Nonprofit works with Los Gatos school district to offer plant-based meals

Students have alternatives to animal products in school cafeterias.

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

The district has been working with the 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’s exposing students to alternatives to animal products at a young age. That means that 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 at 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 have been unexpectedly receptive to the alternative milk options, which include oat , soy and a chocolate-flavored pea milk.

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

On the list of menu items the district offers is a vegan fiesta bowl with brown rice and fajita vegetables that has proved to be even more popular than the usual non-vegan options.

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

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

Breakfast and lunch are free of charge for all students in the district, but some parents of students with dairy allergies are still sending their children to school with homemade lunches because they aren’t aware of the plant-based options, Willey said. As such, she’s been working on raising awareness about the district’s vegan menus.

Billner’s goal is to serve an equivalent plant-based food item for every item that’s not plant-based, meaning “orange chicken day” also means “orange cauliflower day,” or “orange tofu day.” This effort isn’t just limited to meat: Billner is working on exposing students to vegetables they haven’t tried before, even featuring uncommon produce options like watermelon radishes in her menu. “This is like next-level stuff for them,” she said.

Long term, Willey said, the goal is to facilitate meals made from scratch at each of the five schools in the district. Fisher Middle School is currently the only campus in the district with a full kitchen, which means meals for the entire district are made there and then packaged and transported to other schools.

She said the district is working toward installing fully equipped kitchens at each of the schools so that the waste that comes 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 exposing the kids to more healthy fruit and vegetable options,” Willey added.

Willey, also a parent in the district, said she’s glad her kids have access to diverse food offerings at school.

“As a mom, I want my kids to be exposed to healthier food because it’s a challenge, especially with teenagers,” she said. “You’re trying to model good, healthy eating habits, and if you’re doing that at home but then they go to school and they’re seeing burgers, pizza, chicken nuggets–all this pre-packaged, processed food–it becomes more of a battle for each family to get healthier foods.”