Food orders for work related events are to be vegan and vegetarian only

[ValerieVomit]

We all received an email at work to say that when we order catering in future for work related events we can only order vegetarian and vegan food. The management team has imposed this. It's to reduce our carbon footprint. I don't think that this means there is to be no carnivorous food available for the rest of the organisation but our department won't allow us to order any.

Reasonable or not?

This says more about the people doing the aiming than the people putting their head over the parapet.

If people didn't raise awareness - or "shout about" - environmental and social issues then nothing would ever change.

As I said before I don't expect a profit-geared business to be in the vanguard of anything ethical; criticising a capitalist company for "hypocrisy because all they want to do is make money" is like criticising the sky for being blue. Nonetheless, a baby step for show is still a baby step towards normalising environmentally conscious behaviour more widely.

@Remeniss Don’t forget that one poster actually called it bullying to have a workplace only provide veggie/vegan food. Bullying. 😂

You all must have much more lavish work catering than I've ever experienced. It's irrelevant to me now because we can't even order tea or coffee for external stakeholders, let alone lunch, but I can safely say that I've never seen avocado or olive oil on offer. I do remember occasionally seeing slices of pineapple but that was about as exotic as it got.

Yes, in my experience dealing with allergies is much harder in a vegetarian or vegan environment. Scares the bejesus out of me.

Was just thinking the same, love it 😁

coerced into becoming a vegetarian by my workplace 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 far out I’m dead

What about the people with allergies saying they struggle to find suitable vegan food due to the reliance on nuts and seeds. Do you find that so fucking funny?

We had vegan sushi at a work event recently. It was much nicer than the usual tapas style offerings.

Same!

😂😂😂oh yep I often don’t bother to raise my peanut allergy as an issue if I know it’s a carnivorous spread on offer

As a vegetarian that has gone without at Many Events because meat eater thought the veg option looked good, I think this plan is inclusive and sensitive. There will be salads and non- high processed foods I am sure. Not worth getting so fussed over.

You're never going to please all the people, all the time though.
If you've got allergies then you should be declaring them anyway or at least being careful what you eat when you're at a buffet, regardless of whether it's one with meat at it or not.
Just like I wouldn't dive into the sausage rolls, potato salad,, or slices of pizza or whatever at a meat based buffet as it's likely to have milk or eggs in it.
Common sense
If you're allergic to nuts or seeds, you exercise the same caution and bloody well pipe up at least that you're allergic!

I think if food was described as such, and nobody mentioned vegan / veggie / meat etc, people would just eat it. Whether it’s a cheese sandwich or a ham sandwich. They wouldn’t notice!

I'm vegetarian and I still disagree with this (some departments in my organisation do the same). It's less inclusive in the name of virtue signalling. I have a family member who has to have meat based meals due to extensive allergies and intolerances, they'd be going very hungry if this was enforced on them.

Exactly! In my experience people hear the V word and instantly get triggered, "warggh, I don't like it!" when they had no issue with it before 🙄😂
Bet if the company hadn't mentioned it, half the people wouldn't even have noticed lol

We’ve had this policy for 5 years. You get the odd person complaining, but most people are fine with it or enthusiastic about it.

it is not bullying, coercion, virtue signalling. Allergies and medical requirements are met as they always would be, with the benefit that religious preferences are mostly automatically catered for.

I have a family member who has to have meat based meals due to extensive allergies and intolerances, they'd be going very hungry if this was enforced on them
Just like me who has to "go hungry" half the time because I can't have milk and eggs and it's in bloody everything?!
That's just life when you've got allergies, crap as it is

Interested to know which protected characteristic you think is being discriminated against? Nobody’s judging anyone, it’s just a plate of cheese sandwiches FFS!

The cynic in me thinks is more about cost saving and virtual signaling.

I think at most I would probably gave 20 work catered for events all year and only 4 full days so it's not a lot really.

There's s big difference between a decent mushroom risotto, a vegetarian stir fry or a tasty dish compared with tofu & chickpeas which I would have no desire to eat.

If it's decent & tasty, I don't see a problem but if it's over processed fake chicken, I'll pass.

Some of you are so dramatic. The occasional vegetarian meal will not kill you. It’s more inclusive, is cheaper and there are more options for me when they do this :D

Is Cake Vegan? Asking for a friend.

A buffet that is top 9 free would be the most inclusive really but virtue signallers only care about trendy issues unfortunately.

The funny thing is, I suspect that a few weeks in the bosses are going to find that the super inclusive veggie and vegan options are not in fact cheaper than the options with a bit of meat.

So, will they commit to their pretendy low-carbon virtue signalling, or go with the bottom line|?

Providing mostly veggie/vegan food makes it much easier to cater for people who have differing kinds of meat/fish they refuse to consume for religious reasons, particularly if some people require kosher or halal meat, but others refuse to eat non-stunned meat on ethical grounds. Most of my Hindu colleagues don't eat eggs, so the usual corporate 'veggie option' of an egg-sarnie won't work for them. Just doing a veggie & vegan platter would be the simple option if you need to cover a lot of people without taking individual orders.

I completely sympathise with you, I also have a lot of allergies (though not as extensive as my family member) and yes, it's rubbish. Vegan food solves some issues, e.g., dairy allergy, as a by product but also creates problems.

It seems obvious to me that an even mix is what should be provided by default, with special meals for those with other requirements.