Move Over, Montel. We're More Impressed with Your Daughter.

categories: Food and Recipes, Politics and Law, Vegan

Published April 30, 2009 @ 08:33AM PT

Perhaps you've heard--Wyntergrace Williams, 15-year-old daughter of Montel Williams, is a smart, compassionate, healthy vegetarian. She's been instrumental in getting healthy vegan and vegetarian options onto the menu at her own school, and now she's working with the Healthy School Lunches campaign of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine to get those healthy, compassionate options into all schools. As Williams's petition to her own Connecticut middle school explained, "Whether we choose them out of compassion for animals, or because of concerns about health or the environment, we all benefit from having plant-based meals available. We want to work with our cafeteria to make these new healthful offerings a success." Does this young woman rock or what?

Wyntergrace is in D.C. this week, asking members of Congress to amend the Child Nutrition Act to reflect the importance and necessity of plant-based options in school cafeterias, and she's also hoping she can get two other famous daughters--Malia and Sasha Obama, themselves members of a health-conscious family--to join the effort.

Perhaps you've also noticed the related petition on this site, asking you to "Tell Congress to Provide Vegetarian and Vegan Meal Options in Public Schools." If you haven't signed it yet, now's the time to do it. During the voting for the Ideas for Change project, thousands supported the excellent idea posted by Alex Hershaft of FARM calling for healthy vegan school lunch options. Please support this petition to Congress now too.

Emphasis, of course, needs to be on vegan, truly healthy options, not just options labeled "vegetarian"--which are too often heavy on cream and cheese, neither compassionate nor healthy.

Share this Post

Comments (5)

Not to come off too confrontational but, I guess Montel is busy getting medical marijuana rights for the seriously and terminally ill along with dealing with his own illness. ;)

Posted by withrow newell on 04/30/2009 @ 08:57AM PT
- Report close
  You must be signed in to report content.
- Reply
- Like
The title was intended to be lighthearted, not to be taken as a criticism of Montel Williams. I apologize if that's not how it comes across.

Posted by Stephanie Ernst on 04/30/2009 @ 09:08AM PT
- Report close
  You must be signed in to report content.
- Like
Reply to thread
For your comment to be published, you will need to confirm your email address after submitting your comment. In the process we will also create a Change.org account for you so you can track this and future conversations. Don't worry - we won't spam you. We just want to promote constructive dialogue and find that people are more respectful when they are not anonymous.

If you already have an account, click here to log in.

First Name:

Last Name:

Email:

Create Password:

reply to thread started by by withrow
Check Spelling
- Email me when there are new posts to this thread
- Comment Policy
Cancel Reply
I think this is great! I'm going to send this to my daughter. Maybe she will be inspired to get active at her school. Right now we just pack her lunch, but it would be nice if other children had healthier options even for just one meal. I've heard several of her friends say that their parent's won't let them be vegetarian/vegan. So sad.

Posted by Nichole Tockey on 04/30/2009 @ 09:34AM PT
- Report close
  You must be signed in to report content.
- Reply
- Like
For your comment to be published, you will need to confirm your email address after submitting your comment. In the process we will also create a Change.org account for you so you can track this and future conversations. Don't worry - we won't spam you. We just want to promote constructive dialogue and find that people are more respectful when they are not anonymous.

If you already have an account, click here to log in.

First Name:

Last Name:

Email:

Create Password:

reply to thread started by by Nichole
Check Spelling
- Email me when there are new posts to this thread
- Comment Policy
Cancel Reply
It's so great when kids get involved in the issues - and it is particularly important that they are concerned with school food! Here's another similar story from today's WaPo blog: http://healthyschoolscampaign.org/?post

Posted by Amanda Chablani on 05/05/2009 @ 11:57AM PT
- Report close
  You must be signed in to report content.
- Reply
- Like
For your comment to be published, you will need to confirm your email address after submitting your comment. In the process we will also create a Change.org account for you so you can track this and future conversations. Don't worry - we won't spam you. We just want to promote constructive dialogue and find that people are more respectful when they are not anonymous.

If you already have an account, click here to log in.

First Name:

Last Name:

Email:

Create Password:

reply to thread started by by Amanda
Check Spelling
- Email me when there are new posts to this thread
- Comment Policy
Cancel Reply
I cannot agree more. It is disgusting that our education system's lunch rooms are full of PEPSI machines and candy bar vending machines, most lunch stations offer " breadsticks" and other greasy foods that have no nutritional content, and yet we all can't help but wonder why our country is getting dumber and dumber by the day. Why is this being allowed in our public education systems, why is there no actions being taken to have it controlled so our youth can eat healthy so they can achieve the knowledge in which we send them off to digest every day? What's up with this???!!!

Posted by brooke howe on 05/05/2009 @ 11:58AM PT
- Report close
  You must be signed in to report content.
- Reply
- Like
For your comment to be published, you will need to confirm your email address after submitting your comment. In the process we will also create a Change.org account for you so you can track this and future conversations. Don't worry - we won't spam you. We just want to promote constructive dialogue and find that people are more respectful when they are not anonymous.

If you already have an account, click here to log in.

First Name:

Last Name:

Email:

Create Password:

reply to thread started by by brooke
Check Spelling
- Email me when there are new posts to this thread
- Comment Policy
Cancel Reply

Add a Comment

For your comment to be published, you will need to confirm your email address after submitting your comment.

If you already have an account, click here to log in.

First Name:

Last Name:

Email:

Create Password:

Comment

Check Spelling

Email me when there are new posts to this thread
Comment Policy

Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the ideas covered in the posts. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments that are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; that contain ad hominem attacks; or that are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion.

Author

Stephanie is an independent animal rights advocate, a vegan, a tree-hugging environmentalist, and a freelance editor and writer. She lives in St. Louis with an aging corgi-lab and an adolescent rescued pit bull.