REFRESHING TIME AT Refreshers’ Fairs

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O R Y C O C K S H A W

If you feel this is a bit d popular last year when England and Wales for y , January and February, we went back for round two – Refreshers!

Colder and damper than the autumnal start-of-year events, the bonus is that university students are at least slightly less dazed (not to mention less hungover) at the start of their second term than the start of their first

Sober, wide-eyed and finding themselves often lost and confused in the midst of the Veganuary advertising flurry, Viva! was yet again there to support them on their vegan journey Many were already asking themselves the much-pondered question: “To vegan, or not to vegan?”

We were there to help with the obvious answer

Students of Cambridge, Bristol, Aberystwyth, Gloucester, Bournemouth and Bath Spa were delighted to be able to shed their misgivings about vegan cheeses when we confronted them with a display of the supermarket’s finest on salted crackers Not a bad way to start an otherwise wintry and miserable morning.

But we weren’t there just to titillate their taste buds

Students were often shocked to learn that our cheese choices aren’t just about vegan taste and texture but are a replacement for something pretty gross. Few had given any thought to the bleak lives of long-suffering mother cows and the babies who are stolen from them – all a product of humans’ harmful habits It’s their milk, not ours!

Few students seemed to be aware that dairy farming is a leading cause of carbon emissions and land usage around the world – and therefore a main driver of biodiversity loss We reached countless numbers of students every day to make sure they did know

We reached thousands of inquisitive students and showed them how easy it is to go vegan

The time Viva! spent this new year with soon-to-be graduates, soon-to-be changemakers – from East Anglia all the way to the West of Wales was time well spent.