Category: Vegan Outreach (Page 1 of 6)

Lush Launch for Glasto Vegan 2017

Lush UK (Nottingham)  invited us to do vegan campaign outreach with them as an opportunity to launch our Veggies Catering Campaign Food for a Future plans for #GlastoVegan. However Glastonbury preparations and other factors mean that this will now happen after our return!
 
food for a future

Lush are enthusiastic about Vegan Free Food Giveaway activities both in-store & on the streets, together with vegan information & recipes etc right alongside the till. Proceeds from #CharityPot sales & will go to support our campaigns, as they have done every since our Lush Plan for Glastonbury in 2010.

We have Nakd goodies to revisit the amazing 40 cake /1600 sample cake giveaway from Bristol Vegfest, in addition to sampling of Veggies burgers, pre-glasto, to test preferences between regular (aka ‘classic’) and new ethically improved Event Burgers (40%hemp 60%veggies mixes).

If you would like to support our campaign team please contact us.

If you miss us in Nottingham, find at Veggies at Glastonbury Festival and follow Food for a Future on Facebook.

We are interested in forming stronger links with the Vegan Society and a  new Campaigners Network that they are launching. It would be a dedicated sub-group – a focused group of vegan outreach campaigners, perhaps modeled on Food For a Future &/or Leicester Vegan Campaigns. This could achieve better organised link-ups with people like Lush, Sneinton Vegan Market, School Visits etc, than Veggies is able to do alongside the 70 events that Veggies already attempts to do.

Please contact us if you are interested in helping with Vegan Outreach activities in & around Nottingham.

Farming for a Future

Farmer Jay herd at Hillside BBC


News in 2017 that the Vegan Society is working with Bradley Nook Farm in Derbyshire to transition from beef to vegan organics was the icing on the (vegan) cake of all our years of campaigning. It shows the great value of networking both within the vegan movement and with movements beyond in the wider world. 

Veggies met up with farmer Jay when catering at Northern Green Gatherings at his inherited family farm. The farm near Ashbourne, Derbyshire is also one of a number of locations used on rotation for Earth First! Gatherings. As vegan campaign caterers Veggies has catered for EF! since the very first gathering in 1991, helping in a small way to maintain a vegan ethos in the grass roots eco-action movement.

It was through the involvement of long term Veggies member Cathy in another Vegan Society project (hospital catering) that the opportunity​ came about to mention in conversation the potential to veganise Jay’s farm. The rest is, as they say, history, and hopefully a turning point in the transition of many more livestock farms to the compassionate and efficient farming of Food for a Future.

Hosting camps & gatherings can provide a useful income stream for vegan landowners. We will actively encourage the gatherings at which we cater to consider holding events at Bradley Nook Farm. As participants in the Northern Green Gathering (NGG) held there each August, we will urge the organisers to encourage other caterers at the event to honour the compassionate stance of the farm by highlighting vegan options. We know this to be a popular position to take as Nottingham Green Festival has declared a fully vegan ethos from 2017.

Meanwhile Jay has already discussed plans for his new ventures with Derbyshire Dales District Council.

He said: “We’ve got a huge range of brick buildings on the farm which are unused. We’re hoping to turn those into a vegan restaurant, a vegan teaching kitchen and accommodation for people who would like to come and help on the vegetable growing. A vegan holidays sort of thing.” (Derby Telegraph)

STOP PRESS – July 2020Bradley Nook Sanctuary  – the UK’s first Refarm’d partner farm, for local ethical production of organic oat milk.

Since 1984 Veggies Catering Campaign has saved hundreds of cows by simply selling, with vegan attitude, possibly half a million Veggies Burgers. All those lives were unknown to us, but the path has led to 73 individual living, breathing lives that you can now meet at Hillside Animal Rescue:

 

Farmer Jays Cows at Hillside The cows are now being cared for by Hillside Animal Sanctuary in Norfolk which is fundraising for their keep

Please sponsor Hillside to help the cows – please click here or telephone the Hillside Cow Rescue Helpline on 01603 736200 (9am to 10pm).Please Help the Cows

or by bank transfer donation to…
The Co-operative Bank
Account No: 69668302
Sort Code: 08-92-99

 
Or by post to Hillside Animal Sanctuary
Hill Top Farm, Hall Lane, Frettenham, Norwich, NR12 7LT

Vegetarian Farmer Jay article in Vegan Trade Journal
Read the full story in the Vegan Trade Journalfree download here
 

Visit freefromharm.org to read the inspiring stories of other former meat & dairy farmers that became vegan activists.

The story of Farmer Jay is also featured in / at / on:
 

 

BBC News 13 June 2017

A vegetarian farmer has given his herd of cows to an animal sanctuary to protect them from the slaughterhouse.

Jay Wilde, 59, who farms in Ashbourne, Derbyshire, sent [73] cattle to a Norfolk rescue centre as he could no longer bear to send them to be killed.

Mr Wilde, a vegetarian for 25 years, grew up herding cows and took over the family farm when his father died.

“Cows have good memories and a range of emotions. They form relationships. I’ve even seen them cry,” he said.

“It was very difficult to do your best to look after them and then send them to the slaughterhouse for what must be a terrifying death.”

The Hillside Animal Sanctuary near Frettenham said 30 of the cows are pregnant and all the animals “would live out their lives essentially as pets”.

Founder, Wendy Valentine, said Mr Wilde is not the first farmer to have donated his herd.

She recalls a couple who “could not bear to continue dairy farming and kept their cows as pets with the help of the sanctuary”.

Mr Wilde, who switched from dairy farming to organic beef production on the death of his father in 2011, said he always wanted to give up animal production because he “couldn’t believe it was right to eat them”.

He believes dairy farming is particularly hard because calves and cows would often become distressed on separation.

“I’m relieved to have made the decision to no longer farm animals, something which I always found quite upsetting,” he said.

His brother-in-law told him he was “absolutely insane” to give away cattle which could fetch up to £40,000 at market.

He said “a lack of imagination” had previously stopped him switching to arable farming.

Mr Wilde will now be running a vegan organic market farm supplying garden produce without using animal products or fertilisers.

 


Farmer Jay Independent
 
 
A herd of cows from the East Midlands will be mooing a sigh of relief thanks the kindness of their owner, vegetarian farmer Jay Wilde who has sent them to live out their days in an animal sanctuary.

 Leaving their old cattle sheds at Bradley Nook Farm in Ashbourne, Derbyshire, the 59 cows were rehomed in Norfolk at the Hillside Animal Sanctuary on Monday.

A vegetarian for a total of 25 years, Mr Wilde told The Times that he found it “very difficult to do your best to look after them and then send them to the slaughterhouse for what must be a terrifying death.”

“I’m relieved to have made the decision to no longer farm animals, something which I always found quite upsetting,” Mr Wilde said.

“Cows have good memories and a range of emotions. They form relationships. I’ve even seen them cry.” 

The herd, worth £40,000 at market, will avoid the abattoir to join the sanctuary’s 300 cattle and 2,000 horses, donkeys and ponies. Mr Wilde has kept ten as “pets.”

The founder of the sanctuary, Wendy Valentine, said Mr Wilde’s cattle could now enjoy their full 25-year lifespans rather than reaching the slaughter age of two to three years. 

The sanctuary was started in 1995 to draw attention to the effects of factory farming and needs to raise a minimum of £5m per year to continue to care for the animals. 

The donation was organised by the Vegan Society and Mr Wilde now plans to farm organic vegetables free of animal products and fertilisers to sell in the flourishing vegan market. 

Tom Kuehnel, the Vegan Society’s campaign officer, told The Independent: “Jay is a real pioneer, which we hope will inspire other farmers to move towards more compassionate and sustainable farming methods that don’t involve animals.”

… full story …

Sneinton Vegan Market + Women’s Day Derby

#FoodByVeggies at two events yesterday. Crew were catering at the annual Women's Day Derby event and the monthly…

Posted by Veggies Catering Campaign on Sunday, 6 March 2016

Vegan Christmas

Very vegan christmas image
Jump to: Festivals & Fairs . Veggies Nut Roast . Shopping . Not Shopping

Read on for Recipes and a whole lot more…

A request for a vegan Christmas pudding recipe was the starting point for a round-up of references for all your vegan Christmas enquiries.

The first stop on our tour takes us to the Yuletide recipes and advice from the Vegan Family’s Christmas website, with everything from Cashew Nut Roast with Sage and onion stuffing to the Christmas Pudding recipe.

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!

Other good sources of information include:

Viva's Christmas GuideViva!’s Vegan Christmas Pages, including many recipes from their Vegan Recipe Club and Viva!’s mini-guide to a veggie Christmas which you can read online.

VeggieKids, a project of Viva!, is a one-stop shop for young veggies or vegans — and their parents and carers. Whilst not recently updated it is still worth a visit to the Veggie Kids website, though many of the resources are moved to a new location

Teen Vegan Christmas PartyMore & current info for young veggies & vegans may be found from the TeenVGNs, including their Christmas Party on 20th December in Cardiff.


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.

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 have a Christmas Guide, including some exciting 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 842 vegan recipes!

To spread the word, the Vegetarian Society’s Christmas Resources are available for individuals, or for stalls and displays, whilst their True Cost of Christmas report has more direct information on the plight of animals eaten in a traditional Christmas dinner. It is available as a pdf download.

UrangutanSome recipes include vegetarian suet, made from palm oil. If you’d rather avoid palm oil to protect the forest home of threatened urangutans, try the suet-free Christmas pudding recipe from Fairfoods and/or Veggies Nut Roast (below). Read more about Palm Oil at Ethical Consumer.

Veggies Nut Roast


We at Veggies Catering Campaign have put together a nut roast, now available by mail order!

We have used 47% organically grown ingredients, all that can be, except the nuts. Organic nuts would make it prohibitively expensive, but we welcome feedback, or can consider special orders…

The mail order price is £5, enough for 2-3 generous portions, or £2.70 if bought in conjunction with other items.

See details of Veggies Nut Roast by mail order

Nut Roast


Vegan Christmas

For yet more info, Adrian’s Vegan Christmas website includes:

VeganChristmas.co.uk/ was put together by the co-founder of Bluebird cafe Nottingham’s almost vegan restaurant, where you can be assured of a great celebration meal.
Bluebird cafe logo

Vegan Christmas Fairs

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.

For more events visit the Vegan Outreach Diary

More Christmas Shopping

Plamil Santa AdventYou’ll find lots of Christmas Treats from these vegan stores:

Vegan Advent Calendars are available from Plamil, an all-vegan company, They also create dairy-free hampers for special occasions such as Valentines, Easter and Christmas.

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

Choose gifts for life from the Viva Shop and the Vegan Society Shop.

Find Kids books, t-shirts chocolate and more at Veganfamily.co.uk. They also have links to other ethical shopping sites.

Vegan Christmas Gifts from Shop Vegan include perfumes, shoes, Booja Booja Chocolates and even give sponsorship for Hillfields Animal Sanctuary.

Santa is Vegan logoFor Santa Is Vegan Christmas T-Shirts and Gifts visit the vegan owned & operated Veggie Shirts (from the USA).

For Holy Cow Chocolate Santas, Chocolate Xmas Tree Decorations and a whole the more visit the Vegan Store.

Veggies ScofferFor more useful & random items Buy Stuff from Veggies, including Veggies Scoffer recipe book, an excellent stocking filler and tummy filler!

If you know other vegan, Christmas themed recipe sites, events or distinctive online shopping, please contact us.


A great vegan christmas message from Vodaphone.

To make Christmas even better, Vodaphone – Pay Your Tax!


Don’t Buy Stuff At All…

Vegfam logoWhilst 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.

[Support Vegfam here]


Published on: Nov 19, 2012
Update annually, including Nov 27, 2015


Food for a Future

Food for a Future imageFor over 20 years at Glastonbury Festival, Veggies has invited different groups to campaign alongside us, including Camp for Climate Action, Bicycology, Animal Aid, Indymedia, Calais Migrant Solidarity and many more.

This year we were going to invite ‘Food for a Future‘ to work with us, but their proposal was so amazing we think it would be lost in Veggies cafe space.

We suggested that they go it alone and pitch their ideas directly to the Green Fields team. They said “YES”, so we are excited to look forward to seeing a unique new campaign space at Glastonbury Green Futures, which we think would add something exciting and new to the great diversity of things that already take place at the event.

As well as running this space at Glastonbury Festival, we are keen to invite the Food for a Future team to work alongside us at our many other other green-orientated events on our tour, including the Green Gathering, the Northern Green Gathering and Nottingham Green Festival

They say:

“Essentially we would like to empower people to make green lifestyle choices through what they eat, something simple anyone can do at home that would have a positive impact on the environment. Current estimates for the global greenhouse gas emissions for animal agriculture are at least 20%, which is more than all the world’s transport combined.

Therefore a green cookery, talks and workshop space would be very appropriate for an ethically-minded event such as Nottingham Green Festival. We would like to show people in a creative and interactive way how ethical food choices can create a greener, more sustainable planet.

All workshops and resources will be available just by donation, with any proceeds likely going to Vegfam, a registered humanitarian charity that helps people overseas by providing funds for self-supporting, sustainable food projects which do not exploit animals or the environment.

“We have a large recycled canvas tent, which would be an ideal space for hosting talks, workshops and environmental documentaries. We would like to put together a programme of activities including ‘Ethical Eating Cookery Workshops’, which would teach people how to cook creatively with plant-based foods and reduce food wastage, raw food demos, and ‘Greener World Talks’, which would include talks by eminent nutritionists, green athletes and green campaigners about how a plant-based diet is the most healthy and sustainable for the planet and the issues surrounding this.

“The ultimate aim of our space is to give festival goers a fun, creative experience, combined with information and skills to lead a greener, healthier and more compassionate life. The leading of such a life will benefit the individual, the planet’s rainforests, oceans and air, and its animals.”

We look forward to hearing your feedback.

The ‘Food for a Futures’ campaign team.

Weirdigans Tent

Follow Foodforafuture on Twitter and on Facebook


Glasto Vegan

We’ve launched @GlastoVegan on Twitter to connect the great #Vegan groups, foods, performers & followers at #Glastonbury Festival. If this includes you, tweet or contact us!


See also


Womens Lib = Animal Lib

Published by Veggies for Derby Womens Day 2015

Animal Lib Human Lib logo“As women enjoy the gains we have made in the path to our own equality, we must continue to assert our own presence and recognize our uniquely personal stake in fighting for those who are still being silenced.” – How Sexism and Animal Cruelty Coexist by Theresa Noll

“Why vegan? We maintain that Nonhuman Animals represent a distinct at-risk social group. Fighting against human inequality makes no sense so long as we perpetuate the inequality of other animals. What we eat, what we wear, how we entertain ourselves, etc. is so often built on the oppression of Nonhuman Animals (which also oppresses vulnerable human groups). Speciesism, racism, sexism, disableism, heterosexism, classism, etc. are all rooted in the same source operating with similar ideologies and mechanisms” – Vegan Feminist Movement

“A noun is a person, place, or thing,” we obediently recite as children. What, then, are nonhuman animals? They aren’t people or places, so – convention tells us – they must be things. Current English usage is speciesist. It glorifies the human species and belittles all others. Just as sexist language demeans women and excludes them from full consideration, speciesist language demeans and excludes nonhuman animals. When we consign other animals to the category thing, we obscure their sentience, individuality and right to autonomy.” – On The Issues Magazine: A Magazine of Feminist, Progressive Thinking

Feminist Animal Liberation LogoAn interesting read about the connections between Feminism and Animal Rights is, ‘The Sexual Politics of Meat: A Feminist-Vegetarian Critical Theory’ by Carol Adams. The award-winning book explores a relationship between patriarchal values and meat eating by interweaving the insights of feminism, vegetarianism, animal defense, and literary theory.

What’s Wrong With the Dairy Industry?

Dairy cow and calf“After repeated cycles of forced impregnations, painful births, relentless milkings, and crushing bereavements, their spirit gives, their bodies wither, their milk dries up. At the age when, in nature, a female cow would barely enter adulthood, the life of a dairy cow is over. When her milk ‘production’ declines, she and her other ‘spent’ herd mates are trucked off to slaughter. Some are pregnant. All are still lactating. As they are shoved towards death, they drip milk onto the killing floor… All dairy operations, including Organic, exist solely by doing to millions of defenseless females the worst thing anyone can do to a mother.”

“Milk Comes from a Grieving Mother” ~ leaflet by Peaceful Prairie Sanctuary

Most people can see the animal exploitation inherent in the meat industry, but the dairy industry isn’t immediately obvious. Dairy cows are portrayed as having an idyllic life but the reality is that cows (like all mammals) only produce milk for their young in response to giving birth. The animals are kept in a cycle of near constant pregnancy and lactation (meaning huge physical and metabolic stress, often leading to disease and exhaustion). Each cow also suffers the separation from their young, calling for each other desperately – something which has been studied and even the dairy industry themselves admit it causes emotional stress. Male calves are often unwanted ‘by-products’ of the dairy industry and are shot at only a few hours old.

Feminists for animal lib photo

Photo: 1980's 'Feminists for Animal Rights' - a network of women striving to live cruelty-free lives.

Want to Ditch the Meat and Dairy?

Visit the following websites for more information:

Vegan Society – www.vegansociety.com
Viva! – www.milkmyths.org.uk
Vegan Kit – www.vegankit.com

Vegan RevolutionYou can buy lots of alternatives to meat and dairy in supermarkets – many sell their own brand products and also other vegan brands. But for the most ethical option we recommend shopping at your local independent health food shop. In Derby we support the vegan shop Sound Bites on Morledge.

Most meat-based meals can simply be veganised using meat-free alternatives such as veggie mince (such as Veggies burger mix, veggie burgers and tofu.

Vegan alternatives to milk

altThere are a great variety of milk alternatives that are widely available. Most people know about soya milk, but there is also oat, coconut, rice, hazelnut, almond and hemp!

Vegan alternatives to butter

There are soya, sunflower, olive and coconut blend spreads.

Vegan alternatives to cheese

There are all kinds of cheese substitutes – cheddar, edam, mozarella, parmesan, spreadable soft cheeses and meltable cheese for pizza. Some are soya based and some nut based.

Vegan chocolate!

Lots of dark chocolate is already vegan but there is also a wide range of vegan chocolate, with milk chocolate, white chocolate and every other variety under the sun.

There there are also vegan alternatives to dairy yoghurt, cream, ice cream, cakes, mayonnaise… anything you can think of really! What’s more, there are exciting new products all the time.

Feel free to Contact Veggies for any help or advice.

Download the flier – 3 jpg files

Women's Day flier Women's Day flier Womens Day flier

or download as pdf file here


Vegan Athletes for Peace

On 21 January 2015 we received this from Neil Robinson:

My name is Neil Robinson and I’m a vegan former professional footballer. Myself and another vegan former professional footballer, Dean Howell, are undertaking a charity cycle challenge, starting on May 22 2015, cycling from Land’s End to John O’Groats and to be completed in 9 days.

See our website for further information: http://veganathletesforpeace.com

vegan-athletes-for-peace logoWe’re doing the cycle challenge to raise awareness of the benefits of a vegan lifestyle for the health of humans, animals, and the planet. Also, to raise funds for a variety of charities who are doing great work to bring about the healing of the planet and all who live on it.

You’ll see from our website that we’ve chosen your charity as one of our 13 supported charities, and our grand plan is to raise £2,000 for each charity. If you agree to being one of our supported charities, we would be very grateful if you could help to promote our website and our cycle ride through your website and social media pages.

I’ve attached a short ‘media pack’ for your info too.

Many thanks!

Regards

Neil Robinson

Neil Robinson

Website: http://neilrobinsonvegan.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/NRobinsonVegan
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/neilrobinsonvegan

Vegan Athletes for Peace

http://veganathletesforpeace.com

The Peaceful Planet

Website: http://thepeacefulplanet.org
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thepeacefulplanet
Twitter: https://twitter.com/thepeaceplanet

Veggies reply to Vegan Athletes for Peace

Thank you so very very much for including Veggies amongst the great charities that you are supporting on your vegan charity cycle challenge from Land’s End to John O’Groats in May.

We have worked with almost all of those charities & campaigns over our 30 years of “networking for humans, animals & the environment”, so i find it hard to convey how honoured we are to be included alongside them.

We will of course do all we can to spread the word, including a listing on Veggies diary, on the UK Vegan Outreach Diary and on the Animal Rights Calendar (these are integrated listings).

I have also started a conversation on @VeggiesNottm Twitter feed, which I hope will be picked up by our 1600 followers. Once we get it out to the 122,000 AnimalRightsUK facebook followers, combined with the efforts of all the other charities, the effect should be a huge vegan outreach opportunity!

Please pass on our enthusiastic gratitude to Dean too.

best wishes

Pat and the Veggies Crew

Vegan Athletes for Peace Charities
Vegan Athletes for Peace Charities


Happy New Year / December review

We hope everyone had a nice and peaceful Christmas

xmas meal 2014

Here at Veggies we all get on so well we even have Christmas Day dinner together Thanks to Chrissy for the amazing event – the food (obviously all vegan!) was amazing and the table was beautiful! to all you guys and see you on Veggies 2015 tour soon! …more…


operation safe winter

What a truly heartening afternoon to see so many caring and compassionate people out in force to make ‪#‎OpSafeWinter‬ Nottingham a success today.

It was beautiful to see the massive pile of donated warm clothing, sleeping bags, food and other items that people had given. We were so pleased to have been able to contribute to the day with free food and hot drinks for those in need. …more…


Derby & Kensington

What a fantastic couple weeks of vegan outreach we’ve done! Last weekend we were at Brinsley Animal Rescue Christmas Open Day, and this weekend just passed we catered at the annual Compassionate Derby vegan festival on Saturday and yesterday at Animal Aid’s ‘Christmas Without Cruelty’ Fair.

All three events were busy for us so we’re lucky to have such a dedicated volunteer crew. Twenty different crew members helped out over these three events! …more…


Sumac Winter Crafts Fair on Sunday 14th December, with beautiful handmade gifts from local craftspeople, socialise and enjoy yummy Veggies food. …more….


Archive of all past Veggies Events


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