RUSSIA, January 3, 2012 (by Natalya Radulova): Only a few years ago, Tina-Sad vegetarian preschool founder and director Tina Trusova worked at a Moscow publishing house and was bringing up her three children on typical meals like borsch and roast beef. Today she is a devout vegetarian.
Private preschools are becoming more and more common in modern Russia. They usually begin like this: A woman rents a three-room apartment and recruits students from among her neighbors either because there are no places available at the local public preschool or because the private school promotes particular values that parents find appealing. Many vegetarian parents would rather take their kids on the metro to Tina-Sad rather than allow their children attend a local preschool that serves meatballs for lunch.
“A vegetarian kindergarten is not such a lucrative enterprise,” said Trusova. “It would be easier if I took a more relaxed attitude to the menu. But, first, I cannot change my ways, because I hate cooking meat; I detest it. And second, I feel that I am implementing a good project. I am teaching kids good nutrition habits, they are never sick and, in general, a cold is something unknown to us here.”
Sharaf Maksumov is a lacto-vegetarian who eats milk and honey. His pregnant wife shares his principles. But they are already wondering what kindergarten to choose for their future child. “From the experience of our vegetarian friends, we know that no teacher at a state-run preschool would cook food specially for him,” Maksumov said, adding that he doesn’t really expect such things. “Problems arise not because somebody tries to force our children to eat meat. Simply no one at meal times watches the kids to see that they are given the food that their parents brought and the children are too young to remind the nurses.”