October 09
Tina Fox, our Secretary, gave a presentation at “Nutrition in Care”, the Northern regional meeting of the National Association of Care Caterers, in Widnes. This was a useful opportunity to get the VfL message across to delegates from across a wide spectrum, including independent and group care homes, frozen foods suppliers and Hospital Caterers Association members.
We’ve been busy responding to requests for copies of Vegetarian Living, our healthy-living handbook, and for information about the Vegan and Vegetarian Funds - grant applications for which we administer on behalf of the Vegetarian Housing Association. We were very pleased that the handbook and the new charitable funds received a lot of press coverage, which lead to this healthy level of interest.
Have you got your copy of Vegetarian Living yet? Please email or ring if you would like a copy. Incidentally, we would welcome any feedback on the handbook.
September 09
Now that Vegetarian Living is in print, this month has been very busy, with responses to our press releases and requests for the handbook, from as far afield as Singapore and Botswana.
VfL has also been out and about, taking part in the Big Care Debate, organised by the Department of Health, in Manchester, and also at the Older Persons Advocacy Alliance in London.
This month we have been very pleased to welcome all the homes in the London Residential Healthcare Group to membership of the VfL-UK List.
Is your care home or organisation a member yet? If not, please consider it, and, also, bear in mind – member or not - that we are always happy to consider requests for a presentation about our work. Please contact info@vegetarianforlife.org.uk for further details.
August 09
August's big news is the printing of our new handbook, Vegetarian Living, nearly 6000 of which have been distributed already, although we are not officially launching it until the beginning of October – to coincide with World Vegetarian Day. The handbook is aimed at individual older vegetarians and vegans and their changing needs. It offers advice on subjects such as: a positive approach to retirement, ‘simple tips to sharpen wits’, housing & care, diet & cookery, and it includes a section of ‘easy recipes-for-one’. It will soon be available to download from our website or a print copy can be requested
July 09
We are very pleased to welcome Amanda Woodvine to our board, as a new trustee. Amanda is a nutritionist and, until recently, worked for four years as Senior Nutritionist at the Vegetarian and Vegan Foundation.
We were also pleased to welcome 2 further homes from the Excelcare group as members of the VfL-UK List.
Vegetarian Housing Association (VHA) has established two new charitable funds, The Vegan Fund and The Vegetarian Fund, which will award grants to assist older vegans and vegetarians respectively with ‘independent living’. VfL is thrilled to be administering these funds on behalf of VHA, and full details are given elsewhere on this website - on the new ‘Grants’ web page and on the press release. June 09
We are pleased to report that 20 Abbeyfield homes joined VFL-UK List this month, 19 in Northern Ireland and one in Scotland.
We received the results of our care homes survey, and one interesting finding is that there are vegetarians or vegans in around 1 in 5 care homes in the UK. A press release detailing the survey findings can be found on our news pages.
Requests from survey respondents for the VfL guide, Catering for older vegetarians and vegans, were so high that we have ordered our second reprint.
A revised draft of the VfL positive-living handbook, Vegetarian Living, has been out for final consultation with partner charities and focus groups and will be printed soon.
May 09
We are pleased to welcome Withy Kitchen as a member of the VfL-UK List – in the Suppliers section. Withy Kitchen is Vegetarian Society approved, so is an excellent option for older vegetarians and vegans seeking home-delivered frozen meals. Please click on the UK List section for contact details. We also welcome our first sheltered housing schemes with catering, 12 locations in Dorset and Hampshire managed by Abbeyfield Wessex.
VfL expanded its partnership working by forming a link with RASA Institutions. RASA works in care homes (and schools) to introduce aspects of Southern Indian culture, including vegetarian food preparation and tastings, dance and music, and they aim to ensure the experience and knowledge of older people is valued.
We have commissioned professional research to gather information on vegetarians and vegans in UK care homes, including their numbers, and how we can help those involved in their care. 1,000 care home managers, carefully chosen from across the whole spectrum of homes (by geography, size, type etc) will be surveyed. A Press Release summarising the findings will be posted on this website and should be available by the end of June.
April 09
As VfL is a very small charity, we try to ‘punch above our weight’ by partnership working and cooperation with other charities. Two fine examples came up in April:
• VfL exhibited at the Incredible Veggie Show in London. The show was attended by around 4000 people, and we gave out our catering guide or spoke to a great many of them. Also, our patron, Rose Elliot, gave three very popular cookery demonstrations. Thanks to Viva! for organising such a successful event.
• We mailed all VfL UK-List members with recipes for National Vegetarian Week, which is coming up on 19th May, and offered the opportunity of subsidised catering training, which we are organising in conjunction with the Cordon Vert Cookery School. This was greeted with much enthusiasm and the first training day will take place in the Cotswolds in June. If you are interested in catering training please contact Tina Fox for further details (info@vegetarianforlife.org.uk). Many thanks to the Vegetarian Society UK for providing the recipe cards and for their partnering on training courses.March 09
Tina Fox gave give a talk this month to the catering and care staff of Lynhales Hall in Hereford, a new member of the VfL – UK List. The home is in an idyllic rural area, surrounded by woodland and lakes, and has 47 residents. Currently one is vegetarian, but apparently the other residents also enjoy regular vegetarian meals, as they find them easier to digest. One of the 3 menu options is always vegetarian, including dishes such as vegetable cobbler, spring rolls and vegetable chilli, and the vegetables are locally supplied. Lynhales has Investors in People accreditation and an ‘excellent‘ rating from CSCI. It is soon expanding to provide a further 21 places, and is keen to enlarge its range of vegetarian and vegan recipes - a task VfL is very happy to help with.
We have also been undertaking a survey with hospital caterers, in preparation for a publication planned for 2010. We have been pleased with the positive response so far and would like to thank all those busy caterers who contributed.
Febuary 09
This month VfL was pleased to welcome a new member to our suppliers list, The Tasty Food Company a new delivery service for chilled foods developed by the WRVS. At present it is a pilot scheme operating in Essex only but it is expected to roll out over the coming year to a greater geographical area.
VfL is also busy working on a new handbook Vegetarian Living – A healthy-living handbook for older vegetarians and vegans or those who care for them.
January 2009
Tina Fox gave a presentation on the work of VfL to the Hospital Caterers Association ( North West branch) at Wrightington hospital.
Work this month has been progressing with the Cordon Vert cookery school and members of the UK-List to develop our caterer training - more news on this in due course.
This month also saw the first items auctioned on the Ebay for Charity website - we would be very glad of further donations of small items such as jewelry or antiques that could be sold to raise funds in this way.
December 2008
Tina Fox gave a presentation on VfL’s work and future plans to the Council of the Vegetarian Society UK.
Very positive meetings were held with senior executives of WRVS, at their headquarters near Oxford, and the Vegetarian Society and Cordon Vert Cookery School, at Parkdale, Altrincham. With both organisations we agreed on areas where we might usefully cooperate in the future, and we hope to announce further details of partnership working during 2009.
Our Christmas catering leaflet was mailed to all VfL - UK List members and was well received.
We were very pleased to welcome our first member of the UK List in Northern Ireland: Ard Cluan residential care home in Londonderry.
November 2008
This month we distributed our Catering Guide as an insert in Homecarer magazine, which is mailed to around 2,700 readers working in home care agencies and related fields throughout the UK. The complementary guide was very popular and we received requests for lots of additional copies.
November also saw the launch of VfL's Christmas catering leaflet – Happy Christmas ...Everyone! - which includes lovely Rose Elliot recipes for a special festive meal for vegetarians and vegans.
VfL was featured in the winter edition of The Vegetarian magazine and also in CookVeg! - a new magazine to hit the news-stands this autumn
We were also pleased to help several enquirers to find care homes in specific locations.
October 2008
Two enquiries we handled this month illustrate the sort of situations where VfL can be of assistance: one was from a lady who had problems with the catering at her sheltered accommodation scheme, and the second was an older vegetarian - returning to the UK from the USA - who needed help in finding a suitable home. We are really pleased to be able to help with cases of this sort and encourage any older vegans or vegetarians, or those caring for them, to contact us.
VfL was represented at the National Children's and Adults’ Services conference held in Liverpool. This is an important event in the social care calendar so it was useful for VfL to be there to raise understanding of our work.
September 2008
VFL was interviewed for VegNews, a magazine operating out of Toronto, Canada so our fame is spreading!
August 2008
Membership of the VfL - UK List VfL topped the 200 mark this month. We were pleased to welcome, as new members, all the care homes operated by The Orders of St John Care Trust, which are located in Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire , Lincolnshire and Wiltshire and eleven homes from the Excelcare group. We are delighted with this progress, but look forward to lots more applications in the coming months because we have now raised our membership targets for the first year!
July 2008
A visit to ‘Brooklands’
Brooklands, in Lytham St Annes ,is an enthusiatic member of the VfL – UK List. Tina Fox visited recently to see a care home in operation and to explore ways for VfL to focus its work.
Brookland’s owner and manager, Carol Gilligan, has been vegetarian for 30 years. Blessed with amazing energy , mother of two Carol also runs a farm with her veggie husband, Patrick, where they grow their own vegetables. The home recently won an Excellence Award in Fylde’s Food for Life scheme.
Of the 24 residents, aged 74 to 98, three are vegetarian. Many of the others no longer eat red meat and are very happy to try vegetarian meals, so meals already tend to be around 50% vegetarian. And at a recent residents’ meeting they voted to try a completely vegetarian week later this summer.
Carol believes that the vegetarian food can lead to fewer health problems and less reliance on drugs. Individual care plans clearly show which residents are veggie, so that new staff do not make mistakes, and Carol provides regular training on dietary issues. Carol feels that the VfL Catering Guide is very helpful to her cooks and she would welcome more targetted material in the future.
VfL is delighted to announce that Carol Gilligan has agreed to join our Panel of Advisors.
VfL have joined Counsel and Care to participate in its Coalition for Quality Care. This is an excellent initiative aimed at woorking together for better care for older people and one VfL is pleased to be part of and contribute to.
June 2008
* Our guide, Catering for older vegetarians and vegans, has been accepted for distribution at the Royal Institute of Public Health’s Healthy Living in Care courses.
* The guide was also requested for use by the Community Rehab team based at Blandford Forum Hospital.
* VFL’s Advisory Team went into action to help a Vegetarian Society member whose ill mother needed extra nutritional care in a home which did not understand vegetarian needs. We are pleased that the home responded positively to our advice and the mother’s situation is improving.
May 2008
* VfL’s launch, in National Vegetarian Week, got us off to a flying start. Over 100 care homes and other caterers joined the VfL – UK List and signed up to our Code of Good Practice - many of them for vegan, as well as vegetarian, provision.
* Other response to the mailout was also very positive, with many care homes and groups requesting extra copies and expressing a warm welcome to VfL as a useful resource.
* The WRVS nearest to our office were very helpful and circulated information on VfL to 700 meals-on-wheels clients in the Wirral and Sefton areas.
* Age Concern and UK Home Carers Association circulated information about our work, and this brought requests for our guide, Catering for older vegetarians and vegans, from home carers, healthy living centres and day centres.