The Vegan Pound

I had a lovely long walk around Edinburgh in glorious sunshine on Friday afternoon. I was pretty tired afterwards and decided to have a hotel room picnic for my evening meal and an early night before the workshops the next day. I was hoping to come across a lovely deli on my wanders but I hadn't looked anywhere up and none were forthcoming. I was getting a bit worried that I was going to have to settle for my second Boots meal deal of the day when I came spotted the huge Marks and Spencers food hall on Princess Street. So, tea was lovely roasted veg with couscous and a lemon and basil dressing, Peach Melba jelly and a box of toffee, chocolate covered Amandas from the French foods section.

Marks and Spencers has really upped their vegan offer recently. They have a list on their website which they say they update monthly and I was excited to see things like iced baked donuts on there! At the workshops the following day we got onto talking about what we could do to get companies to increase their vegan offer in the UK. Amanda from the Vegan Society talked about what the society does but stressed how it is us as individuals that the companies will really sit up and take notice of and that the more of us who contact them with requests and feedback then the more power the 'vegan pound' will have. I have pledged to myself to start taking a few minutes to do this and have emailed Lidl to find out if their prosecco is vegan and to ask if they have a vegan list and I've emailed M & S to thank them for the development of their range and to offer my services for feedback on any future product development should they want to consult any vegans!

Comments

  1. omgoshimvegan9 October 2011 at 12:51

    When I have been in England I love going to M&S. Nice to know they have some good vegan options.

    ReplyDelete
  2. vegan.in.brighton9 October 2011 at 16:22

    I'm glad it's not just me firing off e-mails about vegan stuff to companies! I've never seen the toffee chocolate amandas in M&S but I'll definitely be looking out for them & I love that jelly. They also do a Super Green soup which is vegan & perfect for a cold day. Let me know when you hear from Lidl about the prosecco too!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Tea and Sympatico9 October 2011 at 17:34

    Will do JoJo. The M&S prosecco is definitely labelled as vegan. I'll have a look out for the soup too, it's definitely turning into soup kind of weather!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Carol9 October 2011 at 21:23

    Thanks for all the helpful info in this post. I think you're right about the pestering the supermarkets part. If they don't know we want vegan food they won't provide it!! Well done for offering your servies for feedback btw, that's a most excellent plan if I may say so ;)

    ReplyDelete
  5. x10 October 2011 at 03:19

    That is a great point, if we don't speak up, supermarkets don't know we exist.

    Also, I want those toffee covered amandas mostly for the name but also because I bet they are delicious!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous11 October 2011 at 02:29

    That looks really nice. xox

    ReplyDelete
  7. Unknown24 July 2012 at 12:06

    There IS a Lidl vegan list, though it doesn't have a date and I'm not sure if it's 'official' http://veganfuture.wordpress.com/2011/04/10/vegan-products-at-lidl/

    I also maintain a list on Volentia - THE veg*n social networking site, with 15,500+ veg*ns, raw foodists and fruitarians worldwide http://www.volentia.com/group/ukvegetarians/forum/topics/lidl-vegn-products

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