My Experience
I don’t recall ever seeing anything vegan on the menu at school, and when I spent time in hospital with a kidney infection I had to rely on sandwiches from my mother in order to survive- not because there wasn’t anything vegan on the menu (although there wasn’t), but because there wasn’t anything that could be deemed as edible- I thought tomato soup was the safest option, oh how wrong I was!
After being in hospital for three days, I managed to lose a stone (14lbs) in weight. I was put on a ward with cancer patients, some who were terminal, many others still undergoing invasive treatments. I was appalled at the food they were being served. How many of those patients, in dire need of nutritionally rich food, were, like me, going without? How many of those people were lucky enough to have someone visit with supplies? How many of those people were in there for the long haul?
Petition for Change
It has been recently announced that the Scottish government is being urged to make vegan food available on the menus of schools, hospitals, prisons and government buildings.
A campaign launched by The Vegan Society and Go Vegan Scotland says the country’s lack of vegan options has led to students being unable to access their free lunch programs at schools (many of the students entitled to free school meals will be from socioeconomically deprived backgrounds), and even hospital patients are going for days without food.
I’m not saying that such institutions should provide gourmet menus, but they should at least provide the basics. Plant-based diets have long proven to be the healthiest diet out there, and in the UK at least, the incessant talk of an obesity epidemic begs the question why hasn’t the public sector done this before?
If you think everyone should have the right to be provided for and that menus should be inclusive of all then please sign the petition, and share this post. The closing date for the petition is 06 November 2018, so don’t delay and sign today.
The Geeky Vegan 