The Push for Plant-Based Options in Long Island Schools

  • May 20, 2021
The Push for Plant-Based Options in Long Island Schools

BY Kelly Alvarado
JRN 490 Spring 2021

video screenshot
Screenshot of video by Kelly Alvarado

Parents are looking for ways to reduce another epidemic from affecting their children when they go back to school this fall: obesity. Plant-based options in school might be that solution.

Childhood obesity is a serious problem in the United States, according to the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention, putting children at risk for poor health making them vulnerable to COVID-19 and other diseases. According to the CDC, obesity now affects one in five children and adolescents nationwide.

“Right now, it’s like basically you’re telling that child well, ‘your choices aren’t that important,’” Heidi Cohen, a vegan mom in Farmingdale, New York, said. “How come so many districts will acknowledge kosher diets, nut-free, gluten-free, and various allergies? But then you talk about vegan or plant-based and all of a sudden people decide it’s radical, extreme, it’s not really important.”

“You’re very de-validated as your choices don’t matter but it’s just as important as it would be for someone that has a kosher lifestyle,” she continued.

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