Get A Look At Jersey City's All-Vegan Preschool
Is this vegan preschool a harbinger for the future of kids' meals?
Made-from-scratch cashew milk and root vegetable gratin may sound like the offerings of a Venice Beach café, but these items actually hail from a preschool in New Jersey. The Scandinavian School of Jersey City, a sought-after preschool that teaches one- to six-year-olds, is serving up entirely vegan food to its little students, the Wall Street Journal reports.
The students not only enjoy strictly vegan lunches, which are low in sugar and salt, too, but they also take part in growing the vegetables and making items like almond milk and fresh bread.
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While the kids at the so-called "Scandi School" may never endure character-building moments like forcing down cafeteria slop, they're not immune from making their own versions. According to the WSJ, one four-year-old combined his spinach-mushroom lasagna and miso soup—"Yummy," he proclaimed.
While some parents are all in, some still need convincing. After all, celery soup for lunch means chicken nuggets for dinner, one mom tells the WSJ. To show parents kids are getting the right nutrients and calories, the $18,500-a-year school holds an annual tasting, accompanied by a nutritionist.
No longer fringe hippie fare, vegan food has officially become a ubiquitous and respected cuisine, showing up in fine dining and trendy casual joints alike. Not only that, but with the latest USDA guidelines recommending lower meat consumption, vegetable-forward food, vegan or otherwise, is clearly here to stay. Whether or not more schools take up the trend is yet to be seen, but it certainly seems like a likely scenario. Vegan Lunchables probably aren't far off either.