Getting Vegan Food into Elementary Schools
By Amie Hamlin
Schools are the places where children go to learn each day, and parents count on the staff doing everything they can to protect their children. Still, there is at least one area where schools are usually out of step with what research shows will protect our children — food and nutrition. This is not unique to schools — it is a society-wide problem.
Despite the updated school meal standards that began in 2012 and the updated snack standards that began in 2014, schools are still full of unhealthful food. Typically, the following are still present in schools: bake sales, Halloween candy, cupcakes for birthday parties, chocolate milk at breakfast and lunch, highly processed breakfasts, and lunch entrées that resemble fast food (though they are likely to have far less sodium and fat than fast food, to meet the regulations). Wellness policies required by the federal government are supposed to address these kinds of things, but oftentimes, the policy is tucked away in a binder and not a living document.
This article focuses on school breakfasts and lunches. Schools in New York City; Ithaca, NY; and one small upstate New York district work in partnership with the Coalition for Healthy School Food. In Ithaca and the small school district, vegan entrées have been added to the menus. In New York City, the coalition worked with the New York City Office of School Food to create a vegetarian menu and offer it to schools as an option. As a result, there are now at least five vegetarian schools in New York City (and likely more since the time this article was written).
Offering vegan entrées does not cost more — if it did, schools would not be able to offer them. Schools have approximately $1.10 to spend on the actual food costs for a lunch, out of the $3.23 reimbursement for a student receiving a free meal. The rest of the money goes to cover staff pay and benefits, equipment repair and replacement, and sometimes utilities. Expensive ingredients are not possible, so vegan cheese, tempeh, avocados, miso, and many of the faux meats are not likely to be on school menus. In addition, non-dairy cheese would not qualify as a reimbursable component and therefore would be an extra cost schools cannot afford.
There are many ways that schools could add vegan options to their menus: Meatless Mondays, Tasty (or Try It) Tuesdays, Wellness Wednesdays, or World Food Day Thursdays. They could add hummus or cold bean salads that count as a meat alternate to their salad bars.
Understanding the School Meal Program
It's important to have a basic understanding of the school meal program before trying to work with a school to make changes. The most important thing to know is that changing school food is not a quick fix. These kinds of changes take time and require resources. The Coalition for Healthy School Food can help by providing advice, recipes, and resources.
Developing relationships is important, as is being able to determine your point of entry into the system. For example, if the Food Service Directors are not receptive, you may need to go to the school board or superintendent. But it would be best to go directly to the Food Service Directors first, so that they feel respected. Work with them and be helpful. They don't need more work to do, so getting extra feet on the ground to help implement changes is important. See the Food Service Directors as your friends; if you are serious about creating change, you will be spending a lot of time with them.
Schools may be "Self-Op," meaning the school district employs the food service personnel, or the schools may work with an outside company (contract management) to employ food service personnel. Either way, the funding for school meals does not come from the school budget; the program operates completely separately. Funds come from federal and state reimbursements (most, but not all, states provide an additional reimbursement), paid meals, à la carte sales, and catering. Some schools do a lot of scratch cooking, and others do none, using all frozen, canned, or otherwise packaged foods. Some schools cook/prepare food out of a central kitchen, distributing food to other schools in the district, while others do this in their own kitchens.
A school breakfast consists of three categories of food: milk, grain, and fruit (or vegetable). Schools must offer four items from these three categories, students must take three food items for the meal to be considered "reimbursable" (by the federal government), and one of the items taken must be fruit. For each breakfast taken, the federal government will reimburse the school, typically $1.75 for a child receiving a free breakfast in the contiguous 48 states in a non-severe-need school. (Schools that have 60% or more of students eligible for free meals are considered "severe-need" and receive higher reimbursement rates.)
For lunch, five categories of food must be offered: meat or meat alternate, grain, vegetable, fruit, and milk. Of these five components of food, only three components need to be taken for the meal to be reimbursable, but at least one of the components needs to be either a fruit or a vegetable. The federal government will reimburse a non-severe-need school in the contiguous 48 states $3.23 for each child receiving a free lunch. (Reminder: Approximately $1.10 of this amount goes to food cost.)
The meal standards implemented in 2012 require more fruits and vegetables, subcategories of vegetables (greens, red/orange, legumes, starchy, and other) that must be served at least once a week, whole grains, sodium amounts, and calorie ranges.
Schools were required to offer grains that were "100% whole grain-rich." But in a classic example of food industry spin, "whole grain-rich" actually means 50% whole grain. Now, schools can receive an exemption for grains and can reduce their grains to 80% whole grain-rich (40% whole grain).
Making Changes
The categories that offer the greatest opportunity for improvement are the dairy and meat categories.
Milk must be offered, but it does not have to be taken. It would take an act of Congress to change this. Given this reality, there are three things schools can do to reduce milk consumption:
1) Eliminate chocolate milk as an option.
2) Make sure that there is free water, which is required by federal law to be available in cafeterias, and that either students are able to get up to get it or that it is brought to their tables.
3) Offer non-dairy milks. When students have a note from a parent or doctor that they need a non-dairy milk, a school may, but is not obligated to, provide it. Non-dairy milks cost more, and reimbursements do not cover the added cost. Also, the non-dairy milk must meet certain nutrient requirements.
The meat/meat alternate category allows for serving beans, lentils, split peas, tofu, veggie meats, and non-dairy yogurt. (The yogurt would not be affordable for schools.) Generally, the serving size for legumes is 1/2 cup of beans, lentils, or split peas. For tofu, it's 4.4 ounces.
Manufactured vegan items would do well to apply for the Child Nutrition (CN) label. This allows food service directors to feel sure that the product will qualify as a meat/meat alternate. One frozen product that we love is Falafel Tots from American Bean Products. They've been a big hit in all the schools where we've tested them. There aren't many manufacturers working in the area of vegan school entrées, and so those who do will position themselves to be the front runners.
The Coalition for Healthy School Food has recipes that qualify as meat alternates at www.healthyschoolfood.org/recipes.htm. These are plant-powered entrées from around the world and are bean-, lentil-, or tofu-based. Some of the favorites are West African Beans and Greens, Ms. Patel's Rajma, North African Red Lentils, Awesome Bean Burger, and Pasta Faggioli.
