Vegetarians banned in French schools

[Catherine]

I can see the problem with lunch being the most important meal. (I eat my lunch on the bus travelling between clients so it has to be something portable) The children need a good hearty meal. However there still should be a choice. I don't just mean vegetarian choices, there should be choices. It is not fair to force them all to eat the same meal. Surely the workers who go to restaurants together still get to make their own choices about what to eat.

You are so right to call it unfair and intolerant.

It is also not smart. Not everybody can eat the same foods. There are many food allergies and sensitivities. Surely people in France have the same health problems as the rest of the world. Some children would be forced to eat foods that make them sick. That is a terrible thing. The poor child would do poorly because they would feel sick so much of the time. No government has the right to do that.

Will parents try to sue the government?

If they make it a rights issue, the vegetarians might win out when everyone else protects their own rights.

[Knight of Albion]

Wouldn't cheese/cottage cheese/eggs, which vegetarians eat, count as "animal-based protein"?

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Just Googled the matter ...

Isn't this from 2011?

An interesting article on French school meals. I certainly don't agree on not providing plant protein/vegan meals (by combining plant foods you can get similar complete protein levels to red meat so there's no valid basis to this ruling) but everything else is very interesting. Especially the stance on no junk food!
http://karenlebillon.com/french-school-lunch-menus/

[LPC]

Yes, it was late 2011 when the legislation went through. It was 2012/13 when the "healthy balanced food" programme was pushed out. It was promoted very widely by central government, with lots of publicity, trying to persuade people to adopt the recommend mix of meat, fish, fruit and vegetables. "Eat at least five different vegetables a day" was one of the slogans.

To be fair, one of the aims was to get the French people (not just children in schools) to eat a more balanced diet, rather than lots of red meat and chips. Workers in restaurants often still opt for the traditional steak and chips, though! But the implications for vegetarian or vegan children were not considered and protests were few (as discussed earlier in this thread).

Perhaps I gave the wrong impression in referring to these rules as "new" (my bad choice of word), but it wasn't that long ago.

[Tobi]

Oops...it seems I posted this as 'news'. I didn't realise it was from 2011. Silly of me not to check dates. However if that legislation went through then, I guess it is still in force.

We always used to have a very hearty main meal at lunchtime in my school. It was a good balanced hot meal. We were always ready for it! No-one was vegetarian then, and neither was I. I just ate anything I was given -and then some! But I do remember some girl who had digestive problems....or diabetes? I can't remember which...and the headmistress arranged for her to have a separate meal. I am pretty certain that if anyone had been vegetarian or vegan (unheard of in those days in my area!) -then a separate diet would have been arranged for them, if the parents had spoken to the headmistress.

[Catherine]

This is a very complicated issue and I still think 2011 is fairly new because it would take years to put a new set of rules in place.

It sounds like France has had a good school lunch program, but it varied from one school to the next. The idea of a "school restaurant" is amazing.

My school lunch program growing up in rural Manitoba: If you lived 1/2 a mile or more from the school you brought a sandwich and sat on the floor of a classroom to eat, there was water in the drinking fountain in the hallway.

The problem I am seeing is the desire to standardize the program across the country. It forces everybody to conform and it loses the local touch that made lunches special. Whenever you apply "one size fits all" often nothing fits.

I am sure giving more control on the local level would solve a lot of problems. Individual schools could find ways to accommodate vegetarians and people with religious or health restrictions.

The lunch program sounds like a good idea that is being applied heavy handedly without regard for people or their rights and needs.

It would be so easy to accommodate vegetarians.