<p>Do we actually have any evidence that the school is buying “better quality” vegetarian food with the money it’s saving from meat (sorry if I missed this in the article).</p>
<p>Based on my experience with government and public schools, it seems much more likely that they’re spending less and getting more-or-less the same food as ever. Maybe it’s just the cynic in me, but I doubt they’re buying fresh local organic free-range humane baby carrots - more likely they’re still buying the freeze-dried reconstituted artificially-colored preserved carrot pulp stick-patty from concentrate.</p>
<p>I also stand by what I said before - black-bean quesadilla with roasted potatoes doesn’t strike me as being a perfectly balanced meal. It sounds like vegetarian junk food. My wife was a vegetarian for years while we were dating and I think it bears mentioning that “vegetarian” doesn’t mean “healthy”. Plenty of junk food that non-vegetarians eat is completely vegetarian. And vegetarian food that non-vegetarians don’t eat is sometimes loaded with sugar and salt to make it more palatable, with the effect that it approximates non-vegetarian options but is significantly worse for you.</p>
<p>To my mind, hot meals are a luxury. It would be comparatively easy to feed kids who buy school lunches a bowl of fortified cereal with milk; almost everybody should be capable of eating that (almond or soy milks could be available for those who can’t do dairy) and kids would end up with better nutrition. It’s hard to get these products wrong, they’re produced in bulk and probably cost less than most other options. Make it high-fiber, throw in an enriched no-sugar-added fruit-juice cocktail and you’ve got yourself cheap and nutritious meals for everybody who wants them.</p>