More and more vegetarian and vegan families are beginning to claim the schools where their children study, which adapt the dining menus to the guidelines of your diet, because there are very few schools where they offer this option.
This is the case of Noelia Estraviz, a mother from the Basque Country who has started a campaign to collect signatures on Change.org, to ask the regional government that "the vegan / vegetarian option is present in all the dining rooms of all educational centers of the Basque Country ".
Should schools adapt their menus to the vegetarian option?
Since 2012, all public schools in the Basque Country offer the vegetarian option in their school canteens, thanks to the struggle of Víctor Goñi, a father of Vitoria who did not stop until his daughter's right to not eat or eat was respected Meat or fish
In Babies and more A 5-year-old girl explains to her mother why she won't eat meat again and be vegetarianNow Noelia, through her request on Change.org, wants the regional government to extend this option to all the schools, as alleges that vegetarian / vegan families face "flagrant discrimination" because of their diet, compared to other options offered:
"It is a flagrant discrimination that we face, because we know positively that in the dining rooms of the schools the Muslim menu is respected, however, although the reason for eating differently for a religious issue is contemplated systematically denies that ethical reasons are alluded to for that, equally respectable "
Dr. Miriam Martínez Biarge, a pediatrician, member of the Advisory Committee of the Group of Vegan Doctors of the United Kingdom and author of the blog "My vegetarian pediatrician", has prepared a detailed report on schools in Spain that offer this option to their students.
As she herself states, "The centers that follow Montessori and Waldorf educational philosophies are much more open to offering vegetarian and vegan menus, if they do not already include them regularly". In addition, of all the autonomous communities of the country, he states that Catalonia is the most advanced in the subject, because it has the highest percentage of public and private centers with vegetarian menus.
In Babies and more "Healthy eating in the school canteen is part of the education of children", we talked with chef Juan LlorcaAccording to estimated figures from the Spanish Vegetarian Union, around 700,000 adults in our country follow a vegetarian diet, in any form. Within this figure, there are many parents who extend this option also to their children, and that is why they claim to be respected in their ideology when they leave home, and that children can continue to carry a healthy and adapted menu, also in the school environment.
In my opinion, institutions should respect the ethical reasons why a family chooses not to consume products of animal origin, and ensure that these children receive a healthy, rich menu adapted to their ideology.
Vegetarian diet for children
Vegetarian diets favor the consumption of products of plant origin, reducing or completely eliminating animal products. In the extreme are vegan diets, which are those that exclude any food of animal origin (meat, fish, animal fats, jelly, dairy products - cheese, milk, yogurt, butter - honey, eggs)
According to dietitians of the American Dietetic Association, a child can eat a well-made vegan diet With all the necessary nutrients and grow perfectly healthy.
In Babies and more, vegetarian diet for children?But it is very important that these types of diets (especially when followed during pregnancy and childhood) are prepared by a nutritionist, who ensure the supply of proteins necessary for each stage of life.
In the case of children, they can grow perfectly healthy if your diet is supplemented with vitamin B12 and routine medical checks are carried out to ensure that there are no nutritional deficits or anemia problems. Because if it is not properly controlled, eliminating animal proteins from children's diet can be very dangerous for their health.
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