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From our friends at Healthy Monday …

The Baltimore City Public School system is about to become the first fully Meatless Monday school system in the U.S. They’re joining a growing international movement of individuals, organizations, communities and cities making the commitment to lower meat consumption and enjoy a plant-based diet on Mondays.

The 80,000 young people BCPS serves will begin each week with a Meatless Monday menu. And that’s not all. The school system has introduced a wide variety of projects to ensure its students eat and learn about healthy, environmentally friendly choices. BCPS has teemed up with local farmers and distributors to provide students fresh, locally raised fruits, vegetables and milk. They’ve also introduced Great Kids Farm, a 33-acre teaching farm, home to chickens, goats and a variety of fruits and vegetables. Educators on the farm teach kids and adults how to produce home-grown fresh food, even in an urban setting. BCPS is also in the process of developing gardens for each of the system’s 200 schools.

We at Meatless Monday hope the example BCPS is setting will help inspire the nation and serve as a model to transform school food systems coast to coast. Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future shares our hope. That’s why they’ve chosen to honor BCPS with the annual CLF Award. The CLF Award is given to individuals and groups that strive to advance our understanding of the complex relationship between humans and the environment. BCPS has earned this award by fostering a positive relationship between children, the food they eat and their surroundings.

We at Meatless Monday would like to extend our sincerest congratulations and thanks to BCPS for their dedication to children’s nutrition and education.

The CLF Award will be presented on Tuesday, September 29th at Great Kids Farm.