Going Green for a Day: What you need to know about Meatless Mondays

The Harker Upper School completed its trial period of Meatless Mondays, an initiative proposed by last year’s green team and backed by administration and student council aiming to improve community health and reduce Harker’s ecological impact, on Jan. 30.

Serving grilled cheese sandwiches and veggie tenders as the main vegetarian entree options, the one day trial run included meat at the Bistro. Green team, the administration, student council and the kitchen reviewed the first Meatless Monday and are in the process of making a final decision.

“[Meatless Mondays] is a great way to work towards saving the environment,” Millie Lin (11) said. “[It’s] also a way for students to develop their own healthy habits that perhaps they will take out of the school and into their own lives.”

“If [the kitchen] had just not had meat on Mondays and they didn’t say anything, I probably wouldn’t have noticed,” Ashwin Reddy (10) said. “Because they have, people are making a big deal out of it.”

Dr. Kate Schafer, one of the faculty sponsors for Green Team, highlights the educational value of Meatless Mondays.

“Especially as a school, one of of our goals has to be education about [environmental responsibility],” Dr. Schafer said. “There have been people who suggested: what if we just do Meatless Mondays without saying anything about it? Would anybody even notice? [The students on the Meatless Monday team] recognize how important it is to have that education piece that goes along with it.”

Head Chef Steve Martin supports a less meat reliant diet and the benefits it provides, but he preferred an alternate approach to reduce our community’s meat consumption.

“If people eat less meat, that’s better than one day,” he said. “My advice is to balance your diet. Eat more vegetables; eat less meat. [People] need to be educated and not feel like they’re being coerced to [eat less meat].”

At the time of publication, the final status of Meatless Mondays is unknown.