In 1985 Veggies helped establish Nottingham’s Rainbow Centre, later taking on the co-ordination of the running of the space. In 2001 the support generated over the previous decades enabled the purchase of the Sumac Centre, a collectively owned space supporting a wide range of interconnected initiatives, including being the home of Veggies Catering Campaign.
On Satuday 8th December 2012 there is to be a discussion on the future of the Sumac Centre noting, amongst other things, its role as “a meeting place for politically motivated activists, a resource centre and library. Meeting place for vegans and animal rights activists/campaigners and a tool for their propaganda.”
This role hasn’t just happened in isolation.
It is due to Veggies and others being centrally involved in the running of Sumac from 15 years before it even existed. We may feel this role to be carved in stone, and this may well be the case.
However Sumac is simply the sum of its parts so we, as ‘vegans and animal rights activists/campaigners’ must continue to play our part.
If you are free on Saturday 8/12/12 (11am-6pm) please consider supporting the vegan status of the Sumac Centre and its role as a national resource for the animal rights movement.
This Saturday is a Sumac visioning day, a chance for all of you who come to the Sumac Center to bring your excitement, enthusiasm and inspiration in order to help shape the future of the Sumac Centre.
1) Intro
2) Use
- How is the Sumac used?
Meeting place, tat storage, music venue, peoples kitchen, food bank, a base for lots of varied campaigns/alternative cultures, bike project, fundraiser events, information and awareness raising events, film screenings, autonomous DIY infrastructure, ABC letter writing, gardening club.
- Is this the kind of useage we want to continue?
3) Purpose
- What is the current purpose of the Sumac?
A meeting place for politically motivated activists, a resource centre and library. Meeting place for vegans and animal rights activists/campaigners and a tool for their propaganda.
This will include a conversation about whether the sumac is there to engage with the local geographical community or the activist community. It’s a stable part of infrastructure for ‘our movement’.
- Is this the purpose we want to go forward with?
There will be lunch in the middle and we’ll all have a big ole delicous peoples kitchen at the end.
Hope to see you all there.
The Sumac Centre http://www.sumac.org.uk
0845 458 9595
245 Gladstone Street, Forest Fields, Nottingham, NG7 6HX
The Sumac Centre is an independent community and activist resource centre. It is made up of a community cafe, social club, library, exhibition space, veggie catering campaign, filmnights, talks, meeting spaces and the residents. The centre is used by various campaign groups and collectives working towards social change and justice for all. Come and visit us!
You’ll find lots of other useful advice at the VeganFamily site, including info for kids, a full range of family-friendly recipes, shopping sites, books and more, and there’s an Easter section too. To be honest their site is much better than this!
VeggieKids, a project of Viva!, is a one-stop shop for young veggies or vegans — and their parents and carers. For a free download of their recipe booklet, written by children, which includes Chocolate Pudding Cake and a Cashew Mushroom Roast, visit the Veggie Kids website.
For recipes for such delights as Tofu Turkey, a speciality of our Steve, and Christmas Cup Cakes, visit the Vegan Easy website.
Cooking For Vegans offer good advice on how to accommodate vegans and omnivores at the same meal on their Vegan Christmas Dinner site.
They also point out that Christmas recipes are provided by Animal Aid, the Vegan Society and Viva! for starters, main dishes, side dishes, stuffing, gravy and desserts. The Vegetarian Society also have some nice Christmas recipes, not all of them are vegan but they label the ones that are or can be made vegan.
Vegetarian and Vegan France even have a recipe for Christmas Pudding Porridge. They say that this is not as ridiculous as it may seem, as before the 16th century porridge was the original christmas pudding – dried fruit and spices work as well in porridge as in a pudding!
For many more ideas simply add ‘vegan recipe’ to anything you fancy on an internet search, often finding good results on the BBC Food website, which currently includes 1297 vegan recipes!
These events from the the Vegan Outreach Diary provide an excellent opportunity to find dozens, or even 100+ vegan friendly groups and businesses under one room, often with free food samples, talks, films and cookery demonstrations too.
You’ll find lots of Christmas Treats from these vegan stores:
For vegan chocolate, sweets & snacks from a grass-roots vegan campaigner, support Lakeside Ethical Treats
For new and exciting, all-vegan products including a Christmas Plum Pudding, Advent Calendars, Chocolate Apricots and Chocolate Coin Bags visit the Animal Aid Shop
Whilst this roundup aim to encourage (relatively) ethical consumer choices, another option is to ‘Live simply so that all might simply live‘.
Please give the gift of life with a donation to VEGFAM, to “feed the hungry without exploiting animals. VEGFAM helps people overseas by providing funds for self-supporting, sustainable food projects and the provision of safe drinking water.
The supplier of Community Foods vegetable suet has provided the following information about the palm oil used in production of this product:
“Regarding sustainable palm oil we are a member of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) and our supply chain is validated to BM Trada. The palm oil we buy is “Mass Balance” and as such recognized as sustainable. “
“The palm oil we supply within our product is from the Mass Balance Scheme, which guarantees that for every kg of “non-segregated” palm oil which is sold an equivalent kg of “fully segregated” palm oil is manufactured and sold. This scheme is used to fund the growth in “fully segregated” palm oil plantations, so that supply can fulfill worldwide demand for “fully segregated” palm oil, which is currently not possible.”
The formation of the RSPO has not been without criticism from various sectors, especially the environmental NGOs. The main issues flagged include: The impact of palm oil plantation expansion on the Orang Utan population; Destruction of tropical forest for the new oil palm plantation schemes in South-East Asia; The burning and draining of large tracks of peat swamp forest in Kalimantan, Indonesia. Wikipedea 29Nov12
For a comprehensive Vegan Christmas guide to recipes, vegan fairs, shopping, family friendly advice & more, visit & RT veggies.org.uk/2012/11/vegan-…
“Running a vegan business can be tough as many are run for altruistic reasons, rather than purely to make money. The internet brought with it an opportunity to help vegan businesses by giving them more marketing muscle, and … we set up the Vegan Village website to do this.
“The Vegan Village website went live in September 1997 with contact details for 44 vegan organisations. We sent out monthly newsletters to help establish the Vegan Village concept and encourage people to get involved. In addition to the listings, there was a noticeboard for small ads, a newsdesk for press releases and news stories, and a recipe of the week to encourage people to visit the website regularly. Mini websites were offered at below cost price to help vegan businesses take their first steps on the net.
“The noticeboard processed thousands of free adverts and become one of the most popular vegan pages on the web.
“The Vegan Village was an ever-present in the Google rankings, a recommended site on BBC Search, and remained the quickest, most cost-effective way for new vegan businesses to announce their presence to the marketplace.”
The Vegan Village was archived by UKWAC Web Archive as part of the ‘unfolding recent history of UK events, interests and activities’. The latest snapshop, archived in 2011 continues to be a valuable source of information.
The Vegan Village was ‘run for fun’ by Liz at Digitalis, with grateful thanks to Andy at Imaner. Digitalis continue to offer website design services to vegan and veggie companies and Imaner Consultants continues as an ethical organisation also offering website design services.
“We would like to say a big thank you to everybody who has supported the Vegan Village over the years.”
…meanwhile…
Veggies compiles The Vegan Business Connection (VBC) to encourage mutual support for cruelty-free businesses, i.e. those using no animal ingredients whatsoever and striving to minimise environmental, human and animal rights abuses.
The V.B.C. gives as much importance to the proprietors, as to the goods or services traded. It is to those who run such businesses that we can look for guarantees of their ethical standards, and knowledge of vegan issues.
If you work in a way that is sympathetic to the promotion of veganism, or supply specific vegan goods / services, or wish to recommend someone else, please contact us.
The Vegan Business Connection also forms the Trading Section of the new Veggies Directory. Information is supplied mainly by the businesses themselves, or through recommendations from other sources.
Use them or loose them – support vegan businesses.
The Vegan Outreach Diary lists the increasing number of food-based vegan outreach events, from free food stalls to major vegan festivals.
Event Organisers are urged to check the diary and to submit full event details as soon as a date is set, for details to be added to this nationally coordinated diary. Provisional dates may be submitted too.
The Diary is compiled by Veggies Catering Campaign and updated constantly for use by vegan food campaigners nationwide.
The Vegan Outreach Diary is designed to be reciprocally linked from any other group, website or event with a similar mission, to demonstrate the spirit of mutual support and cooperation that is central to Veggies campaigns.
Double Room, Forest Feilds, Nottingham. Veggie House £65 Per Week
Lovely refurbished house. Short walk to the forest Arboretum NTU tram SUMAC Centre & great local shops. Share with a creative professional female. Available immediately. Rent includes water council tax and broadband.
Contact: Lisa Wilkinson
Email: lisawilkinson_99[at]yahoo.com
Area: Forest Feilds, Nottingham
Entry Date: 20/07/12
Accommodation Wanted
Double Room / House Share (Veggie / Vegan?) 22 – Male
Im a 22 year old male looking for a room to rent/house share. What im looking for is a clean none smoking house that is veggie / vegan friendly. The room would have to be a double room and i can provide my own bed. Ideally would like to be located in the forest fields or Sherwood area in Nottingham city but open to other close locations around Nottingham city. Dont mind living with male or females. Ideally be moving in ASAP! Can view rooms most days!
Contact: Jack Marples
Telephone: 07955592593 07955592593
Email: otis1337(AT)gmail.com
Entry Date: 29/08/12
To seek or offer accommodation, or to see existing offers in all parts of the country visit VegCom UK
Local activists – top trainers – revolution – non-violence – learning from other movements – community – glorious countryside.
Join us in 2012 for more discussions, training and debates on nonviolence, education and the anti-war movement, fuelled by “wonderful (vegan) food from Veggies of Nottingham”
Wednesday 1st to Monday 6th August Ecological Direct Action without Compromise
Workshops, skill sharing and planning action, plus low-impact living without leaders. Meet people, learn skills, take action.
The Earth First! Summer Gathering is the place where people involved in radical ecological direct action – or those who want to be involved – get together for five days of time and space to talk, walk, share skills, learn, play, rant, find out what’s going on, find out what’s next, live outside, strategise, hang out, incite, laugh and conspire.
The 2012 Earth First Summer Gathering will be held on the first weekend of August.
As ever Veggies will be co-ordinating the d-i-y cafe space and holding cake baking workshops.
The UK Animal Rights Gathering is to a great weekend not to be missed, with talks, discussions and workshops on a wide range of issues and activities related to animal rights campaigning, as well as a chance to relax with like-minded people and socialise and network with other campaigners from all over the UK.
The 2012 Animal Rights Summer Gathering on the second weekend of August.
As ever Veggies will be co-ordinating the catering, running a cafe space and holding vegan cookery workshops. More AR Gathering Details…
These three key Gatherings, inspiring and networking for action for humans, animals and the environment, are all to be hosted by hosted by Crabapple Housing Co-op near Shrewsbury.
Join people from across the broad spectrum of the British peace
movement and radical activism for five days of exploration,
celebration and empowerment.
ABOUT PEACE NEWS SUMMER CAMP
Bring your contribution to a hothouse of creativity, a small
self-governed society run by democratic camp meetings, a viable
example of the kind of world we are trying to bring about. The
Peace News Summer Camp helps build a radical movement for the
future by building a living community today.
We are camping in a family-friendly and renewably-powered way
from 28 July to 1 August in the beautiful grounds of Crabapple
Community, near Shrewsbury in Shropshire.
Activities include: workshops and discussions, practical skills
sessions, delicious vegan food cooked by Veggies of Nottingham,
music, film, fun and participatory entertainment, a bar,
campfires, and activities and facilities for kids and families.
NB Dogs (except guide dogs) are not allowed on site – sorry.
TICKETS & FOOD
The camp costs £15 – £65 depending upon income. Payment can be
made by cheque, online or by phone:
- http://tinyurl.com/summercamptickets
for on-line purchases
– 0207 278 3344 for purchases by phone
– Send cheques (payable to “Peace News” to Peace News, 5
Caledonian Rd, London N1 9DY), explaining how many tickets you’re
purchasing and which rates
Food (3 meals a day and drinks) will cost £6 – £11 a day for
adults, depending on income, and should be ordered before the camp
starts. Individuals meals will be available to buy at the camp.
“Wonderful workshops and a wide range of people with which to
exchange ideas”
“Safe, friendly, interesting, happy, useful, accepting, great for
networking, well thought out and set up. Thank you for organising
and creating a lovely village”
“It was a great holiday for me and I loved meeting new people. To
become aware of the work that people are doing all over the country”
If you really care about animals, the best way you can help is to stop eating them!
Each year in the UK alone approximately 1,000 million animals are farmed and killed for food – and that figure doesn’t include fish.
The average meat-eater consumes around 11,000 animals in their lifetime (including fish and shellfish). Think of all the lives YOU will save simply by turning vegetarian or vegan!
As well as being more humane, an animal-free diet is healthy, environmentally friendly and a better way to use the world’s precious resources.
There are many reasons to go veggie including animal welfare, health, environmental protection and cost. If you are concerned about one or more of these issues, why not take the opportunity to try some more meat-free meals during March or take the veggie challenge?
Vegan Society, staff, trustees, local contacts and members have worked very hard in 2010 giving talks and radio interviews, meeting with policy makers, getting articles published, producing information resources and growing our trademark among other things. Here are a few highlights from the year:
Making the Connection
Environment Films in association with The Vegan Society have produced a new 30 minute film called Making the Connection. It was launched on World Vegan Day and features a variety of people including a chef, a farmer, a Member of Parliament, an athlete, a dietician and a poet.It is aimed at non-vegans and if you wish to watch the film it is hosted on YouTube. If you would like to organise a group showing to non-vegans such as in a school, university, arts cinema or at a vegan food tasting event, please contact Amanda for a copy of the film on 0121 523 1737 or by e-mail media@vegansociety.com
Great North Run Success
A team sponsored by The Vegan Society entered the Great North Run 2010 to dispel the tired myth of the ‘weedy vegan’. The fifteen vegan runners were captained by elite vegan marathon runner Fiona Oakes. Fiona ran 1 hr 20 min 51 sec, ahead of former 10K World Champion and Olympic silver medallist, Liz McColgan (1 h 25 m 9 s), six other Elite Women and seven of the Elite Men. The runners worked hard to get coverage in their local media, highlighting the benefits of their vegan lifestyles.
Natural and Organic Products Exhibition
In April The Vegan Society exhibited at The Natural and Organic Products Europe (NOPE) exhibition.c Exhibiting alongside the leaders in the industry raises the profile of our trademark scheme and the charity as a whole. The Business Development team were overwhelmed by the interest expressed in the trademark from companies attending the show.
Vegan School Dinners
We have been working on a series of vegan recipes for schools. They have been nutritionally analysed and the next stage is to get them tested. If you are able to establish contact with schools or caterers that could test dishes to serve 30 people please get in touch with Rebecca Henderson: advocacy@vegansociety.com. The aim is for these recipes to become the vegetarian option in schools.
Tesco
Following the request for our members to send comments to Tesco on how they could better cater for vegans, Vegan Society CEO Nigel Winter had a further meeting with Tesco Head Office. They received comments from over 200 people and found the information very useful. They have produced a report summarising the requests and will use this to inform future planning. They have also produced a frequently asked questions list to help their staff to answer questions. Please continue to give constructive feedback to Tesco and other companies – it’s a great way to prove (potential) vegan demand to these businesses.
Channel 4
Our CEO, Nigel Winter, appeared in an edition of Lakes on a Plate which was broadcast on Channel 4 on 4 October before Countdown. He walked in the fells with local chef Peter Sidwell and talked about Donald Watson who lived in the area. He also discussed reasons for being vegan and was served vegan onion soup on top of the very windy fell.
The Restaurant Show 2010
Vegan Society staff spoke to over 500 chefs, caterers, students, manufacturers, restaurateurs, lecturers and other catering industry workers for the three days of The Restaurant Show 2010 – the UK’s ‘premier fine-dining show’. They distributed information, such as copies of our Vegan Catering for All guide for professional caterers. They also gave out application packs for our Vegan-Friendly Promise window-sticker scheme and our Sunflower Standard Vegan Trademark for caterers. Please get in touch (media@vegansociety.com) if you would like to help support caterers where you live to start offering great vegan dishes.
The Vegan Society also sponsored a ‘Vegan and Botanical Experience’ Masterclass on the Centre Stage at the Show. Fatih Güven, Head Chef from Saf Restaurants London presented the Masterclass. He demonstrated tempeh and mushroom dumplings, steamed in rice papers and served with a black vinaigrette. The invited panel of tasters, and volunteers from the audience loved the food.
The Vegan Pledge
We are receiving increasing numbers of requests to take The Vegan Pledge with over 1,000 new pledges this year. The good news is that a significant number of those people are staying vegan.
Calling Older Vegans Using Care Services
Our Advocacy Officer, Rebecca Henderson, is keen to find older vegans living in care homes as well as older vegans living in their own homes and using care services, this includes lunch clubs, day centres and home delivered meals. If you use one of these services yourself, or you know an older vegan who does, then please email Rebecca with details at advocacy@vegansociety.com
Join Us
Membership of The Vegan Society gives us a louder voice when representing vegans in discussions with caterers, retailers, manufacturers and policy makers. Thank you to all of our members for helping us to achieve so many things this year. If you are not yet a member of The Vegan Society please do consider joining (http://www.vegansociety.com/membership.aspx).
To celebrate the start of National Vegetarian Week 2011 sponsored by Cauldron Foods, the Vegetarian Society is hosting an event in Albert Square in Manchester city centre on Saturday 21 May.
The event will be based around veggie myths and will show the public, in a fun and interactive way, that the age-old stereotypes of vegetarianism are just not true. One of the myths we’ll be debunking is that vegetarianism is just a phase and we’d like our members’ help on this one!
Veteran Veggies
For this myth we’ll be creating an illustrative map of Manchester highlighting links to vegetarianism across city, such as Joseph Brotherton, the Salford MP who founded the Vegetarian Society back in 1847. We thought it would be great if we could have some of our members to help us give these maps out on the day and chat to people about what it was like to be a vegetarian in a different era.
Ideally we’d like members who have been a veggie for 30 years or more and remember experiences from when they first became a veggie. It would help if you’re local or easily able to get into Manchester city centre as we will not be able to cover travel expenses.
If you fancy representing our members’ commitment to being veggie, please call 0161 925 2000 or email Graham on graham@vegsoc.org with your name, age, address and how long you have been vegetarian. The event will run from 10am – 5pm, but we don’t expect people to stay for the whole time (unless they really want to!)
Are you a commited veggie?
To help further banish this myth at our event we’d like to create a big visual presentation with photos of veggies accompanied by quotes about how committed they are to being veggie. We’d like you, no matter how old or young you are or where you live, to email us a photo of yourself (of the highest resolution you can) and a sentence saying why you’re committed to being a veggie. We plan on using everyone’s photo and quote at our event and it will show the general public how varied veggies are!
Email graham@vegsoc.org with your photo, quote, name, age and how long you’ve been veggie. Please remember it is your responsibility to get permission from anyone who is recognisable in the image you send us. Images of young people under 16 years old can only be used if parental (or guardian / carer) permission has been obtained. Please do not send copyrighted images unless you have permission to do so.
On Satuday 8th December 2012 there is to be a discussion on the future of the Sumac Centre noting, amongst other things, its role as “a meeting place for politically motivated activists, a resource centre and library. Meeting place for vegans and animal rights activists/campaigners and a tool for their propaganda.”
You’ll find lots of Christmas Treats from these vegan stores:
The Vegan Outreach Diary lists the increasing number of food-based vegan outreach events, from free food stalls to major vegan festivals.
To celebrate the start of National Vegetarian Week 2011 sponsored by 
To help further banish this myth at our event we’d like to create a big visual presentation with photos of veggies accompanied by quotes about how committed they are to being veggie. We’d like you, no matter how old or young you are or where you live, to email us a photo of yourself (of the highest resolution you can) and a sentence saying why you’re committed to being a veggie. We plan on using everyone’s photo and quote at our event and it will show the general public how varied veggies are!
