Cheyenne Klapper was in 8th grade when she watched a documentary entitled “Cowspiracy.”

“I didn’t realize I was doing so much harm eating meat, and I said ‘I can’t purchase meat again.’” So Klapper went home and told her mother. “My mom said, ‘this won’t last.’” But now five years later her mom is cooking two plant-based meals a week. Klapper says, “I don’t miss meat; I just think of what the industrial animal goes through.”

Klapper has graduated from Arlington Tech High School and is on the national Plant Powered Youth Steering Committee who recently visited Capitol Hill and agencies to participate in the Steering Committee fly-in. Their purpose was to advocate for nutritious, climate-friendly plant-based meals in schools. This is a joint project of Chilis on Wheels and Friends of the Earth. 

Klapper was armed with her fact sheet against HR1147, the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act, which would return whole dairy milk to school meals. She says whole milk is a source of high saturated fat and unnecessary and unhealthy for a child’s health. There is a fact sheet on HR3276, the Healthy Future Students and Earth Act, which they support that would create a pilot program to provide healthy climate-friendly plant-based meals in the nation’s public schools. She visited Sen. Tim Kaine and Sen. Mark Warner’s offices as well as Congressman Don Beyer.  

“The meeting with Beyer everything was perfect; they were also opposed to HR 1147 and supportive of HR 3276  but at Senator Kane’s office they were inclined to support HR 1147.

“The meetings with the agencies were frustrating. One of the main issues is equity. The Department of Agriculture subsidizes dairy and meat. The lady said that everything on school lunches has to come from American farmers but I said because they subsidize meat, not blueberries, that’s what is on the school menus. … She just didn’t understand.”

“And at EPA they just kept saying they couldn’t do anything; go talk to Congress. But they can do a lot of things with the laws in place. We just kept talking in a loop.”

In the process Klapper realized that she had felt this experience was a once in a lifetime opportunity. “But it is accessible to lobby. I realized I want to be a lawyer focusing on policy and advocacy and restorative justice.”

Klapper’s project on the Steering Committee is to advocate for plant-based meals in schools and to get a pilot project started at Arlington Tech. She says there were a few students when she was in high school who liked plant-based food but weren’t vegans like her.  Klapper adds the idea is to find the meal they like the best. You could have a tofu scramble with potatoes or quinoa with lentils and broccoli or an Impossible burger.   

I have been working with Amy Maclosky, the Director of Arlington’s Food and Nutrition Services, who is open to the idea. She says obstacles are not enough time and money. But the good news is that the Arlington County goal is 50 percent from scratch cooking for the school meals, and there is a meeting in August to discuss the idea of a plant-based pilot project.

“It takes a lot to do something like this. The main issue is parents complaining about the plant-based options not being nutritionally adequate so I’m doing a lot of research now so I can document the nutrition in plant-based foods. During this process I’ve learned  about the power of parents complaining. They took chicken nuggets off the menu because of parental complaints.

She adds that there are a lot of opportunities to get wider acceptance of plant-based meals. “I briefly thought about joining the military — you know there are no plant based MRE choices. 

“And you could also offer food delivery options for plant-based meals.

Klapper will leave for the University of Virginia on Aug. 19 where she plans to continue her advocacy for plant-based foods on the school menu there. 

“When I was visiting UVA there was only one plant-based choice on the lunch menu, and I had to wait 40 minutes for a tofu scramble for breakfast. The food there is disgusting. But I’m going to continue my advocacy there. This is important to me.”