Written by Katherine Sullivan | May 10, 2017

During a school board meeting on Tuesday, the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) Board of Education approved a pilot program that will introduce vegan lunches at select Los Angeles schools beginning in August.

In 2013, the LAUSD introduced the Meatless Monday program, in which school cafeterias served only vegetable-based foods on the first day of each school week. In March 2016, the school board committed to serving only antibiotic- and hormone-free chicken products, the first large district to do so in the U.S. Then, in May 2016, PETA supporter Pamela Anderson and Lila Copeland, a 14-year-old student at the time, lobbied for Healthy Freedom, a campaign that aims to introduce a daily vegan meal option at every LAUSD school.

Fast-forward to one year later, and the LAUSDthe second-largest school district in the U.S.is inching closer and closer to providing plant-based lunches districtwide.

LAUSD Board President Steve Zimmer told KPCC, We have had a demand and when we get a demand like this from our community, we institute a pilot to find out is this something that we really could implement district wide. Zimmer, who is a vegetarian himself, believes that schools should offer plant-based meal options and that doing so could help ensure that students develop healthy eating habits.

In a similar move, the board agreed last month to ban school participation in McTeachers Night fundraising events, which are hosted by McDonalds. This resolutionalso supported by Zimmersought to distance LAUSD schools from corporations, like McDonalds, that market unhealthy products.

The boards decision is a significant one. School districts in California and across the U.S. look to large districts like the LAUSD for direction and may soon take similar steps to prioritize students health and wellness.

But students and school districts arent the only ones who can make a positive change for themselves and the world. If youre inspired by the LAUSDs decision to support plant-based diets, click the button below to order your own free vegan starter kitjoin the movement!

Order Your Vegan Starter Kit

Have you heard of TeachKind, PETAs humane-education division? It offers free resourcesincluding lesson plans, classroom materials, and presentationsthat are designed to help K12 schools and educators teach kids to be kind to animals. Click the button below to learn more.

Learn More About TeachKind

See the original post here:

Second-Largest School District in the US to Start Vegan Meal Pilot Program - PETA (blog) (press release)