Some students in Los Angeles area schools make their own lunch or a parent steps in to make sure their child isn’t eating cafeteria food. And for some who are vegetarian or vegan, bringing their lunch is a must-do to avoid being singled out in the food line that labels you “one of those.”
But at CHIME Institute’s Schwarzenegger Community School in Woodland Hills, vegetarians and vegans go unnoticed. They get their meals like everyone else, standing in the cafeteria line with all the other kids.
The San Fernando Valley school’s vegetarian and vegan meals are prepared by Commerce-based Revolution Foods, with four fully plant-based vegan meal options for students who may have dietary restrictions, cultural or political reasons for avoiding meat — or just want to polish off a healthy meat-free or cheese-free meal.
Adalia Allston, a sixth-grader, is a lifelong vegetarian. At her previous schools she was one of those kids who stood out, required to stand in a special line for lunch. But at CHIME she blends in at lunch time and hangs with classmates who sometimes also choose vegetarian or vegan meals despite being meat eaters.
“This gives kids more options and that’s good,” Adalia said. “My favorite is bean and cheese burrito, (pizza) and macaroni and peas,” she said, and if she has breakfast at school her go-to is Cheerios.
Sixteen years ago, CHIME, which stands for “Community Honoring Inclusive Model Education” Institute renamed its elementary school for then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger after the school was recognized by First Lady Maria Shriver for its accomplishments.
Erin Studer, the executive director at CHIME, said, “They put together a blue-ribbon panel to find a school in California that reflected their values as a family (and) they found CHIME and asked if we would rename the campus in honor of the family as a birthday gift to the sitting governor. It was quite an honor.”
The institute then merged its elementary school with its middle school and needed an updated name, and chose “CHIME Institute’s Schwarzenegger Community School.”
CHIME has 730 students from pre-K to eighth grade who live in 42 different ZIP codes across north Los Angeles County. It is an open lottery school serving families from many different backgrounds, abilities, economic status, language backgrounds and communities.
And the school got its unusual name after When Arnold Schwarzengger was sitting governor and turning 60 years old, his family was looking to give him a birthday gift.
“And what do you give Arnold Schwarzengger?” said Erin Studer, the executive director at CHIME. “They put together a blue-ribbon panel to find a school in California that reflected their values as a family (and) they found CHIME and asked if we would rename the campus in honor of the family as a birthday gift to the sitting governor. It was quite an honor.”
Adalia has a mix of eaters at home. Her mom is a vegan, her sister is a vegetarian and her brother eats meat.
“It’s more of a (food) choice for me,” she said, while her vegan mother’s view is more political: “My mom is about animals and killing them.”
Not many schools offer meals without meat or cheese. CHIME offers standard meals also.
Studer thinks the new menu options are extraordinay because a well-fed student is a better learner.
“There are a lot of different families we serve as a school, who have all kinds of dietary needs and dietary preferences — and if our program can’t offer that it’s a real problem,” Studer said. “When we look at our numbers, we see there are a number of students choosing (vegetarian/vegan) meals (perhaps) because they are vegetarians, or just prefer that food.”
The plant-based menu rotates on a two-week cycle and includes student favorites such as bean and cheese burritos, cheese tamales with black beans, cheese pizza and lasagna with marinara sauce. Each new menu also offers soy burger and vegan options, an edamame teriyaki bowl, bean burrito bowl, marinara pasta and a taco bowl with beans featuring a pea-based meat alternative.
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Revolution Foods, which serves 800 schools in California and Nevada, launched its first distinct all-vegetarian menu with four fully plant-based vegan meal options this fall. Jonathan Diaz, director of customer service for Revolution Foods, said most of their client schools order five to 10 meals daily, but CHIME orders 30 to 100 vegetarian and vegans meals daily.
Revolution Foods serves about 900,000 meals each week, which includes about 7,000 vegetarian meals, a dramatic increase over last year, Diaz said.
“Kids are there to get their education, to learn as much as possible,” Diaz said, “and we understand that an empty stomach — it’s harder to learn with it. So we want to make sure this option of vegan/vegetarian … is available to the kids that have religious purposes or lifestyle, (and) that they have access to healthy meals to get through the day.”