Out and About - Local Groups and Info Centres

Our local contacts are busier than you think organising displays, information stalls, veggie-themed events and social occasions. Here are some reports of recent happenings and events taking place soon

A great meal out

Bolton Crazi-Carrots joined Manchester veggies for a vegan meal at the Coven in Wigan on Saturday February 20th.
The only difficulty was choosing what to eat from a wide range of veggie dishes...
pea soup and roasted Indian Vegetables, pate, mushroom burgers, fresh falafel burger, toasted caramelised onion bagel and a huge table of cakes and muffins
Tea was fresh. Organic leaves all served in delightful crockery.
A thoroughly enjoyable day out and only two minutes from the railway station.
Crazi-carrots will certainly be going again soon.
~Alwynne (Bolton's Crazi Carrots)

Edinburgh group getting established

On the 22nd of October, we were lucky enough to be asked to attend a free tasting at the Engine Shed, a social enterprise providing employment training in a vegetarian café and food preparation for people with learning difficulties. The hot selection was vegan stir fry or chilli, and there was a wonderful selection of other foods made by the trainees. This included bread, hummus, oatcakes, tofu (including tofu cottage cheese) and cakes and flapjacks (predominantly vegan). This was an excellent networking opportunity as well as representatives were present from various organisations.

The social at Henderson’s on the 14th November was well attended with new members coming along. As always, thanks to Henderson’s for their assistance.

Christmas did not pass unnoticed. A celebratory meal at David Banns’ had a good response, without a turkey or nut roast in sight. The service and food were excellent as always.

In the near future we will continue to meet for informal socials every two months, at noon at Henderson’s on the second Saturday of odd months eg March and May. We also hope to have a vegan wine tasting and an Easter meal. We are also exploring the option of holding ad hoc meetings for those who regularly can not make Saturdays.
~ Dave Harrington (Edinburgh Vegetarians and Vegans)

Trying a new venue

On Saturday 5th December, 11 members of Tees Veg (Tees Valley Veggies & Vegans) met for their Xmas meal at The Plimsoll Line, Redcar (a Wetherspoons Pub). This staff were amazing and bent over backwards to accommodate the 4 vegans in the group by ensuring we could have a choice of starters, i.e. offering to split a vegan pasta main course between 2 people. We had a wonderful time at about £7 a head (including a drink) which was one of the deciding factors in choosing the venue in the first place (another reason was the ease of location). It was also the perfect venue for those wanting to carry on partying and a few of us were there until closing time! It was good to know that Wetherspoons have separate deep fat fryers for meat, fish and vegetarian items (chips, poppadums etc) and it is worth asking about their ‘intolerance menu’ as there a couple more things on there than are listed on their regular menu (only the Sweet Potato, Chickpea and Spinach curry currently states suitable for vegans). We also put extra money in to donate to Hillside Sanctuary. We have a new venue for our monthly meetings after Borders Bookshop closed at Xmas. We will now meet upstairs at Dosa Houze Indian Restaurant in Middlesbrough, just around the corner from Teesside University. We’re hoping the central location, better transport links or maybe just the excuse of food will attract more people to come and join us.
~Manda, (Tees Veg)

Lunch with Benjamin

At the beginning of June, I had the great pleasure to cook lunch for veggie/vegan personality/poet Benjamin Zephaniah, between his performances to school children at the local Rimac Nature Reserve. I have to say, I've never had such a good reaction over my vegan cakes before - Benjamin enjoyed them so much, he wanted to take the rest home with him!!

On the longest day of the year, 21st June, we held a 'Summer Solstice Party' in our garden. Luckily, the weather was kind to us so we were able to sit in the garden all day and evening. Everybody bought a dish to share, so we were thoroughly spoilt with lots of delicious food to eat.
~ Sally Taylor, Louth veggies

NESX stall at Ipswich May Day Festival

on Sunday 3rd May, five NESX vegans manned a stall at the Ipswich May day festival in Alexandra Park in Ipswich. We tried to promote vegetarianism/veganism for the sake of the environment, using a wide range of environmental leaflets and recipe booklets.

There was a special 'transition zone' in one part of the park, where the Ipswich Green Party and the Ipswich food co-op. had a tent which included a vegan cafe!

NESX show “Meat the Truth
On the 6th May, we had a meeting at which we showed the film 'Meat the truth'. This is a very good documentary, made by the Dutch Party for the Animals, and it considers the destructive effects of the global livestock industry on the environment - it is a response to the film 'An inconvenient truth', which looked at the factors involved in climate change and damage to the environment, but conveniently omitted to mention the livestock industry.
The DVD of 'Meat the Truth' was very kindly loaned to us by the Plymouth Environmental Centre - many thanks to them, and to everyone who came to see the film.

~ Annette White, NESX Vegans