Highlights

Our Veganuary pop-up at Mare Street Market

Veganuary

During January we partnered with Veganuary to encourage more people to ditch animal products for a month. We hosted a pop-up at Mare Street Market in Hackney where we welcomed hundreds of people and signed them up to the challenge. Those who signed up received a number of samples from our trademark holders, including Northern Bloc ice cream, Dolma Perfumes and Brave Peas.

We hosted Matt Pritchard of Dirty Sanchez fame, who made an appearance and signed copies of his book Dirty Vegan.

Rich Hardy, Veganuary’s Campaign Manager, came along to sign copies of his book Not as Nature Intended, an undercover journey into the secret world of animal exploitation.

Vegan Eatwell Guide

Using the latest research and information available, we put together a vegan version of the NHS Eatwell Guide many of you will be familiar with. The guide also includes additional information on healthy eating tips, nutrients that deserve special attention and sustainability tips.

We have put this easy-to-use resource together to help vegans to get everything they need from their diet without the use of animal products. We have already been contacted by several healthcare providers who are delighted that there is a vegan-specific resource available that they can use when working with vegan patients.

Find the guide in the nutrition section of our website.

The most trusted vegan label

According to consumers, The Vegan Society’s Vegan Trademark, which turns 30 this year, is both the most recognised and most trusted vegan label within every dietary group analysed in a recent survey funded by us.

As more and more people adopt a vegan diet and lifestyle, vegan products are being developed at an unprecedented rate, with multinational and non-vegan brands investing huge amounts of money and technology into them.

And with the market share of vegan products growing, so is the number of registrations with the Vegan Trademark. But consumers don’t just want the word ‘vegan’ stamped on packs to signal a vegan-friendly product; they are increasingly demanding the authority and credibility behind our trademark.

Keep up with all the exciting new products being registered and celebrate 30 years of the Vegan Trademark with us on Instagram and Twitter by following @vegantrademark. Read more about the Vegan Trademark on page 24.

Nutrition outreach

Vegan Society Dietitian Heather Russell delivered a talk on childhood nutrition at Plant Powered Expo to an audience of 40 people, including some fellow dietitians. The talk covered topics such as the use of fortified foods and supplementation, balancing food groups and the wider reasons for choosing a vegan lifestyle.

This quarter we also delivered a health awareness talk to health, social and childcare students at City and Islington College; spoke about protein status in later life at British Dietetic Association study day; and educated dietitians about veganism and nutrition at St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

The Vegan Pod

Introducing The Vegan Pod – The Vegan Society’s new podcast!

The podcast has been created as a means to explore some of the fascinating and divisive topics within the vegan community. We plan on covering issues such as whether veganism is for the privileged and whether we should support non-vegan fast food outlets when they bring out plant-based options.

In light of the current Covid-19 pandemic, these episodes have been postponed. Instead, we are repurposing the podcast as a platform to provide support for the vegan community. Many of us are physically isolated from friends and family, and encountering new struggles in our everyday lives. Listening to The Vegan Pod can be a small way to feel closer to other vegans and to pick up some tips and advice to help you to weather this strange period we are living through together.

The podcast can be found on all of the usual platforms, including iTunes and Spotify. Please do rate and review the podcast, which will help us to raise its profile and find more listeners, and send in your comments, suggestions and questions to podcast@vegansociety.com.

Catering for Everyone

Catering for Everyone is our campaign to get a vegan option on every public sector menu, every day. We want to see tasty, nutritious plant-based options on menus across hospitals, schools, care homes, universities and public sector workplaces in a bid to improve inclusivity and awareness around the many benefits of vegan food.

We were recently able to speak about our Catering for Everyone campaign at an NHS Sustainability Day in Manchester, which has resulted in ongoing conversations with sustainability and procurement leads within the NHS in support of the campaign. We have also been liaising with councillors in various regions to support their initiatives to introduce vegan options in public sector settings as a means of tackling the climate crisis effectively.

Veganism and healthy bones

Our Pathways to Veganism research showed that there are people with certain pre-existing health conditions who would like to choose a vegan diet but need extra support and advice to help them make a plant-based diet work for them.

This year our campaign Vegan and Thriving is focusing on speaking to people with pre-existing health conditions and providing support to help them to choose a vegan diet. So far we have worked with the Royal Osteoporosis Society to share the message that those with osteoporosis can meet all of their requirements from plant foods.

We shared a number of high-calcium vegan recipes with the Royal Osteoporosis Society and contributed an article to their quarterly magazine Osteoporosis News. Vegan shopping – easy and affordable The Vegan Trademark has reached new heights over the past couple of years. With over 42,000 product registrations, we are breaking new ground in terms of making veganism more accessible and affordable than ever before.

The Trademark Team have continued their work with Asda over the past few months. Asda have been increasing their plant-based offering by expanding their ranges – not just in their Free From lines but also in their Extra Special line. This year Asda shared the love by adding a vegan starter, main and dessert to their Valentine’s Day options. Asda also provided a total of ten vegan Easter eggs and chocolate products over

the Easter period.

Respect for beliefs when eating in care

We all want to be sure that our relatives in care are treated with respect. But people with religious or philosophical beliefs can face difficulties when care providers don’t respect their dietary choices, especially when experiencing cognitive losses.

In some cases, lifelong vegans have been treated as if their ethical convictions no longer matter and fed in a way that contradicts their beliefs.

This has been a hidden problem, but the charity Vegetarian for Life has been holding an inquiry into this issue through the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Vegetarianism and Veganism (VegAPPG), a cross-party group coordinated by The Vegan Society.

Vegetarian for Life has taken evidence from care providers, experts and those receiving care, and the VegAPPG held an oral evidence session in the presence of MPs in January. The inquiry report, along with recommendations, is due to be launched at an event in parliament.