Plant-based meals offered in Los Gatos Union School District

Kerry Billner, director of child nutrition services for the Los Gatos Union School District, feeds tomatoes into a food processor in the kitchen of Fisher Middle School. The district has partnered with Los Gatos-based nonprofit Plant-Based Advocates to incorporate more plant-based options into the district’s meal plans this academic year, an effort that has resulted in a diverse cafeteria menu that introduces students to alternatives for animal products. at a young age. (Thanks photo)

The term “school lunches” often conjures up memories of half-frozen pizzas and bags of limp carrots, but not for students in the Los Gatos Union School District.

The district has partnered with Los Gatos-based nonprofit Plant-Based Advocates to incorporate more plant-based options into the district’s meal plans this academic year, an effort that has resulted in a diverse cafeteria menu that introduces students to alternatives for animal products. at a young age. That means students have access to options like JUST Egg, a plant-based egg alternative, vegan cheeses, “chick’n” sandwiches and even a variety of plant-based milks.

Kerry Billner, director of child nutrition services for the district, said Fisher Middle School became one of the first schools in the state to offer a plant-based milk dispenser after one was installed in the school cafeteria last September. Fisher also has a dairy milk dispenser to help reduce milk carton waste.

Billner said students are unexpectedly receptive to the alternative milk options, including oat, soy and chocolate-flavored pea milk.

“It’s been a big game changer; these kids really like the plant-based milk,” she said. “I wouldn’t say they like it better than the dairy milk, but they do like it.”

The list of menu items the district is offering includes a vegan fiesta bowl with brown rice and fajita vegetables, which has proven even more popular than the usual non-vegan options.

“When we made vegan fiesta bowls, the bowls went first and more kids asked for them; there were about 20 beef cheeseburgers left,” Kathleen Willey, co-founder of Plant-Based Advocates, said in a statement.

The district’s efforts to include more plant-based options in school cafeterias have some non-nutritional benefits: Students with dairy allergies have benefited from the vegan options, Billner said, and it also encourages the district to think about reducing of plastic waste.

Breakfast and lunch are free for all students in the district, but some parents of students with dairy allergies still send their children to school with homemade lunches because they are not aware of the plant-based options, Willey said. That’s why she’s working to raise awareness about the district’s vegan menus.

Billner’s goal is to serve an equivalent plant-based food item for every item that is not plant-based, which means “orange chicken day” also means “orange cauliflower day” or “orange tofu day.” This effort isn’t just limited to meat: Billner works to introduce students to vegetables they haven’t tried before, even including unusual items like watermelon radishes on her menu. “This is next level for them,” she said.

In the long term, Willey said, the goal is to facilitate self-service meals at each of the district’s five schools. Fisher Middle School is currently the only campus in the district with a full kitchen, meaning meals for the entire district are prepared there and then packaged and shipped to other schools.

She said the district is working to install fully equipped kitchens at each of the schools so that the waste associated with packaging and storing food for other schools is eliminated and students have access to even fresher options.

“But until that happens, the goal is to continue to expose the kids to healthier options for fruits and vegetables,” Willey added.

Willey, also a parent in the district, said she is happy her children have access to a variety of food options at school.

“As a mother, I want my children to be exposed to healthier foods because it is challenging, especially for teenagers,” she said. “You try to model good, healthy eating habits, and when you do that at home, but then they go to school and they see hamburgers, pizza, chicken nuggets – all those prepackaged, processed foods – it’s becoming more and more of a struggle for every family to to get healthier food.”