Implementing Change
The vegan program is rolling out to all LAUSD schools at a pace of seven schools monthly, and it currently runs on a one-week menu cycle. Lunches are chili on Monday, teriyaki veggie patty sandwiches on Tuesday, bean tamales on Wednesday, vegan sausage subs on Thursday and vegan burgers on Friday.
It all began in July 2016 during a headline-grabbing, “only-in-LA” board meeting at LAUSD. A group of students brought vegan activists including Pamela Anderson—whose children attended nearby Malibu schools—to speak about the value of daily vegan menu options.
“Clearly, the kids wanted this option and we were happy to provide it,” says Joseph Vaughn, LAUSD’s director of Food Services. “People ask us all the time if the vegan menu is about being more healthy, but the answer is no—we’re serving meals to all students that are healthy. This pilot is about giving kids what they want.”
Student tastes have been the driver of the vegan pilot from the beginning. And they’ve also been the key to its success, according to Vaughn and Singh.
“We test any product before we put it on a menu, because given the size of our district, it doesn’t make sense to implement things unless most students love it,” Singh says. “We had students taste test and tell us if they liked it or they didn’t. To make it onto the menu, an item needed an 80% approval score, and that’s standard for all of our menus.”
After setting the menu based on those approval scores, the foodservice staffers started implementation. They started small, with only seven schools, to gauge interest in the vegan menu. They were happily surprised by a 13% participation rate, which encouraged them to continue the rollout. By the end of the 2017-2018 school year, 42 LAUSD schools will offer the daily vegan options, with more to come in 2018-2019.
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