SUBJECT: 2-3 page essay on any aspect of vegetarianism. Vegetarianism is not eating meat, fish, and birds (for example, chicken or duck). Among the many reasons for being a vegetarian are beliefs about ethics, culture, health, aesthetics, religion, world peace, economics, world hunger, and the environment.

Entrants should base their paper on interviewing, research, and/or personal opinion. You need not be a vegetarian to enter. All essays become the property of The Vegetarian Resource Group.

ENTRY CATEGORIES:

• A. Age 14-18.
• B. Age 9-13.
• C. Age 8 and under.

PRIZES: A $50 savings bond will be awarded in each category.

DEADLINE: Must be postmarked by May 1 for each current year of judging.

SEND ENTRIES TO: The Vegetarian Resource Group, PO Box 1463, Baltimore, MD 21203.

FAX: (410) 366-8804. Include your name, address, telephone number, age, grade, school, and teacher’s name.

Click here to read essays from past winners.

Check it out here: http://www.vrg.org/athlete/

Because I am meat-free and dairy-free, as well as health-conscious, and my 7 year old is vegetarian, I try to make everything at home from scratch. The thought of eating at a restaurant that could meet all of our needs sounds very enticing (not to mention that I don’t have to cook or clean up). But finding that restaurant can be a bit elusive. So when I was asked to review a website that promised healthy choices when dining out, I jumped at the opportunity.

Healthy means different things to different people. For some it’s low-calorie or low-fat, for some it’s lean protein and for some it’s vegetarian or vegan. The Kids Live Well website, a project of the National Restaurant Association, offers a selection of restaurants that have joined the project, which offer healthy choices for kids, and which have met nutritional criteria overseen by a team of registered dietitians. Kids’ meals that meet the criteria must be below a specified level of calories, calories from fat, calories from sugars, and sodium. Only menu items that meet the criteria are included on the website. The website generally does not indicate whether or not options are vegetarian. Some of the restaurants that were identified as serving healthy choices didn’t offer any vegetarian or vegan choices, and the ones that did were limited to a single vegetarian meal. Most offered at least a fruit or vegetable side, although they were not denoted as vegetarian or vegan.

I tried to look at this website from my daughter’s point of view as well as my own, asking myself questions like, if I were her, would I want to eat this? Does she have choices, or is she limited? As a parent, do I feel good about these choices? The answer is a resounding “no”. Some of the restaurants offer only one meal that sounded vegetarian and most offered only sides such as fruit or vegetables. Since vegan/vegetarian isn’t one of the criteria, they aren’t clearly identified so parents can’t be certain that the meals actually are vegetarian. Therefore further exploration of a restaurant’s website would be needed to decide if the restaurant is one to add to possible choices for you and your family. The only restaurant that appealed to me was pizza. Their vegan pizza sounds astounding! They were the only restaurant that stated that they offered a vegan meal. Alas, their only location is in Seattle, WA.

This website could be a useful starting point for vegetarian parents who are trying to find more health conscious food choices for their children at restaurants. It would be beneficial to have added criteria such as vegan/vegetarian, or dairy-free, gluten-free, and soy-free for those with intolerances and allergies. For now, when the mood strikes to get out the house and let someone else do the cooking, my family and I will stick to using these other great websites for finding vegetarian/vegan restaurants including http://www.vegdining.com/Home.cfm, http://www.happycow.net/, and http://www.vrg.org/restaurant/index.php.

Written by Corey Bivins, a volunteer with VRG.

Lesson Plan: Clean Water for Everyone Today and Tomorrow with Good Food Choices (grades K-2)

Lesson Plan: Water Conservation and Dietary Connections (grades 5-8)

Lesson Plan: A Comparative Study of Surface Water Quality with Dietary Connections (grades 9-12)

Water Usage Math Worksheet (Middle/High School Level)

“Teach… Your Children Well…”: A vegetarian Lesson Plan for High School Students

Thanks to Calvert Library, Prince Frederick, MD, for displaying VRG’s brochures on vegetarianism!

If you would like to obtain brochures for your local library or for a table at an event, please email vrg@vrg.org.

To support the printing and shipping of our brochures for outreach, click here.

Click here to view the entire version of VRG’s new lesson plan for kids about water usage.

Lesson Plan: Clean Water for Everyone Today and Tomorrow with Good Food Choices

by Jeanne Yacoubou, MS © The Vegetarian Resource Group.

Purpose: To visualize for young children how much water is used to do everyday tasks and how much water is needed to grow common food items. To graphically illustrate for children how some human activities and how food production causes water pollution. To instill in children that water is a precious resource and should not be wasted.

An integrated worksheet asks children to answer questions based on these adapted charts (numbers rounded for children):

Table 1. Water Consumed during Daily Activities (data taken from http://www.epa.gov/reg5rcra/wptdiv/p2pages/water.pdf)

 
Table 2. Water Used to Produce some Common Items (Data taken from Chapagain A, Hoekstra A (2004) Water Footprints of Nations Volume One: Main Report. Value of Water Research Report Series No.16. Delft (The Netherlands): UNESCO – IHE Institute for Water Education. http://www.waterfootprint.org/?page=files/Publications; numbers are rounded off on table children use for activity.)

Click here for the entire lesson plan.