Well-planned vegan-friendly meals can be healthy, appealing and suitable for just about everyone - including patients in hospitals. We are collaborating with the Hospital Caterers Association (HCA) to bring balanced vegan-friendly recipes to every hospital caterer in the UK, as our campaign 'Hospital Catering for All' demonstrates. The HCA was founded in 1948 to improve the standards of catering in hospitals and healthcare establishments in the UK.
Note: If you are awaiting a hospital admission, try to speak to both the hospital registered dietitian and catering manager at least two weeks ahead of time - or as soon as possible upon arrival.
“We are working together to ensure patients get the best possible food and we are utilising the specialists to help in this objective.” - Andy Jones, HCA National Chair
The Vegan Society and The HCA recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding, outlining our conjoined aims. You can read the Memorandum of Understanding below.
Memorandum of Understanding between The Vegan Society and The Hospital Caterers Association
Objective
The Vegan Society and The Hospital Caterers Association will collaborate to bring nutritious plant-centred meals and vegan-suitable catering to the whole NHS.
Background
We have complementary experience in healthy plant-centred catering. As the original vegan organisation, committed to equality for vegans, and to evidence-based plant-based nutrition, The Vegan Society is uniquely respected by vegans around the world. We provide inspiration and recipes to hundreds of thousands of professional care and commercial caterers and home cooks. The Hospital Caterers Association aims to ensure that every health-care user in the UK enjoys good nourishment, by continuously improving catering standards in hospitals and by supporting the professional development of caterers in the health-care sector.
Aims
1. Give health-care caterers the confidence to deliver delicious, nutritionally complete, vegan-friendly recipes to ensure we offer these dishes onto menus for every health-care user and every client group.
2. Ensure that health-care caterers know that nutritionally balanced, vegan-friendly dishes can be developed to suit health-care users at every age and life stage, and in all health-care contexts.
3. Collaborate to develop and distribute vegan recipes suitable for just about any health-care user, including meat eaters, vegetarians and many following religious or medical diets, as well as vegans.
4. Give vegan health-care users the confidence to trust health-care sector caterers to meet their needs.
Outcome tracking:
We will share progress reports twice each year.
Signed:
Jasmijn de Boo Andrew Jones
CEO, The Vegan Society National Chair, the Hospital Caterers Association
