Veg Out

Dallas and Highland Park ISDs embrace all-veg spread for school lunch

With Earth Day this week, two Dallas-area school districts are observing the enviro-holiday in a unique way: by hosting "Lean & Green Day," with an all-vegetarian spread for their school lunches.

Both Highland Park and Dallas will offer a number of courses, including one starring Beyond Meat, the ultra-convincing meat substitute whose believers include Microsoft founder Bill Gates. Highland Park's ISD will serve its veggie meal on Earth Day, April 22; Dallas ISD is going veg on April 30.

Here's Dallas ISD's April 30 menu:

Baked ziti with whole grain pasta and meat sauce with Beyond Meat beef-free crumbles
Enchiladas with whole grain flour tortillas, black beans, rice, cheese and chili sauce
Mediterranean salad made with falafel, feta cheese, Romaine lettuce, cherry tomato and cucumber, served with flatbread
Chicken salad sandwich made with Beyond Meat chicken-free strips, apple, grapes and celery

Highland Park ISD's April 22 menu:

Mucho beef and bean burrito, made with Beyond Meat beef-free crumbles
Spinach and cheese lasagna
Steamed rice
Steamed edamame

Eddie Garza, food policy manager for the Humane Society of the United States, which is helping coordinate the event, previewed some of the menu items to staff, students and parents. "It's exciting to see Dallas and Highland Park ISDs' child nutrition departments providing healthy, delicious and sustainable school lunches in honor of Earth Day," he says.

At Highland Park, food services coordinator Karen Jacobsen is folding the Earth Day meal into part of a monthly program she created called "Wild Card Wednesday."

"Every third Wednesday of the month, we do something off the menu, which the students look forward to, since it's not same thing over and over," she says. "I happened to look at the calendar and noticed it said Earth Day [and thought] 'Perfect! We'll give this a try.'"

The beef and bean burrito is a vegan recipe, posted online "so parents can see," she says. "It has taco seasoning and is quite tasty. We're also doing a cheese and spinach lasagna; we always try to have two, and edamame."

She anticipates a warm reception. "We have a fair increase in the number of vegetarian students," she says. "And you'd be surprised at the number of elementary students who eat edamame."

In early April, the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee for the USDA — a panel that helps set federal dietary guidelines — recommended for the first time ever that Americans eat less meat not only because it's healthier, but also because it's better for the environment. It set off the beef, pork and poultry industries, but the committee ultimately concluded that a vegan diet had the most potential health benefits.

In Dallas schools, meals already include regular vegetarian options, says Margaret Lopez from the district's nutrition services department.

"In our district, we have at least 75 different home languages," Lopez says. "We have people from around the world who may choose not to eat animal foods. In some of our schools, that requirement is very prominent. So that's why we always have some alternative.

"Fortunately, it is possible to get some nice complementary protein from a combination of legumes and grains."

For many of those students, lunch is crucial, because such a large number of Dallas ISD students rely on school lunches: 85 percent of elementary students and 65 percent of high school students, Lopez says.

"We have to make sure the kids will eat what we offer," she says. "This day is important because it's introducing them to something different."

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Sprawling Celina

This booming Dallas suburb is the No. 1 fastest-growing city in U.S.

Facebook/City of Celina

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Small cities in big Texas metro areas were the fastest growing municipalities in the United States last year, and the Dallas suburb of Celina ranked No. 1 in the country, followed closely by other DFW cities.

Celina, Princeton, Melissa, and Anna — all part of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex — were the Nos. 1, 3, 4 and 5 fastest-growing U.S. cities with populations of 20,000 residents or more from mid-2024 to mid-2025, according to population estimates released by the U.S. Census Bureau.

In general, smaller communities in the South, such as these, outpaced the rest of the nation, which has experienced a population slowdown since the start of the immigration crackdown last year, according to figures released Thursday, May 14.

Fulshear, in metro Houston, was the second-fastest growing U.S. city. The five Texas cities' year-over-year growth rates ranged from almost 15% to almost 25%.

In pure numbers, Celina, with only 64,000 people, grew by more residents — 12,700 — than Seattle and Houston, cities that are 12 times and 37 times larger respectively.

Small- to medium-sized cities hit a sweet spot between the largest U.S. cities, which were most impacted by the loss of immigrants from the crackdown started last year during the second Trump administration, and anemic growth in small towns, according to Matt Erickson, a Census Bureau statistician.

Texas cities dominate
Nine out of 10 of the largest population gainers in pure numbers were cities in the South because of a healthy job market and its comparative affordability. The biggest numeric gainers were Charlotte, North Carolina; Fort Worth, Texas; San Antonio, Texas; and Celina.

Fort Worth leaped over Jacksonville last year as the 10th most populous U.S. city, putting four Texas cities in the nation's top 10 most populous, with the other cities being Houston, Dallas and San Antonio.

Austin skipped over San Jose for the 12th most populous spot, as Texas’ capital city surpassed 1 million residents for the first time. It is now one of a dozen U.S. cities with 1 million residents or more.

Seattle was the only non-Southern city to crack the top 10 in numeric population gains last year, at the No. 5 spot.

What's driving population losses
The two cities with the greatest rates of population loss last year — Twentynine Palms, California, by Joshua Tree National Park and Key West at the southern tip of Florida — were in places with tight housing markets. Their losses ranged from -2.4% to -2.9%.

In Twentynine Palms, a large chunk of the housing stock has been converted into short-term rentals for tourists heading to the national park. Just under 40% of its housing is occupied by its owners, compared with the national average of 65%, according to Census Bureau figures.

Hemmed in on all sides by water, the limited housing stock in Key West, as well as some of the highest home insurance rates in the U.S., have driven up housing costs for the Conch Republic. The median price for a home in Key West was $1.3 million at the start of this year, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

Other cities that had some of the biggest rates of population loss last year were hit by natural disasters.

Hurricanes Helene and Milton struck Florida’s Gulf Coast within weeks of each other in late 2024. Remnants of Helene blew through western North Carolina, leaving behind damaging tornadoes and flooding. Among the cities with the greatest rates of loss were Asheville, North Carolina, and several cities on Florida’s Gulf Coast, including Pinellas Park, Dunedin, Largo and Clearwater.

celina growth population growth census suburbs celina