Bend and La Pine students got into the Earth Day spirit by going meatless for a day.
On Friday, the Bend-La Pine School District only offered meatless breakfast and lunch options for the first time ever.
The goal to show the impact going meatless for a day can have on the environment.
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The organizers were Summit High School seniors Taylor English and Shannon MacDonnell.
“We are trying to get the community to come together at something that was sort of a global issue, and we’re trying to bring it to a local scale,” said MacDonnell.
It’s part of a student-led campaign called ‘Food for our Future’.
“We get to see and educate people on the small choices they can make in their own lives and see how that can change and help our planet and the health of everyone,” said English.
The two got the idea after learning about a similar program in New York.
“We really like that idea and as we started researching more, we discovered that that was something that we really wanted to bring into our community and create a positive change,” said MacDonnell.
The menu features foods like caprese focaccia sandwiches, veggie pasta with sauce, veggie pizza and even ‘meatless’ cookies.
It’s a collaboration that the school district’s executive chef was a little hesitant about at first.
“I was a little skeptical at first about jumping in with no meat, but it turned out really awesome,” said Bend-La pine Schools Executive Chef Tracie Surgeon. “I realized we serve a lot of vegetarian options anyway and plant forward options. The hype today at summit has been really awesome and it feels really good and fun in here and the staff’s been really excited.”
For organizers English and MacDonnell, they hope this effort can keep going for years to come.
“Felt like I’ve made a difference and impacts on our community and I hope that people can see what their voice has on our community and see if they can do something similar,” said English.
They have a survey which will collect feedback on what the rest of the student body thought of the menu.
