Our annual awareness raising event that promotes inspirational vegetarian food and the benefits of a meat-free lifestyle. You don't need to be a veggie to enjoy National Vegetarian Week (although it helps), but you do need to love flavoursome food! Click here for the National Vegetarian Week website.

During the event in 2009 young people at schools throughout the country hosted information displays, arranged food tastings, enjoyed veggie canteen meals and carried out project work related to all aspects of vegetarianism. We also arranged a recipe competition which attracted entries from across the United Kingdom, was used in lessons by many schools and received local and national media coverage.

Since our catering guide was first published all of the recipes have been nutritionally analysed in line with the government’s food-based and nutrient-based standards for school lunches. Contact us to receive individual recipe analysis in pdf format.

Click here for a selection of veggie-friendly menus that caterers are currently providing in schools throughout the country.

Please let us know if you come across any other good examples of vegetarian catering in schools!

Teachers, why not try a veggie-related activity or two during National Vegetarian Week? Most of our suggestions can be adapted for all age groups.

MONDAY – So what is a vegetarian? After giving the pupils a few moments to discuss the worksheet, which is aimed at key stages 1 and 2, encourage discussion about what vegetarians do and don’t eat, explaining, if necessary, that fish has never been a part of a veggie diet!

What vegetarian meals have they eaten? (You might find it useful to have asked your pupils to create a food diary of what they eat in the week before NVW.)
What is their favourite veggie food? How much of their usual meals are suitable for veggies? What veggie food don’t they like? (The students could be encouraged to develop veggie food questionnaires for pupils in other classes and year groups too.)

Were they surprised at the fact that they are already eating so many foods that are suitable for vegetarians? Do they think it would be difficult to go veggie? What would they miss and why? Do they think that they would they feel better about eating only vegetarian food? What would the advantages and disadvantages be? (Our “Quick Veggie Facts” should help to provoke discussion).

TUESDAY – Pupils can show off what they know about healthy veggie lifestyles by entering our re-design the NVW poster competition! We supply the template, your students can do the rest.

For enthusiastic key stage 3 and 4 students we also have a competition to design a weekend’s meal-plan for a young vegetarian on a low budget.

WEDNESDAY – Taking the healthy eating test. Our online quiz is based on the balance of good health and food comparisons posters. It’s suitable for key stages 2, 3 and 4 but can be easily modified for younger students. Can the students use the posters to create their own quizzes?

THURSDAY - Hold blindfolded veggie taste tests using lots of fruit, vegetables and other veggie delights. Small groups of pupils can be challenged to create a list of suitable adjectives to describe the taste and texture of the various foods. Identifying the food is not the priority!

FRIDAY – Examine the school meal menu and try to design a wholly veggie plan for a week. This activity could be extended by creating a National Vegetarian Week menu for a vegetarian café or restaurant or maybe even staging a competition to design the most creative veggie sandwich (we’ll gladly display the best suggestions online!)

Other Ideas

To really get into the spirit of NVW you could also:
• Hold a debate! The subject could be whether or not children should be vegetarians, or even, why people choose to eat some animals but keep others as pets (see http://www.butcherscat.com/ for ideas and an amusing short film!)
• Create role play situations about someone being bullied for being a vegetarian or being made to eat when they don’t want to.
• Watch the humourous short films “Cargo”, “Into The Barns” and “The Meat Factory” on our You Tube website.

And if you get the chance to talk about National Vegetarian Week during an assembly, how about something which touches on what is a vegetarian and what we eat, why people go veggie, and where veggies get their protein and iron from?

Click here to see our free resources for teachers.

 

Fantastic illustrations for National Vegetarian Week!

Student illustrator Emma Ridgway created her own superb illustrations to celebrate National Vegetarian Week. You can see them below (click on the images for full size versions!)

Emma's website can be found at www.emma-ridgway.co.uk

Getting Fruity (and Veggie!)

As part of their work during National Vegetarian Week students at Clatterford Tuition Centre in Newport, Isle of Wight each created an individual fabric square representing a fruit or vegetable using collage techniques, fabric paint or fabric pens. These were then sewn together to create a wall hanging which is now proudly displayed in their Food Technology Room.

 

Dressed to Impress!

Year 9 students at Channing School, Highgate, London were responsible for designing and creating these superb dresses that were inspired by fruit and vegetables in the run up to National Vegetarian Week 2008.