Meatless Mondays? Count Me In.
Words by Eliseo Recarey
Illustrations by Katie Herchenroeder
Mayor Bill de Blasio, Chancellor Richard Carranza, and Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams announce “Citywide Meatless Mondays” beginning September 2019-2020. The wait is finally over, as public school students will replace harmful processed meats, and enjoy mouthwatering meals like pasta, grilled cheese sandwiches, pizza, and of course vegetables for their Monday lunch.
This citywide dietary change will benefit a large spectrum of the community: helping students take care of their bodies, perform better in classes, decrease harmful chemicals like pesticides and GMOs, lessen the impact of climate change and global warming, and lastly, reduce the effects of animal cruelty.
MeatlessMondays will help students appreciate the goodness of healthy foods, as well aspave the path for a healthy lifestyle. Also, the idea of Meatless Mondays willinspire students to eat right, and avoid becoming overweight or getting a heartdisease at a young age. The variation of foods being served will allow studentsto look forward to lunch by breaking up the monotony of the same meals every day.These circumstances will positively impact students’ ability to eat healthy,socialize with classmates, improve their performance in class, and becomeactive during recess.
Moreover,Meatless Mondays will help students refrain from eating foods with chemicalslike pesticides and GMOs that can be harmful to your body. Meals like pasta,grilled cheese sandwiches, pizza, and vegetables will provide a fair amount ofnutrients that will help students sustain energy throughout their day - withoutthe use of unhealthy chemicals.
Similarly,chemicals like pesticides perpetuate climate and increase the prevalence ofchanging temperatures, endangering animals and humans, and erratic weather. Inother words, Meatless Mondays will reduce harmful chemicals being used becauseof the healthy meals that will be served. With the mitigation of climatechange, planet Earth will be able to lessen its horrific transformation.
Lastly,Meatless Mondays will have a positive effect on animal rights; less animalshave to be killed to be eaten. Animals take a hard hit because of theirpopularity to be served, but with Meatless Mondays students can recognize thatanimals do not have to be food. This will help save many animals that live insevere conditions, and help students understand that there are more dietaryoptions out there.
