Meatless Everydays

Meatless Monday is Kent School’s new favorite day of the week. Just kidding. It’s really not. I totally get that it’s not fair to be told what we can and cannot eat, but at the same time kids have been making an unnecessarily big deal over one lousy vegetarian meal in the dining hall. But, I 100% support Kent trying to do something good for the world. The statistics for amount of water and other resources saved from one Meatless Monday are mind blowing. So, I don’t think that “being vegetarian for a meal” angered students; it was not having a choice and being forced to be a vegetarian that did. My thoughts about Meatless Monday are a little bit biased because I am a vegetarian. I became a vegetarian during the summer after the sixth grade; not for the environment, not for animal rights, and not for health. I stopped eating meat because I hated my mothers cooking. Really (and she knows it!). And for the past seven years, the vegetarian-thing has stuck with me and I have learned a lot about my health and myself. It has forced my eyes open to trying new foods, especially when traveling. Most recently my family and I went to China. In China, there are a lot of different foods (obviously, considering China is on the other side of the world). There, I had to try vegetables and fruits that I had never heard of or seen before, and a lot of them I liked! If kids could just open their eyes and deal, just like I do, then there wouldn’t be nearly as much complaining around campus. Again, I don’t necessarily support Meatless Monday because you never know what types of interesting concoctions the dining hall will whip up. But, I appreciate Kent’s efforts to raise awareness for a lot of the issues in the food industry that us as individuals can change if we suck it up and pretend to enjoy Meatless Monday.