By Kayla Kinsey
Staff Writer
Vegetarians at Costa are not getting enough representation of their diet at lunch and the available choices are not sufficient to the entire student body. With a student body of 2,538 people, many vegetarians, or people with restricted diets need more choices at lunch to suffice the recommended nutrients according to MBUSD and its nutrition goals.
Manhattan Beach Unified School district’s main categories to achieve good nutrition are protein, grains, vegetables, fruit, and milk. According to a poll taken by students at Costa, 87.50% of students believe that there are not enough vegetarian options. In the few vegetarian meals, there are no alternative choices of protein, meaning that they only serve protein in the form of meat. With common food restrictions or diets such as being lactose-intolerant, gluten-free, or vegetarian, these goals are almost impossible to achieve with the available food options that are provided at Mira Costa.
The everyday options for lunch usually include a choice of a salad, but even some of these salads have meat in them and are not an available option for vegetarians. An example of this is the chinese chicken salad. Most of the other options like the bistro box, are not always available and are not as healthy because of sugary yogurts and no source of protein included.
Covid-19 has contributed to the lack of options significantly because of a shortage of staff, limited food availability, distribution shortages, and inflammatory prices according to MBUSD’s food and nutrition announcements. Generally, MBUSD food services are not required to make substitutions for all dietary intolerances or preferences, unless it causes major allergies to a student according to MBUSD’s important Information about special meal accommodations and ingredients.
According to the California Department of Education, schools are advocating for additional nationwide food flexibilities.The requests that students are making may be difficult to perform because of the new challenges COVID-19 has thrown at the district. But with overwhelming support from the student body, changes to the menus, by including more vegetarian options, can be made and more inclusion can be achieved by investing into these options.
Especially for teenagers that are involved in extracurriculars for Costa such as sports, a balanced diet is important to perform to a top capacity according to Mira Costa’s Fitness section. A variety of food such as grains, vegetables, fruits, beans, lean meats, and low fat dairy products are necessary, and these options are not provided
More vegetarian options should be available at Mira Costa to satisfy the entire student body as a whole and to meet the expectations of a balanced nutrition. With support from the community and district contributions that the school receives, it is possible to better our school lunches.
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