L.A. Schoolteacher Wins PETA Award for Giving Kids Lessons in Healthy Vegan Food

September 9, 2008

Even in Retirement, He's on Campus Every Day Helping to Make Sure Students Pack In Vital Knowledge, Not Pack On Unwanted Pounds

For Immediate Release:September 8, 2008

Contact:Lindsay Rajt 757-622-7382

Los Angeles -- For dedicating his teaching career to nonviolence, health, and nutrition through promoting a humane and healthy vegan diet, retired Los Angeles Unified School District instructor Ed Cabil will receive a Compassionate Teacher Award from PETA.

For more than 30 years, Cabil has been promoting a nonviolent, healthy diet for the city's most at-risk children. Through his Health Advocacy Club, Cabil was able to obtain complimentary samples of the latest mock meats and other vegan foods for his students to try at special tasting events. Even in retirement, Cabil visits schools nearly every day looking for fun and innovative ways to promote a healthy vegan lifestyle to kids, parents, and educators. Earlier this year, he teamed up with former NBA star John Salley, who is a PETA supporter and a vegetarian, to host a giveaway of free veggie burgers and soy ice cream at Muir Middle School. Muir now offers vegetarian lunch options, thanks in large part to Cabil.

As the childhood-obesity epidemic rages on, children who are fed a diet of burgers, nuggets, and hot dogs--all of which are high in saturated fat and cholesterol--show symptoms of heart disease by the time they reach first grade. The American Dietetic Association states that vegetarians have "lower rates of death from ischemic heart disease, lower blood cholesterol levels, lower blood pressure, and lower rates of hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and prostate and colon cancer." And not only are factory farms and slaughterhouses the embodiment of cruelty and violence, but a recent U.N. study concluded that raising animals for food causes more greenhouse-gas emissions than all the cars, trucks, ships, and planes in the world combined.

"By devoting his life to promoting a healthy and humane vegan diet, Ed Cabil is a real hero to kids and animals," says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. "The schools of Los Angeles could use more instructors like Mr. Cabil, who has gone above and beyond to help shape his students into compassionate and productive embers of society."

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