V for Life: Post-Pandemic

They were joined virtually by almost 3,000 attendees across 45 organisations, including lunch clubs, care home caterers, carers groups, and older people’s groups and networks.

V For Life is a UK charity that helps take care of vegans in care homes. Amanda Woodvine brings us a post pandemic update as V for Life open up again and resume many of their previous roles in providing for elderly vegans in care.

V for Life

I lead a small and talented team supporting older veg*ns – and those who care for them.

The charity has certainly grown over recent years – from just a couple of home-workers in 2014 through to around 20 people on the payroll, with a Manchester office base.

Demand in Lockdown

One small positive of lockdown was a rise in local community support groups, such as COVID-19 Mutual Aid – offering shopping and more to vulnerable self-isolating people. And more services moved towards home delivery – prioritising people in vulnerable groups. Agerelated networks have been working to get more older people online. So in one sense, lockdown led to more support.

Lockdown also made many of us aware of the challenges that frailty might bring. Restrictions in how far you can travel is a sad reality for many, all year-round. Up to 3.5% of the UK population may be housebound. For over 85s, this figure may be as high as 1 person in every 5. Supporting vulnerable older veg*ns has been at the heart of V for Life’s work since its formation.

The pandemic has been challenging for some older veg*ns, including those living in care homes who haven’t been able to receive visitors. Even before the pandemic, many residents had no visitors at all. So we launched ‘A Write to Smile’, a card-writing campaign to raise a smile among isolated older veg*ns.

We developed a ‘Good grocery shopping guide’ to support people shopping for those with special dietary requirements, perhaps for the first time. And we produced a ‘Selfisolation survival guide’, outlining the support available from the charity during this challenging period. Our chefs in Glasgow, Manchester, Birmingham and London switched to online delivery of cookery demonstrations – taking a break from ‘roving’!

They were joined virtually by almost 3,000 attendees across 45 organisations, including lunch clubs, care home caterers, carers groups, and older people’s groups and networks.

Our annual Awards for Excellence in Vegetarian and Vegan Care Catering moved from Parliament to online. And we launched a virtual vegan lunch club; continued our veg*n penand phone-pal scheme; and facilitated the Mature Vegans and Veggies UK Facebook Group, which almost doubled in members.

Post-Lockdown

Slowly but surely we’re resuming in-person cookery demos – it’s been a pleasure for our chefs to be with people and cook for people again. Recently Chef Alex delivered a cookery demonstration and lunch club for a group from Age UK Wigan. The return of sharing the cooking process, answering questions and chatting was wonderful – this natural interaction of people is not the same via Zoom. Of course, everyone also got to enjoy the food he made – again not possible via Zoom.

Roving chef Ollie

Supporting V for Life

As a national charity, it is not always easy for us to get our information to local communities. Relying on our supporters in local areas, with knowledge of local services, really helps us get information to people who need it.

We have produced guides such as a Self-Advocacy Pack – explaining how to protect your vegan values and beliefs in care – and Dinners to your Door for those that don’t have internet access. It is important that these guides reach the people they can help. It is important for people receiving care, and those that support them, to know that their identity is protected. We want to make sure that people know who to speak to if they feel that their values are being neglected.

Join us as a Friend and we’ll explain how you might help raise awareness of these guides.

You could also support our ‘A Write to Smile’ campaign. We’ve had some lovely cards printed with rescued ex-battery hens on the front and are calling upon members of the veg*n community to write a short message inside. A sample message will be provided.

We aim to send cards and a small vegan gift to over 1,500 care homes with veg*n residents – raising over a thousand smiles.

If you can help, please let V for Life know how many cards to send to you (info@vegetarianforlife.org.uk or 0161 257 0887).

We’ll post them to you, for you to please return to us at your earliest convenience.

Options Unavailable

Just before the pandemic, the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Vegetarianism and Veganism called for evidence into respect for religious and philosophical beliefs while eating in care. This followed reports to V for Life of people being served foodstuffs that disregarded their religious or philosophical beliefs.

This issue is deeply distressing – both for those being given food that didn’t align to their belief systems, and also for their families and loved ones. It is also a breach of the legislation and regulations in place to protect individuals’ rights.

Evidence came in from those personally affected and their loved ones. In some cases, evidence came directly from care workers – such as Tuesday. Tuesday worked in various care homes across the UK for over 14 years. As a vegan, Tuesday was aware of what veg*ns do and do not consume, and was happy to follow individual care plans.

However, Tuesday found that many care homes did not seem to care about an individual’s beliefs, even when they were outlined in the care plan.

One resident was 85, non-verbal, and couldn’t move her limbs without assistance. She was given the same three meals every day – one of which was mashed potatoes with minced meat and peas – but often tried to refuse the food.

Labelled as ‘aggressive’ or ‘bite risk’, Tuesday looked at the resident’s care plan and recognised that this resident was labelled a vegetarian. The caregivers had been mixing all her food together and feeding it to her. She couldn’t taste different flavours or textures, and most importantly, she wasn’t able to refuse the meat.

Tuesday brought this to care management and chefs’ attention, but was told to feed meat to the resident anyway, claiming she needed it for nutrition, and wouldn’t feel full enough without it. Sadly, this resident passed away and no solution was found.

These harrowing stories have been used to shape the recommendations of the VegAPPG Inquiry. They offer a deep insight into the daily challenges faced by older veg*ns in care settings.

Government Support

There are some legislative protections for those receiving care in the UK. However, we have four main recommendations to strengthen the existing framework.

First are a couple of recommendations to strengthen care regulations and related guidance – by recognising that philosophical beliefs are as important as an individual’s religious beliefs or cultural background.

We’d also like to see mandatory training introduced – helping carers to learn more about, and fully understand the importance of, religious and philosophical beliefs.

Finally, we’d like to see dietary guides in kitchens – ensuring that dietary practices arising from protected philosophical beliefs such as veganism are easy to understand and accessible for chefs.

Watch out for updates at vegappg.org.uk!

The Future

We’ve really ramped up our research and policy efforts this year – follow us on socials for some very exciting announcements…

https://www.facebook.com/VfLUK