Veganise your town!

Read how our supporters have helped their local towns become more vegan-friendly, and learn how you can get involved.

At the end of 2017 we launched Vegan on the Go – our campaign to improve high-street offerings for vegans. And we’ve seen a huge difference in this time. Most chains have now significantly upped their game and are offering labelled options. The vegan sandwich is taking over!

But what about independents? Where does your local café, favourite independent restaurant or weekend takeaway of choice fit into all this? Seems that it’s now high time to Veganise your town.

We’ve created a range of resources to enable you to support your local cafes and restaurants to provide more vegan options. Order a pack through the link above and you’ll be sent the following:

• Vegan Catering Made Easy – a guide to give out to cafes and restaurants
• A vegan’s guide to talking to local businesses – to give you a few pointers, and for you to hand out to any other vegans you know
• Vegans Catered for Here stickers
• Calling cards – Two choices of card to leave behind in your local cafe or restaurant. One is a 'thank you' for providing vegan options, and the other requests that they add vegan options to their menu.

Please note that, due to costs incurred, we are unable to send resources outside of the UK. However you can find printable versions here.

Success stories

Plenty of our supporters have already got stuck into the campaign.

Ian Tarplee was keen to encourage more vegan options in his local town of Spalding. He approached several cafes and restaurants, including local café The Loft. The owner was very open to the idea of introducing vegan food and the café now carries a sign outside listing the vegan options, which includes cake!

Ian says, “I am really enjoying getting involved in the campaign. So far most responses have been really positive and I have had plenty of good conversations with owners and café staff. This has shown us that Spalding is really happy to cater for vegans, and now you can get some delicious food in our town. We have also spoken to the local papers who are writing a piece to coincide with what we are doing. Finally, I’ve set up a Facebook page to let people know what is available and where.”

Caroline Whelpton has also had many successes with the campaign. She says, “Although some chain restaurants are starting to offer vegan options where I live, there are still not many independent cafes and restaurants doing the same. My aim is to work directly with the owners to give them a helping hand and some advice on easy vegan recipes and cakes so they can get started. If we show them that it really isn't that difficult and that anyone can enjoy it (not just vegans) it can give them the confidence to have a go. 

“I have really enjoyed helping local businesses to expand their offerings and in doing so have developed a relationship with them. One cafe owner told me that on Saturdays it is now mostly vegan customers who eat there and they have been so successful that people are now queuing for tables. So they are hoping to increase their opening hours. It's a win-win situation.”

It’s your turn!

Will you be the next person to veganise their town? Get your pack ordered and let us know how you get on by emailing campaigns[at]vegansociety[dot]com.

And if you’re a Vegan Society member and want to get more involved with bringing our campaigns to your local area, why not join our Community Network?