Meatless Monday-Synthesis Essay Practice
School cafeterias in my area should not participate in Meatless Monday because it's an
unstructured and cheap way for public school systems to make others believe they care about
the student's health. If the government cared for the public school system attendees’ health,
they would provide healthier alternatives daily. Meatless Monday is a program designed for
cafeterias to serve only vegetarian meals on the first day of the week. According to Ruth
MacDonald and Cheryll Reitmeiers Understanding Food Systems, "The platform of the Meatless
Monday campaign is that Americans consume too much meat and not eating meat one day a
week will improve health". Overall this seems to appease most but what many don't know is
what they are doing for the alternative and how much impact this has on the environment.
Meatless Monday was introduced to the world in 2003 by Sid Lerner, and an advertising agenct.
The USDA approved of the changes that were to be made when following the program and thus
plenty of schools follow along with the program. The meatless Monday program isn’t necessarily
only the participation in consuming a vegetarian meal once a Monday but they also provide
more ways to improve health with their website (www.meatlessmonday.com) by providing
vegetarian recipes and diets. Although this is so, there is more that needs to be looked to as in
what do they exactly do for the “meatless” alternative.
According to Steussy, Lauren. “Why Meatless Mondays May Not Be Health Fix School Kids
Need.”, "Officials say they were successful in getting kids to eat and enjoy the meatless options
—which include vegetarian tacos, chili, and, yes, grilled cheese—so they decided to expand the
program to the rest of the city’s 1,800 schools". Grilled cheese isn't necessarily the healthiest
thing on the planet and the same goes for Robin Barrie in Stuessy’s article stating "The
saturated fat in a grilled cheese is almost the same as the saturated fat in red meat.” Serving
foods that are just as processed as other meat food is pointless because it's not healthy, so
what is the change?
When observing the program closer, it is also to be noted that even though there may be a day
where they try to encourage people to be healthy, the same does not go for the rest of the week.
According to “Why Meatless Mondays May Not Be Health Fix School Kids Need” they describe
one of the schools regular week following the meatless Monday program stating, “At PS 130,
where de Blasio announced the plan, vegetarian chili and veggie tacos are on the menu for the
next two Mondays, but the following Tuesdays bring hamburgers and cheeseburgers—not
exactly a dietary win”. This brings us to the attention of how much the public school systems
care about the dietary needs of the average student. If you were to send your kid off to school
it’ll be better to know that your kid is getting their health needs met rather than just being fed.
Overall, school cafeterias in my area should not be introduced to Meatless Mondays because it
is not healthy and is a poor attempt to make others and the environment healthier. Meatless
Monday would be good in general but what about Meatless Wednesday? Friday? One cannot
simply eat a meal from school that is vegetarian and the planet is saved, there must be more to
help. There are other alternatives to be noticed from schools such as including more vegetables
and cutting off grease. Eating meatless meals is not something to be against with but eating
meals that are claimed to be healthy when in fact it’s just as bad as the regular is.
This study source was downloaded by 100000850872992 from CourseHero.com on 04-18-2023 08:04:27 GMT -05:00
https://www.coursehero.com/file/83997455/-Meatless-Monday-Synthesis-Essay-Practicedocx/
School cafeterias in my area should not participate in Meatless Monday because it's an
unstructured and cheap way for public school systems to make others believe they care about
the student's health. If the government cared for the public school system attendees’ health,
they would provide healthier alternatives daily. Meatless Monday is a program designed for
cafeterias to serve only vegetarian meals on the first day of the week. According to Ruth
MacDonald and Cheryll Reitmeiers Understanding Food Systems, "The platform of the Meatless
Monday campaign is that Americans consume too much meat and not eating meat one day a
week will improve health". Overall this seems to appease most but what many don't know is
what they are doing for the alternative and how much impact this has on the environment.
Meatless Monday was introduced to the world in 2003 by Sid Lerner, and an advertising agenct.
The USDA approved of the changes that were to be made when following the program and thus
plenty of schools follow along with the program. The meatless Monday program isn’t necessarily
only the participation in consuming a vegetarian meal once a Monday but they also provide
more ways to improve health with their website (www.meatlessmonday.com) by providing
vegetarian recipes and diets. Although this is so, there is more that needs to be looked to as in
what do they exactly do for the “meatless” alternative.
According to Steussy, Lauren. “Why Meatless Mondays May Not Be Health Fix School Kids
Need.”, "Officials say they were successful in getting kids to eat and enjoy the meatless options
—which include vegetarian tacos, chili, and, yes, grilled cheese—so they decided to expand the
program to the rest of the city’s 1,800 schools". Grilled cheese isn't necessarily the healthiest
thing on the planet and the same goes for Robin Barrie in Stuessy’s article stating "The
saturated fat in a grilled cheese is almost the same as the saturated fat in red meat.” Serving
foods that are just as processed as other meat food is pointless because it's not healthy, so
what is the change?
When observing the program closer, it is also to be noted that even though there may be a day
where they try to encourage people to be healthy, the same does not go for the rest of the week.
According to “Why Meatless Mondays May Not Be Health Fix School Kids Need” they describe
one of the schools regular week following the meatless Monday program stating, “At PS 130,
where de Blasio announced the plan, vegetarian chili and veggie tacos are on the menu for the
next two Mondays, but the following Tuesdays bring hamburgers and cheeseburgers—not
exactly a dietary win”. This brings us to the attention of how much the public school systems
care about the dietary needs of the average student. If you were to send your kid off to school
it’ll be better to know that your kid is getting their health needs met rather than just being fed.
Overall, school cafeterias in my area should not be introduced to Meatless Mondays because it
is not healthy and is a poor attempt to make others and the environment healthier. Meatless
Monday would be good in general but what about Meatless Wednesday? Friday? One cannot
simply eat a meal from school that is vegetarian and the planet is saved, there must be more to
help. There are other alternatives to be noticed from schools such as including more vegetables
and cutting off grease. Eating meatless meals is not something to be against with but eating
meals that are claimed to be healthy when in fact it’s just as bad as the regular is.
This study source was downloaded by 100000850872992 from CourseHero.com on 04-18-2023 08:04:27 GMT -05:00
https://www.coursehero.com/file/83997455/-Meatless-Monday-Synthesis-Essay-Practicedocx/
