149 School Denies Parents’ Request for Vegan Food: When Bureaucracy Blocks Autonomy

After hearing about a school in Texas that denied a family’s request for vegan food and served their 4 year old meat, we thought this was a good opportunity to talk about a lot of things, including access, how government aid can make personal autonomy more difficult, respecting others choices, and a whole lot more!

In This Episode

Today we’re talking about an article that Callie found in Plant Based News discussing an incident in Texas where a mother discovered that her 4 year old was fed meat after she explicitly requested vegan food for her son, including providing the administration with two doctor’s notes validating this request and giving instructions on providing the child with a healthy vegan meal.

We liked this article because it brings up a lot of different issues, many threads to pull on – which we did! We talk about how situations like this highlight the various ways in which someone might not be able to be vegan, how government programs (because this issue was connected to Head Start) can block aid recipients from having authority over their bodies, how we need to fight to make every space a space where it’s possible to live by your ethics (as long as your ethics don’t hurt anyone), and a bunch of other shit I can’t remember right now because it’s Monday night and my brain is mush after work ;P

This Snopes article was very helpful in explaining the details around how Head Start works and what may have gone down in this situation.

Joke in the Middle

What is the difference between a cat and a comma?

Links and Information

News

* Era of Lab Testing on Chimpanzees Officially Over (VegNews)

* UN Pushed to Make Cows Focus of Climate Talks (VegNews)

Mentioned in this Episode

* Healing from the trauma of colonialism, eurocentric beauty ideals and disordered eating in communities of color with Gloria Lucas (Flex Your Heart Radio)