Veganuary is a big thing in London this year. Earlier this week when I was getting on the tube to head to Tottenham Court Road Station, I was handed an Evening Standard paper. I was just casually thumbing through it and I came across an article titled “How to power up your lunch.” The sub head read “Upgrade the working midday meal with vegan bowls and boosters, says Katie Strick”.
To my surprise, after the subheads: “Warm up” and “Darken your greens” came the one in the picture “Go V”. It’s starts with the sentence “Half the office is doing Veganuary and it’s easy when the options are so V-aried.” Half the office? While this likely is a bit tongue in cheek, it cheered me to read it and the list of healthy vegan options at a number of chain eateries in London (including the very American Starbucks). I just checked, US Starbucks don’t have the recommended yummy sounding wrap on their menus—BBQ jack fruit with spinach and slaw. It is for me to question, why not?
If you haven’t heard of it, Veganuary is a registered charity that is encouraging people in many places in the world to take a pledge to go vegan for the month of January. More info here: https://veganuary.com/
Even more remarkable was the massive banner I saw on the side of a double decker bus the afternoon we were walking around in Shepherd’s Bush. I missed getting a photo then, but Sophie caught it on her walk to visit her mum last night. I am not familiar with GoVeganWorld and the message is pretty hard core, but as a person who regularly teaches that “cow’s milk is not a necessary food” and that “consuming it (and products made from it) at recommended amounts is likely doing more harm than good,” I jumped with glee seeing this message on the side of a bus in a busy international city.
More on cow’s milk in a future post. 🙂
An American Vegan in London 