National Vegetarian Week is 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!
National Vegetarian Week 2012 will take place between May 21st-27th and this year we're organising a competition to encourage young people to express their views about vegetarianism.
Last year’s celebrations were kicked off by our Meat-Free in Manchester event where the Youth Education marquee included a pedal-powered smoothie maker, human fruit machine, Veggie Trumps and Play Your Cards Right games.
During the week young people at schools and colleges throughout the country hosted information displays, arranged food tastings, enjoyed veggie canteen meals, carried out project work related to all aspects of vegetarianism and entered our competitions.
A class at Marsh Gibbon C of E Primary School, Bicester, won a Cauldron Local Hero award for turning their room into a veggie café for the day. The pupils even got veggie goody bags to take home. Two young veggies in Liverpool, Dylan and Oliver, also deserve a special mention for cooking different veggie food at home each day of the week and sharing it with their classmates!
Competitions, Activities
for schools, Catering suggestions,
Early years activities, other
inspirations...
Write on!
We're encouraging young people to express their views about vegetarianism for this year's competition. Whether you haven't yet considered the idea of living without meat, or are already vegetarian, we want to hear what you've got to say about the subject.
The boundaries of the competition are quite flexible as we want to encourage original responses on a wide-range of issues. Ideas might include reviewing a favourite veggie meal, writing an article explaining why it is, or isn't, a good idea to become vegetarian (arguments against vegetarianism are welcomed!), researching what veggies do and don't eat, designing a leaflet, or maybe even planning a set of activites for an imaginary National Vegetarian Week. Very young entrants will be allowed to submit image-based entries.
The closing date for entries is April 27th. Prizes will be awarded during National Vegetarian Week.
The winner of each category will receive a £20 book token and have their entry published online. An overall winner will also be chosen and will receive a meal for four at Brewer’s Fayre (Whitbread PLC).
For a competition entry form.
For competition rules.
Last year there were two competitions for young people; under 12s were asked to create a mouth-watering veggie school meal, over 12s had to come up with a veggie airline meal. We also asked young veggies to give all-time classic children's songs a vegetarian twist. The winning entry (which includes some lyrics that might not be considered suitable for younger children!) can be found here.
The 2010 competiton asked students to create a fully-costed and nutritionally analysed weekend's meal-plan for a young vegetarian on a low budget. The winners were Katie Runciman and Christie Jackson from Linlithgow Academy.
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 designed for 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).
The Eat Your Colours and 5-a-day worksheets can be useful extension or follow-up activities.
TUESDAY – Pupils can show off what they know about healthy veggie lifestyles by re-designing our NVW poster!
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!) Click here for examples of school menus from around the country.
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 (click here for some 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.
Even the youngest children can enjoy the fun of National Vegetarian Week!
READING:
Take a look at our Book
List for Children and Young People for some literary inspiration. This list features vegetarian-themed
and vegetarian-friendly books, with a large selection of books appropriate
for children aged six and under.
COOKING AND FOOD PREPARATION:
It is never too early for children to be involved in conversations about good, healthy food. Listing all the foods that they eat at snack and meal times can initiate discussion about what is and isn’t suitable for vegetarians. You may find our What Is A Vegetarian? worksheet helpful.
Preparing well-balanced vegetarian snacks, including fruit, vegetables, cheese, biscuits, and perhaps even some homemade humous or scones is always worthwhile. Both of these recipes are easy to make, very tasty, and nutritious too. To make the scones even more delicious, add 50g of sultanas or chopped dates to the mix. Or for added nutrition, replace 100g of plain self-raising flour with 100g of wholemeal self-raising flour.
If you provide cooked meals for the children please take a look at our selection of Food for Under 5s.
BREAD PAINTING:
This is a fun,
easy and novel activity – it’s
not every day that a child gets to paint their food!
WORKSHEETS:
Our Eat Your Colours and 5-a-day worksheets have been specially designed
for preschool and primary-aged children.
GROWING YOUR OWN FOOD:
The garden is where some of the most colourful, nutritious and delicious vegetarian foods originate, so why not try to Grow Your Own Pizza?
OTHER RESOURCES:
We’ve got posters, leaflets and stickers available to help you, the
children in your care, and their parents learn more about vegetarianism.
Click here for more information.
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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!
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.
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