A mother in Mallorca, in the Spanish autonomous community of the Balearic Islands, has started a battle with a school and the regional authorities to ensure that her five-year-old son is no longer discriminated against for being vegan and can eat a completely plant-based menu at his CEIP Rafal Vell school.
The mother, Gracia Osuna, told elDiario.es, “My son has direct contact with species of animals that are used for human consumption since birth and since the Christmas holidays he said that he did not want to eat animals (like several references in his family and close environment), and he left school confused because he had not been able to remove all the meat of the bolognese from the pasta or because he had drunk fish broth.”
After complaining, the school offered him adaptations for religious reasons, specifically a Halal menu for Muslim students, which replaced pig flesh with that of another animal. Osuna took the case to the Ministry of Education of the Balearic government when she believed that the school and the Association of Families “would not make a minimum effort” to offer them a solution. The mother is now considering taking the case to court.
The FEUMVE association (Families United for a Vegan Menu) says that a vegan menu in schools is only recognised in Catalonia and the Valencian Community within the Spanish state. The organisation, created by a similar case in the Basque Country, says, “The fact that the decision is at the discretion of each autonomous community and the educational centres under pressure and agreements with families is a band-aid since not everyone works equally on this aspect and there are families with real obstacles to achieving it. Urgent measures are needed to meet the expectations of affected families and future generations.”
In 2017, Portugal was the first country to establish by law mandatory vegan options in public places such as school canteens, and in the United Kingdom in 2020 a judge recognized ethical veganism as a philosophical belief protected by the Equality Act of 2010. However, in most of Spain, no progress of this type has yet been achieved.
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