New York elementary school adopts all-vegetarian menu

NEW YORK – A public elementary school in Flushing, Queens, has become the first school in New York – and potentially the United States – to adopt an all-vegetarian menu at the school cafeteria.

What’s even more newsworthy – the students seem to like it.

Principal Robert Groff told the Associated Press that PS 244, a 400-student, pre-K through 3rd grade school, first experimented with serving meatless lunches three times a week.

The students gobbled up veggie entrees like black beans, cheddar quesadillas with salsa, vegetarian chili and tofu wraps, so the school decided to make all meals vegetarian.

Today, the first day of the all-vegetarian menu, students told reporters that it was not a problem for them that the food is healthy.

"When you're healthy you can do better on tests, and you can fight more diseases," one student told NY1.

"It's green so it can make your eyes better, and it can also help your muscles to become stronger, and it also has a lot of protein, not a lot of sugar,” another student said to NY1.

More from GlobalPost: Vegetarian McDonald's to open in India

Will you support The World today?

The story you just read is available for free because thousands of listeners and readers like you generously support our nonprofit newsroom. Every day, reporters and producers at The World are hard at work bringing you human-centered news from across the globe. But we can’t do it without you: We need your support to ensure we can continue this work for another year.

Make a gift today, and you’ll get us one step closer to our goal of raising $25,000 by June 14. We need your help now more than ever!