The “once a week, cut the meat” message has continued to spread, with local schools leading the Meatless Monday charge, including Langara College, British Columbia Institute of Technology, Eric Hamber Secondary and Winston Churchill Secondary. This summer also saw the local movement receive an important boost in the form of an endorsement by the Vancouver Food Policy Council (VFPC), a respected voice in food policy in the city. Through a unanimous motion, the VFPC “endorses the concept of Meatless Mondays and encourages Vancouver citizens to choose plant-based meals on Mondays.”
Local participants are following the progressive lead of others on the international scene who are reducing their meat consumption in support of a kinder, cleaner and healthier world. Meatless Monday is now active in over 30 countries, with hundreds of schools and even entire school districts participating. It doesn’t stop there though – from hospitals like Mount Sinai, to food service providers like Sodexo, Compass Group, Chartwells and Canuel Caterers and their clients, to businesses and restaurants – more and more people are joining the movement. Excitingly, entire communities are embracing Meatless Monday, including San Francisco, Washington DC, San Jose and Los Angeles. The City of Vancouver also declared June 10, 2013 to be “Meatless Monday” – something we hope to build on as a community, given Vancouver’s commitment to become the greenest city in the world by 2020.
That there is so much power in what we choose to put on our plate means there is so much potential for change. Every meal matters and each time we sit down to eat, we have the chance to stand up for a better world. With that in mind, we invite you to join us by taking our Meatless Monday pledge. We’ll send you a weekly plant-based recipe that’s delicious and easy to make. Interested in bringing Meatless Monday to your workplace or helping us recruit more local participants? Contact VHS Program Coordinator, Emily Pickett, to learn more!