How to make your school/college more vegan friendly

I N F O R M A T I O N How to Make Your School/College More Vegan Friendly It’s important that your school or college offers balanced and tasty vegan meals. If like most you are not being well catered for then it’s time to do something about it! Here are some tips on how to help the catering staff in your school or college offer vegan options. Research Read up on the issues that you will need to put forward. It’s not just vegans who want cruelty-free food: vegetarians, those with food intolerances such as dairy and egg, and people who do not eat animal products for religious beliefs also need to have a choice of healthy and tasty food and snacks. Ask us for a free Information Pack to help explain the different reasons why people choose a plant-based diet and for information on vegan nutrition. Get support Before you approach those in charge of catering, collect signatures from students and staff who are interested in eating animal-free food to show that there is a demand. Supporters don’t have to be vegan themselves, but may just be interested in trying exciting new, healthier options. Many hands are better than one: if your school/college does not already have a veggie/vegan group for you to work with then check out our contacts page in The Vegan magazine to find your local Youth Contact, or why not offer to be a contact for your area or set up your own group? Youth contacts are aged 16-25. To find out about being one or for help in setting up a group, contact Sophie on [email protected] Approach and Inform Armed with your signatures of support approach the Catering Manager and/or Head Teacher and explain your request in a confident but polite manner. The Vegan Society has a great catering pack which includes nutrition information, meal plans, recipes and wholesaler contact information. Ask us for a free copy. Publicise Hopefully, you will be successful in making vegan foods available, but your task does not stop there! Demand needs to be maintained if the catering department is to be convinced that making the extra effort is worthwhile, so help them spread the good news:

Write to your school magazine and local paper informing them about the new choices. Include pictures of great looking food if you can. Don’t forget to include details such as location, prices of dishes etc. Organise a cruelty-free food day to launch the new menu. See if you can give away some free samples of the dishes and don’t forget to publicise it well with posters, flyers and a letter to your school paper. Contact us for leaflets on vegan issues to hand out. Ask the cafeteria to clearly label which foods are vegan (both on the menu and on the dishes themselves). World Vegan Week and World Vegan Day (November 1st) are great occasions to boost publicity and interest. Ask us for an activist pack for ideas. Keep it up To maintain demand for vegan food, keep the catering department informed of new products and recipes. (Do this a few times a year rather than bombarding them with information all the time or they may stop taking notice!) Help them with festive recipes for Christmas, Pancake Day, Passover etc, and offer to publicise the dishes. Show your appreciation While it seems strange to us that we have to go to such lengths to get food that everyone can enjoy into our cafeterias and dinner halls, we have to appreciate that it does require some extra effort from the catering staff, at least initially. Don’t forget to thank them for their efforts: send them a letter or why not club together and get them a box of yummy vegan chocolates? If it appears like their enthusiasm is slipping then politely offer them help with new menu suggestions - getting angry or moaning straight away will not help matters! And Finally… Feel free to let us know how your mission to make your learning environment more vegan friendly goes. If you have any tips then let us know too, so that we can share them with others. Good luck!

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