Mayor de Blasio and First Lady McCray will also eat all-vegetarian meals every Monday
Mayor Bill de Blasio, Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña and Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams today announced that 15 Brooklyn schools will participate in Meatless Mondays next spring. The program will provide participating schools with healthy, all-vegetarian breakfast and lunch menus every Monday. The Mayor, First Lady Chirlane McCray and Gracie Mansion will also go meatless for all Monday meals.
"Cutting back a little on meat will help make our City healthier and our planet stronger for generations to come,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio. “Chirlane and I are excited to participate in Meatless Mondays at home, and we thank Borough President Adams for leading the charge behind this healthy and sustainable initiative.”
"Meatless Mondays will expose our children to an exciting variety of delicious vegetarian meals that provide excellent nutrition and support their growing bodies. And the best way to encourage our children to eat healthy is for everyone to join in!,” said First Lady Chirlane McCray.
“Teaching students about nutrition and exposing them to healthy food options from an early age is critical,” said Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña. “Like our Garden to Café program and the New York Thursday initiative, Meatless Mondays is one more way in which we are using school meals as a teachable moment to educate students on the importance of making healthy choices.”
“I am living proof of the power of a plant-based diet to transform one’s health,” said Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams. “I believe that Meatless Mondays is an extremely significant initiative that has the power to transform the health of thousands of our city’s students, as well as open the door to a powerful conversation that children can have with families on nutrition and wellness. I thank Mayor de Blasio for working with me on this mission to change our relationship with food and tackle nutritional health in a real way. As Hippocrates said, ‘let food be thy medicine.’”
This initiative builds off the plant-based health advocacy of Borough President Adams, who has committed himself to combating poor nutrition following his successful battle against Type 2 diabetes last year. In 2015, less than 20% of NYC children aged 6-12 ate 5 or more fruits and vegetables a day. Eating fruits and vegetables provides important vitamins and nutrients and can reduce the risk for heart disease, cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and obesity. Furthermore, Meatless Mondays can also help reduce carbon footprint and preserve resources like water. Approximately 1,850 gallons of water are needed to produce a single pound of beef, while only 39 gallons of water are needed to produce a pound of vegetables.
DOE's Office of SchoolFood will engage school communities across Brooklyn to finalize the schools that will participate in the program based on interest and ability to incorporate an all-vegetarian menu. Schools included in the program will receive customized menus each with vegetarian entrees. There is no additional cost to the City.
Today’s announcement was made at PS 1 in Sunset Park, one of five schools in New York City currently serving an exclusively vegetarian menu every day of the week. The Peck Slip School in Manhattan and The Active Learning Elementary School in Queens, as well as two non-public schools – Hanson Place Seventh-day Adventist Elementary School and the R.T. Hudson Seventh-day Adventist School – also participate in the program. These schools serve a variety of options including spinach wraps, vegetarian chili, roasted chickpea tagine, black bean quesadillas, crispy tofu, zucchini parmigiana, and margherita pizza.
"Eating fruits and vegetables can lower your risk of heart disease and possibly some cancers. Diets higher in plant-based foods are associated with lesser environmental impact than the average American diet," said Health Commissioner Dr. Mary T. Bassett. "Meatless Mondays are a great way to encourage our students to include more produce in their diet, any day of the week."
“Meatless Mondays are a great way to expose students to healthy foods that can lower their risk of obesity as well as heart disease, cancer, and diabetes later in life,” said Michelle McMacken, MD, director of the Adult Weight Management Program at NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue.
Meatless Mondays is also part of the City’s ongoing effort to ensure every student is provided with a free, healthy lunch. This year, the DOE launched Free School Lunch for All, which provides free school lunch to all public school students in New York City. Through the Summer Meals program, the DOE provides free breakfast and lunch to anyone age 18 or younger free of charge each summer. Schools across the City also participate in NY Thursdays, which provides schools with locally sourced or produced food every Thursday. Over 1,400 salad bars in NYC School cafeterias offer students a selection of fresh and healthy vegetables to complement their lunch entrée each day.
The DOE is making strides in ensuring students are served high-quality foods in a sustainable way and converted from using a polystyrene tray to serving all meals in an eco-friendly compostable plate. This year, the DOE’s Office of Sustainability provided every school with new Recycling Stations and each cafeteria recycling station now features a blue bin for metal, glass, plastic, and cartons, a grey bin for general trash, a brown bin for food scraps, and a small white bin for liquids. Additionally, eight schools received cafeteria renovations last year and the Five-year Capital Plan includes funding to update 18 additional cafeterias.
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