Organise a Veggie Day at your school!

Across the country, schools take part in bring and buy sales, sponsored silences and non uniform days to raise money for charity. How about asking your school to hold a Veggie Day to promote vegetarianism?

A vegetarian saves 11,047 animals in a lifetime, so the more people you encourage to go veggie – the more animals saved! We’ll send you all the resources you need to make your Veggie Day a success.

Stage 1: Get permission

• Speak to your form tutor, favourite teacher or Head of Year about the idea. Tell them that you’d like to promote a vegetarian diet because it is healthier, better for the environment and better for the animals! Ask if the canteen could provide only veggie food for the day (if not, you could ask people to choose the veggie option instead of the meat foods), Viva! has lots of simple but delicious recipes we can provide for your canteen staff!
• Once you’ve got permission to organise Veggie Day, find out a date you can have it on. Give yourself a few weeks to prepare.
• Ask your teachers whether you’re allowed to raise money on the day, this will depend on your individual school’s rules.

Stage 2: Getting ready

• Publicity – design some posters to stick up around school so everyone knows when it is being held. Ask your teacher to mention it in assembly and explain why the day is being held – if you’re confident, you could even ask to give the talk in assembly yourself? Lots of people don’t understand vegetarianism, so it’s great to explain why it is important and the difference it makes!
• Leaflets – email fiona@viva.org.uk, or ring me on 0117 944 1000 to talk about your event. We can discuss arrangements and I can send you lots of leaflets, stickers, posters and magazines for free!
• Press – if you’d like to get some media coverage of your event, email fiona@viva.org.uk and ask me to send a press release out to your local newspaper. Hopefully a photographer would turn up on the day to take your picture for the paper; this would raise even more awareness of vegetarianism!
• Food – give your canteen staff some recipes for delicious veggie food that they could make for the day. You could even make some yourself to sell and raise money for Viva!. Cake sales always go down a treat! You could sell buns for 50p each but accept larger donations from generous customers!

Stage 3: On the day

• Set up a stall in a busy area of school; make sure other pupils know where to find you! Display all the leaflets and magazines Viva! have sent you, and make sure people know they can take them free of charge.
• Raising money – Viva! relies upon donations so fundraising is always appreciated! If you’re allowed to raise money in school, make a donations tin with a label that says what the money will go towards – saving animals! You could also organise an event on the day to raise money – eg a sponsored silence. Or you could set up a small cage, and hold a sit-in over lunchtime with four of your friends to raise awareness of battery hens who are often kept in cages the size of a microwave oven with four other birds. 
• Be polite. When people come to your stall and ask you questions; be friendly and explain to them why you don’t eat meat. If people seem interested in going vegetarian, tell them about Viva!’s website and offer them any advice they might need.
• Ask a teacher to take a photo of you stood behind your stall – email it to fiona@viva.org.uk – you might receive a thank you present and feature in the next issue of Viva!ACTIVE.
• Thank your teachers for helping you to organise the event and for giving you permission.

Good luck! Keep in touch and let us know how it’s going or if you need any help!