By Francesca Henderson
Many Upper School students limit the kinds of foods that they intake. Whether they’re vegan, vegetarian, pescatarian or don’t eat beef and/or pork, these students represent a large proportion of our community.
But there isn’t much attention on the reasons why some students follow specific diets.
Some began excluding specific foods to take a stance against the abuse that sometimes results from our food production.
“I became pescatarian when I was in sixth grade,” said Callie Mitchell ‘23. “I had recently learned about the abuse animals face in factory farms, and didn’t want to participate in that cycle of harm. However, my parents wanted to ensure that I was still getting enough nutrients and protein in my diet, so I continued eating seafood.”
Mitchell’s story even inspired other students.
“[I became vegan] when Callie did this project on dairy animal abuse,” said Chloe Norman ‘23. “She sent me a lot of videos about how cows were physically abused, kept in small unsanitary pens and the babies were torn away from their mothers. I started researching more and found out how awful the entire dairy industry was and I felt like I couldn’t continue to support it.”
Others began limiting their intake of certain foods as a fun challenge, but ended up continuing for years down the line.
“I woke up on Labor Day of fourth grade and I just wanted to try something new… so I woke up and was like ‘oh, I’m not going to eat meat,’” said Rhian Richardson ‘23. “But, now I realize it’s good for my health [and] it’s good for the planet, but initially I wasn’t thinking about those things.”
Some students restrict certain foods because of their religion.“I’m Hindu,” said Haarika Palacharala ‘23. “Due to the way I practice my religion, I don’t eat pork or beef. On certain religious holidays such as Ganesh Chaturthi, a celebration of the god Ganesha, who helps remove obstacles, I am completely vegetarian.”
While many of these students feel that Woodward does a pretty good job at accommodating their diets, they also believe that there are steps the school could take to improve their lunch experience.
“My experience being pescatarian at Woodward has been decent,” said Mitchell ‘23. “But, I think some of the vegetarian options aren’t the best, like the vegetarian philly cheese steaks. One thing that would vastly improve the vegetarian meals, in my opinion, is to move away from meat alternatives and instead to just vegetable-focused meals, such as the sweet potato and black bean enchilada they serve.”
