Spring 2011 Highlights

Hospitality Show, NEC 26 January

The Vegan Society sponsored the Vegan Challenge category in Salon Culinaire at Hospitality at the NEC on 26 January 2011.  Six chefs competed in live theatre watched by an audience from the catering and hospitality industry.  Sandor Olah from the Crown Moran Hotel in London won the Gold award with his menu of celeriac and parsnip polenta with Puy lentils, pan roasted roots, soya beans and spiced plum chutney.  Kevin Whitlock from Christ’s Hospital School, Horsham, won Silver and Brendan Baxter, UK Skills, won Bronze.  Ben Murphy, UK Skills, Andrew Blackman, The NEC Group and Claire Willett from Bedford College also competed.  Our Chief Executive, Nigel Winter, presented the awards and the compere invited chefs to contact The Vegan Society for advice on catering for vegans. 

www.hospitalityshow.co.uk

International Food Event, Excel, London 13-16 March

IFE is the largest food and drink event in the UK.  It is attended by exhibitors and visitors from all over the world.  We went with three aims; to encourage manufacturers and caterers to extend their vegan range, to persuade them to clearly label existing vegan items, and to promote our trademark.  Over the four days of the event, our stand was staffed by our Chief Executive, Nigel Winter, our Head of Business Development, George Gill and our Advocacy Officer, Rebecca Henderson.  They spoke to a wide range of people working within the food industry.  George was able to make a number of contacts regarding the trademark and Rebecca had the opportunity to speak to care home and hospital caterers about vegan catering and The Vegan Society’s Care Catering Award.

Hotel and Catering Show, Bournemouth 15-16 March

The Vegan Society caused quite a stir at the Hotel and Catering Show 2011, with our two sponsored classes in the Wessex Salon Culinaire Chefs competition.  The Salon is billed as 'the UK's biggest competition for young chefs'.  Our Vegan Cold Starter class attracted six competitors, and our Vegan Hot Main Course class was very well supported, with eight entrants.

The winning Vegan Cold Starter, "Red Pepper, Lentil and Soya Cheesecake with Alfalfa and Pea-shoot Salad and Melba Toast" was by Nicole Hamilton of West Thames College who was awarded Gold Medal for this dish.

Sharon O'Driscoll of the House of Commons won Best Vegan Hot Main, "Smoked Corn & Polenta Pudding with a Watermelon Black Bean Curry Savoury Potato Asparagus ‘Polonaise’ Edamame Creme, and Piquant Tomato Jam".  Sharon’s main course also won Best Entry in Live Competition and was awarded a Gold Medal for this dish.

Vegan Society Supporter Member Terry Woolcock took a lead role in judging both classes.  Full Salon results are now on the organiser’s website at: http://www.hotel-expo.co.uk/salonCulinaire

The Vegan Society also had a stall at the associated show.  Information Officer, Charley Roberts and PR/Media Officer, Amanda Baker, spoke to dozens of chefs, small business owners, hospitality lecturers and student caterers, and gave out over 200 copies of our Vegan Catering for All booklet during the two days.

UK Aware, Olympia, London 25-26 March

Running over two days, UK Aware is the UKs largest exhibition on contemporary, sustainable living.  The show attracts visitors from across the country, all with a shared interest in environmental issues, making it the perfect venue to talk to people about the environmental benefits of a vegan lifestyle.  On the second day, our Chief Executive, Nigel Winter, participated in a successful panel debate entitled Beginners Guide to Greener Living.  Attended by around 80 people, the debate encouraged numerous members of the audience to visit our stall for more information.  We received a great response from the visiting public, including non-vegans who wanted to find out more about veganism, vegetarians who were keen to make the next step and fellow vegans looking for literature to distribute to non-vegan friends.

Natural Organic Products Show, Olympia, London 3-4 April

The Vegan Society trademark logo is critical to funding the Society’s many activities as well as an important sign-post to vegans and non-vegans catering to vegans.  We work hard in the trademark department to expand the number of products you see on the shelves with our trusted logo on.  Most recently George Gill and Daniel Therkelsen exhibited at the Natural and Organic Products Europe tradeshow in London Olympia on the third and fourth of April – two long, tiring but very rewarding days.  It was a bustling show with plenty of interest from companies not using our logo yet.  It was also good to see so many companies there who already use our trademark logo on their products, representing the significant demand for vegan products.  You can also help by e-mailing, writing or phoning your favourite company that doesn’t use our logo yet and ask them to start using it – this has led countless companies to apply for our trademark.

Chief Executive to Bond meeting

Our Chief Executive attended his first BOND meeting recently.  BOND are an umbrella organisation for 370 organisations working in overseas development.  They will keep us informed about UK and EU consultations that we might want to have an input on and have a number of working groups.  The areas that could be of interest to us are: promoting plant-based nutrition and stockfree farming.  There were about 25 people at the meeting such as International Development Enterprises UK and the Executive Director of The Jane Goodall Institute UK who is one of our members.

http://www.bond.org.uk/pages/about-us.html

Veganism in Prestigious Sociological Journal

In The Vegan Summer 2009, we featured an article called ‘‘…a faddish, fanatical diet cult’: Anti-vegan bias in UK newspapers’, by Dr Matthew Cole and Dr Karen Morgan.  The article was a summary of a full academic paper called 'vegaphobia' also written by Matthew and Karen which has now been published in The British Journal of Sociology which is the most prestigious sociological journal in the UK (and one of the top journals in the world), so it is really quite impressive to get veganism and speciesism discussed in a 'mainstream' journal like this:

Cole, M. & Morgan, K. (2011) ‘Vegaphobia: Derogatory discourses of veganism and the reproduction of speciesism in UK national newspapers’, British Journal of Sociology, 61 (1): 134-153.

Working Closely with the Vegan Prisoner Support Group (VPSG)

Our Advocacy Officer, Rebecca Henderson, has worked with VPSG to produce a joint prison newsletter.  Sent to prison caterers, the newsletter gives them recipe suggestions, updates them on developments and reminds them of the requirements of vegan catering and nutrition.

Ask Google to Doodle for World Vegan Day

Will you tell Google why you'd love a World Vegan Day Google Doodle?

World Vegan Day celebrates and proclaims all that is great about veganism.  It's an ideal time to share the benefits of being vegan - for humans, for our health, and to tackle global hunger; for the planet, and against global climate change; and of course, for other animals.

Now vegans everywhere are asking Google to recognize vegan history, and mark the First of November with a Google Doodle.

Google's famous 'Doodles' globally celebrate significant events such as New Year's Day and Jules Verne's birthday, as well as local special days.  You can see examples of past Google Doodles here:  http://www.google.com/logos/

Why not tell Google why World Vegan Day is worth a Google Doodle? Email them on: proposals@google.com - and please copy to Amanda: media@vegansociety.com at The Vegan Society too.

World Vegan Day has its own logo:           

Please email: media@vegansociety.com to request copies for promoting veganism.

Let's spread the word, and help make World Vegan Day, Tuesday 1 November 2011 (1.11.11) the most talked-about World Vegan Day yet!

You can follow the World Vegan Day Google Doodle Ask on The Vegan Society Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/TheVeganSociety