VOICES: Imagine a time when all schools and public sector menus included at least one vegan option. In Portugal that’s a reality, so why not the UK? Laura Chepner, chair of The Vegan Society’s Education Network, tells us about their new ‘Vegans Unite’ campaign.

It is difficult to express the emotions that go along with your child starting their first day at school. Will they like it? Will they pine for me? Will they make friends? Add to that the worry that they won’t be fed properly or not at all and anxieties can run quite high. Working as the UK’s only vegan inclusion education specialist since 2017 stories and experiences based on those anxieties coming into fruition have become all too familiar. In fact, the need for this inclusion service was born out of my own daughter’s exclusion after having been denied vegan food at her school on day one. There is nothing quite like crying hysterically in a supermarket aisle whilst quickly buying a vegan packed lunch for your rejected, ethical first born to light a fire of activism.

The challenges come with there being no current UK statutory guidance that states each canteen must provide a plant-based option on their daily menu. Parents and Guardians throughout the UK are enlisting their vegan children into mainstream education and being told that they must provide a packed lunch as they will not be catered for. What the government does say is that each education institution should make ‘reasonable adjustments’ as to whether or not they decide to cater for vegans and that is the sum total of the support available.

Veganism is a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010 yet within the public sector many educators, canteen staff and school food providers are not aware of this. They feel well within their rights to say, ‘no’ and despite how discriminatory that is, quite frankly without that statutory guidance, they probably are. This blatant deflection of duty by the government creates an environment where feeble excuses are being seen as legitimate motives for ‘reasonably’ denying a request for vegan food. These can include, but are not limited to: the kitchen is too small, food is brought in from an external kitchen; veganism is not a religion, veganism is not an allergy; or the cost is too much to justify for just one child.

Some vegan families are lucky, they either don’t meet resistance from an inclusive, progressive Head teacher, or they may find themselves in a situation like mine where apologies were made and change slowly implemented; they are in the minority though. From experience, the majority who are met with defiance don’t want to speak up and be ‘that parent’ or do not wish to create animosity at the start of an exciting phase in their child’s life. It is simply not fair that this anguish is put onto vegan families when their beliefs are relevant to the public sector equality duty. This is all the more important when we consider the needs of children who come from low-income families and are eligible for free school meals. If they are vegan and rejected this puts the onus back onto the family and creates further difficulties.

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In 2015, Nuno Alvim, spokesperson for Associação Vegetariana Portuguesa, said: “Promoting the rights of the vegan population is as important as campaigning and informing people to adopt veganism, in our perspective. This law seems to be an important first step on the political level.” Nuno and his team were responsible for an approved law which compels all public canteens in Portugal to provide a "strict vegetarian" (meaning vegan in Portuguese) option on their menus. This law in Portugal has been seen as ‘the norm’ since 2017 showing how easily plant-based options can be integrated into any public sector menu. Yet the UK, a supposed modern and forward-thinking country, still has not committed to this inclusive move. If Portugal can do it then so can we, and this is why The Vegan Society is drumming up support for a live petition which asks for School Food Regulations to include a statutory plant-based option on daily menus throughout the education sector.

This petition has been around the block several times with several authors, myself included, and they never quite make it to 100,000. This time should be different; on the first of every month between now and August we are asking every vegan brand, manufacturer, business, MP, charity, influencer and celebrity to get behind it with a ‘sign and share’ campaign named ‘Vegans Unite’ because we have to mobilise once and for all. Can you imagine a time when it will be illegal for public sector menus to overlook a plant-based option? A time where pupils, students and vegan educators don’t have to fight for the right to eat a hot and nutritious meal with their peers. Nuno is absolutely right, if we get this legislation put in place who knows what else could follow. And, to be perfectly honest, if I have to receive another half-hearted response from a government official stating ‘…reasonable adjustments' one more time, I may just end up emotionally crying in yet another supermarket aisle.

*The petition is supported by The Vegan Society’s Education Network

Laura Chepner is Education Officer and Chair of the Vegan Society's Education Network.

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