Vegan Leicester

[RossClement]

Hi everyone. We're going to be moving to Leicester soonish. Any pointers or advice for a vegan family in Leicester or surrounding villages?

Cheers,

Ross-c

[tails4wagging]

cant think of anywhere in leic,. But there is a couple of good places to eat at Nottingham one being V1 wonderful vegan/veggie fast food outlet.

[VeganJohn]

I walked past V1 when I went to a gig in Nottingham - it was closed but the menu looked great.

[gertvegan]

Hi everyone. We're going to be moving to Leicester soonish. Any pointers or advice for a vegan family in Leicester or surrounding villages?
Hello Ross-c, check out the Leicestershire Vegetarian/Vegan Group (http://www.leicesterveggies.idps.co.uk/) website. ;)

[twinkle]

Leicester is pretty sweet for vegans :)

We have a lot of veg indian restaurants, including two branches of Mirch Masala - they dish up "pure vegetarian food from three continents" and they mark the vegan options. If you're greedy the weekday buffet is a good bet.

There's a nice little healthfood shop called Currant Affairs on Loseby Lane, and they will order things in from Goodness Direct if they don't already have them in stock (I get them to get me Totally Fudge in, though I wish they'd start stocking them as a matter of course, because they're great vegan "ambassadors")

There's a traditional kind of veg restaurant near the station, I think it's called the Whole Truth or something. I haven't been for years though because it's very baked-potato-lentil-roasty - the sort of thing I can make at home, but don't usually :)

There's also the Wholefood Co-op off Dysart Way, off the inner ring road - they do a lot of vegan stuff, though they do have a freezer full of organic meat too.

There are also two branches of Holland and Barratts - they'll give you 10% off purchases if you show them a vegan soc membership card before they start ringing up your purchases, and you've spent over £5.

The GNC on Silver Street also do a 10% discount, no minimum purchase, and they have a deli counter where they sell things like apple samosas, which are weird but good.

Hope that helps, and I hope you like Leicester. I find it pretty nice.

[RossClement]

Hi everyone. I was posting from London on this forum a month or two ago. With the hassle of moving etc. I haven't posted recently, so I don't know if anyone remembers me.

Anyhow, we've more or less sorted out supplies of food and the like here. Our local supermarket is a small Co-op and there's a much larger Co-op a short bus ride away in Anstey, so we benefit from the vegan labelling on products. Though, we don't really go near Sainsburys except for the moderately small one in the centre of town. We've found three seemingly independent health food shops selling useful food products, and two Holland & Barrett's. Two of the health food shops have snacks such as cakes, samosas, lentil slices etc, some of which are labelled vegan, which is useful on days out.

We haven't yet found a variety of restaurants to eat at yet. One very useful one is "Mirch Masala" which is a vegetarian restaurant serving Asian Indian, Italian, Chinese, and Mexican vegetarian food. The vegan dishes are labelled. They also do take-aways, which is useful because the restaurant is about 3minutes walk from my work. They do a labelled vegan take-out "veggie burger and chips" which is, erm, authentic looking such that I worry that if anyone sees me eating one they'll think I'm a hypocrite :-)

One thing I miss is the "all you can eat" vegan chinese places that were so common in London.

Cheers,

Ross-c

[RossClement]

I also must apologise to Twinkle who very kindly gave a whole lot of information about Leicester, which we then forgot to follow up on once we arrived, and then we ended up "rediscovering" it the hard way. Though, we'll now follow up the pointers to things we still don't know about.

Cheers,

Ross-c

[gertvegan]

From www.veggies.org.uk

Leicester Cruelty-Free Christmas Fair

Saturday 3rd Dec. 9:00 to 17:00

Methodist Church Rooms, Bishop Street, Leicester City Centre..

Many charity stalls based on animal welfare, and the Leicestershire Vegetarian/Vegan Group, with a display of veggie food for sale and sampling, plus recipes and helpful information.

Leicester Animal Concern . Ph: Phil: 0116 262 2030

[Chey]

sounds worth a look, i wish i could get there.

[gertvegan]

From www.veganvillage.co.uk

Cruelty free Xmas Fair, LEICESTER

At Bishop St. Methodist Church foyer City Centre, Leicester, Sat. 3rd Dec. Lovely food and var. animal friendly charities representing. @fludson@hotmail.com

[twinkle]

I usually go to these - it's a small venue but the local veggie group always run a stall, there are various local charities like hedgehog rescue and Dr Hadwens Trust is always there so I can stock up on chocolates :) I hope they bring more stock this year as I usually go early and buy up most of their supplies :D

[RossClement]

I got behind on many things last year, including following this forum.

The Christmas Fair was small, but good. Especially the vegan cake. Against my expectations my six year old ate an entire piece of the chocolate cake on sale.

Cheers,

Ross-c

[MidlandGal]

Leicester Veggie and Vegan Fair, Saturday 7th of October
Please see details at the link below, don’t forget the have a look at the raffle prizes too!
www.geocities.com/leicester_veggie_events/autumnfair
Any questions?...just ask.

Also we really need more volunteers to help out, if you can help out in any way please, please get in touch with me.
Providing we have the volunteers to make it happen…then it should be a great day!

[aubergine]

I wish I could go, but I have to work saturdays :(

[MidlandGal]

Hi all

Just to remind people about the fair, if anyone is in Leicester please pop in and say hello, also we still need volunteers if anyone can please lend a hand

Full details are here
http://www.geocities.com/leicester_veggie_events/autumnfair

[Shaolin Jedi]

Hi MidlandGal,

I will be at the Fair with my non-vegan GF (sigh). I would say that I became a vegan fairly recently, so I 'm looking forward to Saturday. I gather the Leicestershire Vegans will be there? I live in Oakham.

[twinkle]

How did the rest of the fair go, MidlandGal? Sorry I couldn't stay longer but I was pretty much dead on my feet and I had a few other things to sort out before I could crash.

[Ara]

Oh no! I only just saw this, boo i would have been there otherwise.

[MidlandGal]

Hi Twinkle

You did an amazing job, I am just sorry that I roped you in knowing you had just finished such a long shift, after all you were only dropping goods off! Thank you so much for donating an hour of your time in my hour of panic! (The first opening hour). The cookies you donated too went like wildfire, so quickly that I never even got a chance to taste them! Thank you so much for those.

Paul - did you make it? I would love you hear your feedback.
Ara - there is a very strong chance we are doing this again next year...only better!

The fair was a great success and we took nearly £450.
There where a few things we would alter or improve on but for a first attempt we couldn't have asked for much more. I also did 2 talks which went really well, in fact some people had turned up just for the advertised talks and seemed very convinced when presented the case for vegetarianism and veganism - for animals, health, the environment and people in developing countries.
The most common comment was, "I thought it was just an animal issue!" this was followed up by people saying they were now considering going veggie for the environment or for developing countries or cutting down on milk for their health. I have to accept that not everyone is veggie or vegan for the same reasons (though for me its animals!).

For me, the most satisfying thing was seeing people leave the fair clutching large handfuls of leaflets and "Go Veggie" packs. All the feedback we had from attendees and stall holders was very positive and we hope this will now be an annual event

Myself and my mum organised this fair to raise money to save Blondelle the cow from the abattoir and peacefully retire her to what will eventfully become a small farm rescue run by my family in France.
We spotted Blondelle when we went to visit my Father who lives in France; she was in a set aside area very near to his home. When we asked why she was there on her own we where told she had been separated ready for collection and slaughter. Mum and I quickly expressed an interest in buying her since my parents own a field at the back of my Fathers house which is currently unused. The farmer agreed to give us a few months to raise the money as he knows my dad quite well, and on top of the price of the cow we had to raise the cost for her full vets MOT which is required when an agricultural animal transfers owners in France. After all the discussions mum and I came home and organized this fair in the space of 8 weeks!

Now that we have raised the money for Blondelle (an ex-dairy cow) from the fair we can raise money to save other animals. The farmer thinks we are a bit strange but to him whether it is us or the abattoir giving him the cash it doesn’t really make much difference. Since we don't have loads of land we are realistic in that we won’t be able to retire all his dairy cows but we have the opportunity and the facilities to save some of these animals and feel we should do our best for them.
I am building a small page about our rescue and will post it when it is finished so people can see photos, you will see that Blondelle is absolutely beautiful…as are all creatures!

[Shaolin Jedi]

Paul - did you make it? I would love you hear your feedback.

Yeah, I made it. Some very friendly people, a good cause by the sound of it. Just think, instead of being woken up by a 'cock-a-doodle-do', it'll be a big 'mooo!'

Well done Midland Gal!

P.S. As I said above, I am fairly new to veganism. I am wondering if there are any groups in Rutland that meet up and stuff? Or is Leicester my best bet? (involves travelling)

[twinkle]

I'm glad everything went so well - you seemed to be doing a fantastic job organising everything - well done :)

[MidlandGal]

I have started a seperate thread on this but...here is Blondelle!

www.geocities.com/leicester_veggie_events/blondelleandfriends.html

Thank you so much for your support people.

[MidlandGal]

Leicestershire Vegetarians and Vegans are meeting this Thursday (2nd of November) 7:30pm at the Friends Meeting House, 16 Queens Road, Leicester.
Free for members, £2 for guests. This month’s speaker will be Keely Short from Leicester Animal Aid in Huncote. Keely's going to be talking about the work they do providing shelter and care for homeless dogs and cats and then re-homing them. She'll also tell us about how supporters can sponsor animals and about some of the more unusual things the charity gets up to!
There will also be free refreshments and a raffle. Everyone is very welcome
www.leicesterveggies.org.uk

Also they are offering a free bar of Plamil chocolate to everyone who pays their £12 membership for next year before the end of this year!

[twinkle]

There's a green fair on at Bishop Street Church Rooms this Saturday, 10-4. It's a fairly small venue so probably won't be worth travelling massive distances for, but if you happen to be in the area it promises tasty veg*n refreshments, and there are normally fun prize-every-time type raffles and tombolas.

[MidlandGal]

Just want to let people know about cruelty free action week which has been arranged by Phoenix Arts, they are screening Fast Food nation in the week then there is a double screening on Sunday 17th June - The Witness + Jill's film and there will be a speaker before each film too, hopefully there will be vegan options served in the cafe too and a couple of stalls in the foyer.

More details are here on the veggies calender, please support it if you can and encourage non-vegan people along too.

http://www.veggies.org.uk/event.php?ref=1072