to chose the vegan option at work cantine?

[redchocolatebutton]

a colleague says iabu. apparently it's reserved for vegan colleagues

I'm neither vegan nor vegetarian.
the vegan option is usually very impressive and tasty. the chef is really creative and the food is very very good.
I want to reduce animal based foods.

sooooo aibu to eat it?

We have an annual picnic where the vegan option is only available to vegans and vegetarians on the first pass through the line. They want to be sure it doesn’t run out because in this case they can’t get more. After everyone has a first plate, the food is fair game.

At our work cantine, people are free to order anything.

YANBU

I rarely eat meat. I don't call myself a vegetarian because I want to leave the option open without someone telling me ‘you’re not allowed that, you’re veggie’. I’m always surprised at how many people can’t get their head around me eating a predominately vegan/veggie diet when I’m not actually vegetarian.

It’s not special food just for vegans, it’s just food. It happens to be ‘suitable for vegans’ but that means it’s also suitable for omnivores!

OP, it might not be because your vegan colleague wants to be the only special one. She may be worried as a few people on this thread are, about a vegan missing out on lunch entirely.

Luckily there’s a really easy solution. Write to the catering company and explain that although you’re not a vegan you frequently enjoy the vegan option and ask if they’ve taken people like you into account when estimating quantise - because you’d feel bad if you taking the option led to vegans missing out.

In this way you will make them purely aware of the issue or get a response which explains they cater 30% vegan to accommodate people in this position. You can then reassure your colleague too.

Meateaters can - of course - eat vegan or veggie but veggies or vegans cannot eat meat.

Vegans choose not to eat meat.*

MadameJosephine like you I rarely eat meat, but don't label myself anything.
In fact I wonder if all these labels are quite unhelpful to people wanting to cut down meat , but want to make public proclamations or be labelled. I think we need to break down some barriers and have some acceptance.
I have never met a "true" vegan, for instance, it is pretty impossible to live in modern society without utilising parts of dead animals, whether it's riding on a bus or a bicycle, using a tablet or a smartphone, so many products contain animal drerivatives, reducing our consumption, whether by eating or consuming in another way is the closest we can get.

Oh, ffs- we’re not going to start talking about nits again, are we?

The next time there’s a thread where people are saying all vegan food is horrible, and they wouldn’r go to a dinner party if the food was vegan, I hope you all come and repeat what you've said on here!
I won't eat meat or cheese substitutes such as Quorn or vegan cheese, but I'll happily eat a nut roast, falafel wrap, or vegan curry. So it does depend if it's good, whole, plant based food or a processed vegan version of something.

Your colleague is a nutter.

If you look at the vegan society definition of what a vegan is, it includes the words “as far as is possible and practicable”.

Your money. Your choice.

Reducing meat consumption is good for the environment so if your canteen changed to a 90% demand, say, of vegan food then it’s good. So your colleague is being silly.

I actually love a good nut roast, much as I know many regard it as a lazy choice.

As a veggie: your colleague is being an idiot.

Love it when people try and enjoy vegetarian and vegan food. I would much rather you order what you enjoy, then eat a meat meal you don’t even want.

Shop bought soups usually contain either chicken or beef stock or milk/cream. So a soup is only suitable for a vegan if it says its vegan.

Sallad bar could be possible. Assuming nobody's used the spoon meant for the mayonnaise or other dressings or spilt it over them. And you're prepared to have a couple of browning bits of iceberg and a drying tomato slice.

It's really not that simple when you can't eat what's there because someone else has had it; it's really hard to go through a day at work with essentially zero calories when it's not your faultl

I think, for me, it comes down to the availability of other food near by. IF they ran out could the vegans go to a nearby shop to buy lunch?

I’ve been vegetarian (and for some years, vegan) for 30 years now. I have been to many a wedding, work lunch or other event where a buffet style meal has been served and the vegetarian option has all been taken before it’s been my ‘turn’ The ‘vegan/vegetarians first seems to work most of the time.

However, in a canteen that has a chef, I’m pretty sure she could sort something out if the main vegan meal has been eaten and there’s a starving vegan.

If the veggie food is plentiful then I love it when meat eaters tuck in to the veggie stuff!

So in your situation I think you should tell your colleague to mind her own business and if she persists to STFU

I’m a bit on the fence here. Is there any way you can find out whether there’s enough to go round?

In a canteen this is ridiculous, you wouldn't find out whether any other meal was available for anyone else would you?

Unless meals were pre ordered You eat what you want op!

Surely if everyone starts eating the vegan food and there isn't enough to go round one day the canteen would just start ordering and cooking more vegan food the next day. That just seems like catering 101.

Can you imagine 'sorry sir, there's no meat on the menu today, it's not popular enough to justify anymore.'

YANBU, I eat meat, but never more than once a day and then usually chicken or fish. If the vegetarian choices in the canteen or restaurant for lunch look good then that would be my first pick. I wouldn’t opt for vegetarian if you have to choose blind such as when I fly as I don’t like mushroom risotto but if the option is a tomato based pasta or similar then I’m sorted

When we have family get togethers we have pizza and the family who lives close to this locally famous pizza parlor orders and picks up the pizzas. It's become a family tradition.

My son and I are the only vegetarians in the family and we always ask them to get a cheese pizza for us and they have a several boxes of the parlors famous meat pizzas . They all say they love this meat pizza, but every time they all gobble down the one cheese pizza first leaving my son and I just one slice each - and we have to fight for that.

We all chip in by the way.

it's really hard to go through a day at work with essentially zero calories when it's not your faultl

Solutions -
Go to the canteen earlier
Take your own food
Go somewhere else

Vegan ism is great but it's a choice to restrict what you can eat. Not what other people can eat.

Canteen, not cantine

Can you imagine 'sorry sir, there's no meat on the menu today, it's not popular enough to justify anymore.'

I would totally support that.
I will put that in the suggestion box together with the praise for the vegan chef!

I'm surprised that this is even an issue. Surely food is food and moreover the more people choosing vegan options the better all round. Some people really need to spend more time laying down in a dark room.

What others have said – fine if there's plenty for vegans. I'm vegetarian and at a wedding reception buffet last year where a delicious range of curries were served the meat-eaters helped themselves to everything on the table, with the result that the vegans and vegetarians at the back of the queue had nothing to eat but rice and chutney.

That's the fault of the caterers though, not the guests. Just because I do eat meat does not mean I eat a lot of it or that I have to choose a meat option from a buffet.

Yanbu. The more vegan stuff bought the better! 😊