Plant-Based Meals May Be In Schools Soon!

LT to RT: Miguel Villarreal, Director of Food & Nutrition Services at Novato Unified School District; Marc Ching, Founder, Animal Hope in Legislation; Veronica Rafkind, Animal Hope in Legislation; AB 479 Co-Sponsors: Assemblymembers Adrin Nazarian and Ash Kalra; Kecia Doolittle, Bay Area Campaigns Director at In Defense of Animals; Kari Hamerschlag, Deputy Director Food & Agriculture at Friends of the Earth. Back Row: Nickolaus Sackett, Director of Legislative Affairs at Social Compassion in Legislation

We are LIVE at the Capitol in Sacramento, California, where AB479: Healthy, Climate-Friendly School Meals bill, sponsored by California Assemblymember Adrin Nazarian and Assemblymember Ash Kalra and co-sponsored by Social Compassion In Legislation, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, and Friends of the Earth U.S. PASSED in the Education Committee today!!! AB-479 would incentivize healthy climate-friendly meals in California’s public schools, by providing additional reimbursement to schools that serve a plant-based entrée or milk option. AB-479 proposes offering grants to schools for the training and technical assistance needed to scale up their healthy, plant-based food offerings. Vegan parents are cheering inside thanks to this bill moving forward. Often times, eating a plant-based diet makes kids feel different and secluded from their friends. Now that won’t happen. Options for kids that adhere to the diets and morals their parents have instilled in them will be available to them at school once this bill becomes a law.

LT to RT: Miguel Villarreal, Director of Food & Nutrition Services at Novato Unified School District; Assemblymember Adrin Nazarian; and Kari Hamerschlag, Deputy Director Food & Agriculture at Friends of the Earth

Another Bill we should support is AB 572 California Deforestation-Free Procurement Act. This bill sponsored by California Assemblymember Ash Kalra and co-sponsored by Social Compassion In Legislation, Peace4Animals & Friends of the Earth. Tropical deforestation is responsible for a significant portion of global greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change, as well as wide-ranging impacts on biodiversity and human rights. As a large public purchaser, California can use its purchasing power against commodities that drive tropical deforestation, while helping to drive more sustainable practices, as part of the state’s broad commitment to leadership in the fight against climate change. In a few weeks, AB 572 will head to the Appropriations Committee.