FEDERAL VICTORY FOR PLANT-BASED MEALS

On April 24, 2024 APA members Vegan Activist Alliance and Chilis on Wheels, through their Healthy Future Students & Earth Coalition with Friends of the Earth and others, succeeded in persuading the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) to update its child nutrition meal patterns. Their Plant Powered Youth Steering Committee, which received APA grant funding, was critical in advocating for these improvements.

They said they were thrilled to see USDA’s acknowledgment of plant-based dietary preferences in their Rule Summary and to see the USDA in the Federal Register Notice writing about comments they received from the Healthy Future Students & Earth Coalition and their allies around the importance of expanding plant-based options and removing barriers to accessing non-dairy milk, in some cases using the Coalition’s arguments to justify parts of the final rule.