Find out how we kicked off our 80th anniversary celebrations and embraced World Vegan Month this year
Why is World Vegan Month celebrated?
In November, vegans across the globe come together to celebrate World Vegan Month – a time to reflect on the benefits of a vegan lifestyle, for the animals, environment and for your health.
This year is extra special for The Vegan Society, as it marks our 80th anniversary. We were founded in November 1944, making us the oldest vegan charity. Since then, The Vegan Society has gone from strength to strength. Our founding members' vision has evolved to meet the growing demand of the vegan community.
November 2024 was packed with exciting activities, find out more about how we kick-started our celebrations and how you can get involved below.
The launch of The Future is Vegan
We held a one-of-a-kind event at Camley Street Natural Park, London, on Tuesday 26 November.
This evening celebrated the growth of the modern vegan movement since our inception in 1944 and looked ahead to a bright new future in the form of our new campaign, The Future is Vegan, where we answer the question ‘what could a vegan world look like 80 years in the future?’
Attendees at the launch event had an opportunity to try on a virtual reality headset and explore our future vegan utopia – including the anticipated changes to farming, the treatment of animals, environmental landscape, and people’s health.
We had a variety of wonderful speakers, including Jasmine Harman and Kim Stallwood, who shared their vegan journeys. The evening was accompanied with amazing vegan food and a crafting space to contribute to our 80th anniversary mural. The event was a huge success with lots of positive feedback from our supporters about the campaign!
If you could not attend the event, but would like to see what a future vegan world could look like, then you can still try our desktop version of The Future is Vegan, where you explore the space using your keyboard. We plan to take our campaign on the road through our anniversary next year in 2025, attending expos, schools, sustainability fairs and festivals to start conversations and get people engaging with our ideas.
Read our publication of Kind Food
In celebration of our 80th anniversary, we put together a compilation of some of our favourite recipes over the years. Many of these featured in our membership magazine, The Vegan, or as part of our campaign work or on our blog.
From light bites to hearty mains and tasty treats, Kind Food has it all! A wide range of recipes have been produced by many talented individuals and show just how nourishing and delicious vegan food is.
Kind Food is available to our members and can be accessed in the Members' Area of the website.
Not a member? Please join us to support our work to help people go and stay vegan and protect the rights of existing vegans. As a member you will receive a copy of Kind Food, along with our quarterly in-house members’ exclusive magazine, The Vegan (NB it is only paper-based members who will receive these items), featuring interviews, reviews, recipes, deep dives into veganism, and more! You can also help shape the future of the society by voting at our AGM.
Thank you to every one of our members, whose support has enabled us to reach the incredible milestone of 80 years.
Check out the Vegan Trademark
One of our most significant contributions to the vegan movement over the last 80 years is the creation of the Vegan Trademark, which has become a trusted symbol for consumers worldwide. We recently celebrated reaching the milestone of 70,000 product registrations across 68 countries!
We also ran two celebratory competitions with Krispy Kreme and Roly's fudge, where we gave away over £150 worth of certified vegan sweet treats. Look out for any future competitions by following @vegantrademark.
Try our 80th anniversary chocolate, orange and ginger cake recipe
We worked with Hannah Hossack-Lodge (Domestic Gothess), who created this decadent showstopper, which is the perfect example of just how indulgent vegan cakes can be.
Featuring products certified by the Vegan Trademark and using zesty orange curd, chocolate buttercream and delicious gingerbread shapes, this is a great recipe for any vegan baker to try!
Check out the recipe and get in touch with us by emailing editor[at]vegansociety[dot]com to let us know if you recreate this with your own creative flair.
Listen to The Vegan Pod
In the latest episode of The Vegan Pod, we dive into the history of veganism to look at the key milestones that have shaped the vegan movement. We are joined by Kim Stallwood – an animal rights author and scholar with decades of experience in the movement, and Matthew Cole – a sociologist and lecturer whose research has explored veganism, anti-veganism and the cultural construction of human/non-human-animal relations.
World Vegan Month is a powerful reminder of the positive impact that your choices can make. At The Vegan Society, we work hard to make veganism mainstream. Our 80th anniversary celebrations have only just started and there will be more to come over the course of the next year. Please sign up to our (free) newsletter to keep up to date with the latest information and to find out how you can get involved.
The views expressed by our bloggers are not necessarily the views of The Vegan Society.
