World Vegetarian Day aims to bring awareness to the ethical, environmental, health and humanitarian benefits of a vegetarian lifestyle. According to research in the prior five years to 2019 care residents following a vegan diet increased by 167%.
Earlier this year, group development chef Victoria Meakin held a Vegan Workshop Day in Manchester with Vegetarian for Life in attendance. The ten colleagues who attended the workshop were handpicked due to having residents living in their homes that are either vegan or vegetarian.
HC-One made the decision to sign up to Vegetarian for Life’s Memory Care Pledge which helps to ensure that vegetarians or vegans who have capacity issues or cognitive losses will be offered a choice of meals, drinks and snacks that uphold their ethical beliefs to ensure residents can life the rest of their lives the way that they intended.
Chris Bonner, executive chef at HC-One, said: “A key part of my role is to make sure people can make their own life choices and continue to do that upon moving into living in a care home. I think that the ethos behind Vegetarian for Life’s Memory Care Pledge is brilliant. Residents have very complex needs, and everyone comes from very different backgrounds, levels of wealth, and so on, and we need to find what works for everybody.
“We’re spreading the message to our colleagues that vegetarian and veganism are coming. It’s becoming a part of life, and a lot of people are taking it on as a way of life. We’re there to provide a service, not just stay in our own comfort zones. Good food keeps residents healthy, and giving people food they want to eat is going to prevent weight loss and all the problems that come with that.”
In 2023, HC-One’s catering and housekeeping team won the Beulah Charity Trust Special Recognition Award Category at the Vegetarian for Life 2023 Awards for Excellence in Vegetarian & Vegan Care Catering. The awards celebrate rising stars in vegan and vegetarian care catering.