|
|
 | | photo by Erika Thorpe | Lots of Healthy Options for Everyone, Vegetarians and Vegans Included
Gwinnet County Public School District, Georgia
By Lindsey Middendorf
Dandelions Unlimited Intern
Western Washington University
The Gwinnet County Public School District in Georgia takes a hands on, interactive approach to student health, and encourages vegetarian diets within their healthy lunch menus and educational curriculum. The district’s main methods of encouraging healthy lifestyles are providing students with healthy, well-balanced meals every day and teaching students an in-depth curriculum about nutrition and exercise. Everyone has the right to enjoy a healthy meal, and on any given day a vegetarian can find several healthy options in a lunch line in the Gwinnet County School District. Elementary schools offer a wide variety vegetarian entrees and side dishes. At the middle school level, three out of four entrees are vegetarian, and at the high school level, three out of five entrees are vegetarian. And what about the vegans? There is at least one vegan option every day at all school levels.
Every month students learn about a different aspect of nutrition and health, from the Food Guide Pyramid in August to Fruit in November to Exercise and Water in May. The program’s website also offers NutriCafe, an interactive online meal planning tool in which students can select the food that they plan to have for lunch, and the program will calculate the nutritional information of the meal and display it next to USDA standards so students can plan out healthy meals. The video game-like graphics of the NutriCafe program is a great way to make learning about nutrition fun for students (http://www.nutri-cafe.com/ChooseMeal.aspx). The health of vegetarian, vegan, and meat-eating students is exceptionally important at Gwinnet County School District, and they offer great tools to satisfy the nutritional needs of every student. .
1- http://www.gwinnett.k12.ga.us/gcsnp.nsf/pages/GCSNPHome0~QuickLinks
Resources
Gwinnet County Public School Nutrition Program
NutriCafe: Encouraging and Developing a Lifetime of Healthy Eating Habits
Gwinnet County Public Schools | |
