For Ashley Valentín, giving up meat was easy.

The hard part: finding something to eat in the school cafeteria.

``At first, there weren't that many options,'' said Ashley, 17, a senior at Miami Sunset High. ``There was always pizza. But eating pizza all the time is unhealthy.''

School cafeterias are taking note.

While the Miami-Dade school district has long offered vegetarian items, it debuted three new vegan options this year: faux chicken nuggets, veggie burgers and hummus platters.

The Broward school district also added veggie burgers to menus districtwide. And cafeterias are now offering vegetarian and vegan salads daily -- and a hot vegan option once a week.

``The time to do this is now,'' said Penny Parham, who oversees food services in Miami-Dade. ``Our kids are so savvy. They want food that's good for them. We have to be meeting that demand.''

Students like Ashley say they are pleased by the changes -- and hope to see even more veggie items on the menu.

The national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that one in every 200 school-age kids abstain from eating meat.

There are no official statistics on the number of kids who are vegan -- meaning they don't eat any animal products, not even dairy or eggs. But experts believe the number is growing.

``A generation ago, it was quite unusual,'' said Dr. Neal Barnard, founder of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, which advocates for vegan and low-fat vegetarian school lunches. ``Nowadays, kids do it for political reasons, environmental reasons, animal rights reasons.''

The new menu items in Miami-Dade have been successful, both among vegetarians and children who eat meat.

``We're offering these items on the menu, and not seeing trays and trays go into the garbage can,'' Parham said.

Miami-Dade School Board member Martin Karp, a longtime advocate of vegetarian lunches, said the cultural shift shows a growing social awareness among kids.

``The fact that kids today think about themselves as members of a global community is impressive,'' he said.

Ashley, for one, gave up meat as a way of supporting animal rights.

``About two years ago, I started thinking about where my meat comes from,'' she said. ``I didn't like the way animals were being treated on some factory farms.''

Joss Mordecai, a second-grader at Hollywood Central Elementary, was raised vegetarian. But his mother said she has left the decision up to him.

``He understood why it was important, health-wise and planet-wise,'' Jiwan Mordecai said. ``He's made the choice already. He does not want [meat] at all.''

Like many other young vegetarians, Joss has a sophisticated palate. Often included in his lunchbox: hummus, olives and sandwiches with cheese or nut butters.

``He eats pretty exotic foods. He eats beets, he eats eggplant,'' his mother said. ``For breakfast he'll have quinoa.''

A vegetarian diet is healthy when done right, said Lori Mooney, a registered and licensed dietitian at the Center for Healthy Weight and Nutrition at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Ohio. ``It's extremely important that people include plenty of whole grains, as well as dairy and good sources of protein,'' she said.

For vegans, who don't eat dairy, protein must come from legumes like beans or tofu products, nuts and seeds.

School nutrition officials in South Florida say they are eager to provide those healthy alternatives -- offering sunflower seeds as a salad topping instead of meat or cheese.

Other options for vegetarians or vegans include rice and beans and peanut-butter sandwiches.

``They want us to have those products available for them,'' said Barbara Leslie, Broward's food and nutrition services director. ``We're in the business of serving students and we're in the business of serving healthy things.''

Still, some vegetarian students and their parents say they are better off packing a lunch than relying on the cafeteria.

Natalia Versace, a junior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in Parkland, brings food to school every day. ``I wish it was as easy as it is for everyone else, just go buy stuff,'' she said. ``But they don't really have anything.''

Leslie said the district is working to provide more options. ``We've had a lot of vegetarian choices,'' she said. ``It's the vegan choices that we would like to get more of.''

Parham, the director of food services for the Miami-Dade school district, also hopes to put more vegan items on the menu.

``We want to have food that is good and enticing and fits how we live,'' she said.

Miami Herald staff writer Laura Herrera contributed to this report.