Solemn and Honorable... School Food?

While many public-school cafeterias serve processed foods, those in affluent Aspen, Colo., spare no expense: School cooks make ketchup from scratch and roast their own beets. For the past two years the Aspen public schools, for the sake of health and the planet, have also observed Meatless Monday. According to The New York Times, restaurants in the exclusive mountain city have embraced the campaign, backed by the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, to go meatless once a week.

Aspen city council members, concerned about gaining a flaky image, balked at issuing a public resolution in support of Meatless Monday. Nevertheless, the national Meatless Monday Campaign proclaimed Aspen "the nation's first true Meatless Monday community." (Not to be confused with meatless Friday, which might suggest religious motivations.) Even the local hospital encourages its cardiac rehab patients to frequent restaurants that don't serve meat on Mondays.