Service Program (SFSP), also known as the Summer Meals Program, allows kids and teens who come from low-income areas to get access to food in the summer. This means free meals or snacks. Program participants need to be at least 18 or younger (1).

Those 18-years-old or younger should have access to food regardless of their diet or lifestyle. According to polls, veganism has been increasing over time, especially within this age range (2). More and more schools are serving vegan-friendly options to fit their demographics (3). Today we will be talking about how to get your hands on vegan-friendly food from the SFSP.

The USDA acknowledges that not all foods available at SFSP sites are appropriate for all diets and lifestyles. Site supervisors have the option to accommodate special dietary preferences whether these are religious, moral, or personal preference, but these accommodations are not required; therefore, the possibility of getting vegan food can be low, especially if veganism is not commonly practiced in your community. Accommodations are only required for disabilities and requests must be accompanied by a medical statement. It also comes down to your own state’s rules and regulations for how they go about modifications for vegans. This means there can be some liberalization to the food choices if your state and site participate in making these accommodations available. For example, nuts, seeds, nut/seed butters, and beans/peas (legumes) can replace the meat (M) component as a meat alternative (MA) component of a meal or snack. For milk to be substituted with a non-dairy option there is a list of requirements including the amount of protein, calcium, and other nutrients that a product must fulfill which is made available to sites. From a practical standpoint, only certain brands of soymilk and pea protein-based milk fit the requirements. Fruits and vegetables are usually vegan, but grains and breads may not be depending on the product (4).

Different meals have different food requirements. For example, breakfast must include one food item from each of the milk, fruit/vegetable, and grains/bread components. Lunch/Supper must contain one food item from each of the milk, grains/bread, and M/MA components and two food items from the fruit/vegetable component. Snacks must contain one food item from two of the four components (milk, fruit/vegetable, grains/bread, and M/MA). This can present different challenges based on what food components are required. For example, if nuts and seeds are served, they must be combined with another M/MA to fulfill the minimum serving size requirement. An example of this is that if sunflower seeds are served at lunch, they need to be paired with hummus, or another meat alternative option. Another issue is if certain food products are vegan. For instance, pastries like biscuits, rolls, or muffins are served frequently for breakfast. Sometimes these products are not vegan, and another grain alternative is needed (4).

It comes down to researching your state and sites rules and regulations and communicating your diet preferences with the SFSP site person in charge. This usually includes a dietary accommodation request form that needs to be approved. Sometimes sites are not able to accommodate, so they allow kids to get the regular meal as served and pick out the foods that do appear to be vegan. If this is the case, I suggest that kids bring additional food to the site to supplement for missing components.

There are many different routes sites take around the country. Overall, the potential barriers of getting vegan food from SFSP include the program supervisor not being willing to accommodate, the cost of getting vegan options sent to the site may be too costly compared to the non-vegan options, and a lack of support by the state government with SFSP accommodations. While these are challenges, there may still be a variety of foods to choose from.

What can be requested? Here is a list of options (not complete) for each component:

Milk: dairy-free milk

Vegetable/Fruit: raw, cooked, or canned fruits/vegetables liked bananas and carrots, or applesauce and canned peaches

Grain/Bread: bread, cereal, pastry, pasta, noodles, crackers, pretzels, granola, oatmeal, cereal, tortilla chips

Meat/Meat alternative: beans like hummus, baked or refried beans, peanuts/soy/nuts/seeds, or their butters (4)

So where can you sign up for this program? Use the USDA’s SFSP website tool “Summer Meals Site Finder” (https://usda-fns.maps.arcgis.com/). From here, you will type in your location and be able to view the sites closest to you. Once you have a site picked out, you will be able to find the contact information for the site lead and let them know you or your child’s dietary preferences. If they are able to accommodate, the site supervisor will have the vegan meal prepared separately and given to the correct child. From there, you or your child will be able to get free vegan food in the summer.

Supporting those who are vegan unfortunately is not a top priority for the SFSP program right now. To make vegan meals more assessible, groups like the Coalition for Healthy School Food are taking a step. They have been advocating for more plant-based meals in schools. On a local level, you can take a step too. Visit https://healthyschoolfood.org/wp/create-change/in-my-school/ make an impact (5).

References:

1. How to Participate in Summer Meals Fact Sheet.https://fns-prod.azureedge.us/sites/default/files/resource-files/SFSP-Fact-Sheet.pdf
2. How Many People Are Vegan? How Many Eat Vegan When Eating Out? Asks The Vegetarian Resource Group. https://www.vrg.org/nutshell/Polls/2019_adults_veg.htm
3. Vegan Fridays for All? More Schools Offer Plant-Based Meals. https://civileats.com/2022/03/21/vegan-fridays-for-all-more-schools-offer-plant-based-meals/
4. Meal Pattern Requirements. https://fns-prod.azureedge.us/sites/default/files/resource-files/smt-meal_pattern_requirements.pdf
5. Create Change in My School.https://healthyschoolfood.org/wp/create-change/in-my-school/

Gabriella volunteered to write this article while completing a dietetic internship rotation with the Indian Health Services in Arizona. She is working towards becoming a registered dietitian.

The contents of this posting, our website, and our other publications, including Vegetarian Journal and Vegan Journal, are not intended to provide personal medical advice. Medical advice should be obtained from a qualified health professional. We often depend on product and ingredient information from company statements. It is impossible to be 100% sure about a statement, info can change, people have different views, and mistakes can be made. Please use your best judgment about whether a product is suitable for you. To be sure, do further research or confirmation on your own.