Meatless Monday Comes to Walpole Cafeterias

Walpole Public Schools is the latest school district to join the international Meatless Monday movement. Walpole Public Schools will participate in Meatless Monday by offering exclusively meat-free meals in its cafeterias every Monday.

Meatless Monday was started by the U.S. government as a resource-saving measure during World Wars I and II. In 2003, it was revived by The Monday Campaigns in association with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health to reduce meat consumption by 15 percent for our personal health and the health of the planet.

According to Environmental Defense Fund, “If every American skipped one meal of chicken per week and substituted vegetables and grains…the carbon dioxide savings would be the same as taking more than half a million cars off of U.S. roads.”

Polls show that 50 percent of Americans are aware of Meatless Monday and that roughly one in five are participating in it.

Public figures, celebrities and athletes—including Ellen DeGeneres, Russell Simmons and Mike Tyson —have recently touted the advantages of eating less meat.

“Choosing meat-free options just one day a week helps spare animals from factory farms, benefits our environment, and improves our health,” said Ashley Rhinehart, food policy coordinator at The Humane Society of the United States, for a recent press release. “We’re pleased that Walpole Public Schools is the latest district to show that being healthy can also be delicious.”

Image via Shutterstock.