Baltimore public schools have instituted “Meatless Mondays,” apparently to cut costs and “give children more options.” This would seem to be a victory of sorts for the veggie movement, but based on the stomach-churning food shots in this CNN report, the long-term effect of this policy will likely be to transform these poor kids into carnivores for life.

On the Monday that CNN stormed Baltimore’s most hallowed halls, the compulsory school attending waifs were attempting to subsist on plates of corn with sides of bread. Or plates of green beans with bowls of “veggie chili” (white rice with some black beans sprinkled on top). As if schools weren’t already enough like prisons!

I suspect that most of these kids will come to dread Mondays, and will grow up even more inoculated to the vegan message than the rest of us brainwashed fast food eating tools of the meat industry. Good luck trying to educate these kids about all the wonderful variety that a vegan lifestyle has to offer.

If the Meatless Monday concept spreads as a thinly-disguised attempt for schools to cut costs by taking the meat out and replacing it with nothing (under the guise of health and sustainability), it will simply reinforce the stereotype that vegetarian food is tantamount to deprivation. Vegans should be condemning Baltimore for making them look bad. Instead, vegans are honoring them.

Even I am hurting the vegan movement less than Baltimore is. Why isn’t PETA honoring me?