Tomorrow the Californian city’s school system, San Diego Unified, will consider a proposal that cafeterias in all elementary and K8 schools (kindergarten to grade 8) cut out meat at the start of the week.
If the proposal is voted in, from September onwards schoolchildren across the US’s eighth largest city will be enjoying a Meat Free Monday.
While parents will still be able to provide their children with packed lunches of their choosing, the goal is to teach children about healthy eating, help curb the growing problem with obesity in the country and cut down on the carbon cost of food.
If the proposal is adopted, San Diego will follow in the footsteps of cities such as Los Angeles, which has the second largest schools district in the US, serving 650,000 meals a day, and adopted Meat Free Monday in March this year.
But the education system still has some way to go to meet the gold standard set by Public School 244Q in Queens, New York, which last month became the first school in the US to become completely meat-free.