By Sue Wambolt, Contributing Writer
Southborough – While peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and cheese pizza have long reigned as vegetarian options in school cafeterias, Margaret Neary Elementary School will soon be adding healthy vegetarian choices to the school lunch menu at the request of fourth-graders Simi and Sia Gandhi.
Both Simi and Sia, 10, have been vegetarians for the better part of their lives.
“We were vegetarians for a long time because our parents were mostly vegetarian,” the girls said. “It feels bad to kill an animal to eat it while there are so many other options for food. We do eat chicken now, but we usually choose not to.”
When the girls noticed that most of the hot lunches served at school contained meat, they decided that it was time to supplement the menu with vegetarian options.
Determined to be an agent for change, Simi petitioned the school for vegetarian lunch options. In what she called “Project Lunch,” she scripted a letter to Cafeteria Manager Carol Nocera, requesting that the school lunch menu include “hot, healthy vegetarian lunch choices.” They also volunteered to provide recipes and advice to the cafeteria staff. Among the vegetarian options that both Simi and Sia would like added to the menu are bean and cheese quesadillas, veggie burritos, meatless chili and veggie wraps.
After receiving the petition and meeting with Simi and Sia, Nocera agreed to expand the lunch menu to include vegetarian options. She has put in an order for veggie burgers which should arrive in a few weeks and offered to prepare meat dishes without the meat on request.
“It feels good to actually change something that benefits everyone,” said Sia.
“It feels good that kids have more, healthier lunch options and it feels good that our voices can be heard and we can make a difference,” Simi added.
With vegetarian options soon to be added to the lunch menu, both Sia and Simi feel empowered by the change they have initiated and – soon – implemented. They have received praise from Principal Kathleen Valenti, as well as their teachers and friends.
