New York expands ‘Meatless Mondays’ for school meals

Schoolchildren in New York City will be dining on all-vegetarian breakfast and lunch meals every Monday, starting with the 2019-2020 school year, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced this week. The move follows a pilot program launched in the spring of 2018 at 15 public schools in Brooklyn and ultimately will affect an estimated 1.1 million students.Mayor de Blasio said that “cutting back on meat a little will improve New Yorkers’ health and reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” while announcing the program. The expansion is expected to be cost-neutral to the city budget and school officials are expected to meet with students to collect qualitative feedback before the menu for this fall is finalized.