National Vegetarian Week is a wonderful time to do some vegan action. Now's the time to get planning. You can do something small or something huge, just explore the options....

We can be inclusive and informative, winning over minds and stomachs by our positive approach and yummy vegan food.

Whether you do something big or small, tell us what you are planning for National Vegetarian Week so we can feature it here.

Your local media will be keen to know what you are up to too, especially if you give them good advanced notice, and its a good time to entice new members to a social or active group.

Ideas

There are endless ways of celebrating NVW, and you can do as many as you have the energy and enthusiasm for, such as:

• cooking a yummy meal for some friends or colleagues
• bringing in vegan cakes to work/school, and only saying they are vegan afterwards!
• writing a letter to your local paper, telling them about NVW and how you celebrate it
• asking if you can put leaflets in your local library, health food shop, cafe, or even having an information stall or display (contact the Vegan Society and Vegetarian Society for leaflet supplies)

• doing a food stall, using our guide to free vegan food stalls
• organise a vegan meal out for your group, your friends, or people who you think would be impressed if they knew what good vegan food was like
• encourage a local business to put on a display, give free food samples out and have leaflets to go with it. Offer practical help.
• well in advance, ask the caterers at your work place, school or college to put on a special vegan-inclusive vegetarian menu for the week.
• organise a veggie weekend away over the May bank holiday in veggie week
• dare someone to try being vegetarian or even vegan for the week! Give them lots of help and ideas

Let's follow the excellent VegSoc theme for National Vegetarian Week 2006 - it’s nothing to be scared of!

To give you a flavour of what the Contacts Network will be up to:

• Alex Bourke (London) and others in the national media
• Many contacts on local radio and in the local press
• Solent V&V: country walk and meal
• Birmingham V&V: BBQ in the park
• Newport contact, Helen: Saturday stalls in towns and door dropping leaflets - "we find it's effective."
• Thames Valley & Redditch groups: town centre free food fairs
• Thames Valley: art competition
• OxVeg: library display
• Milton Keynes V&V and many other groups and contacts: special meal
• AberVeg: party
• Blackpool Vegans: a vegan picnic
• Leeds V&V: vegan mini-fayre and film showings. Common Place on 21st May
• Manchester bookcrossing group, which has a large number of vegans and veggies in it, is putting veggie postcards into any horror, sci-fi or indeed veg*n cookbooks that they release. It's a fun way to get the message across (try www.bookcrossing.com for info on bookcrossing).
• Manchester Vegan Society: dreaming of Joachim Pheonix running naked down the main street!

Most groups, contacts and active vegans will be doing something – so get in touch with them.

If you are doing something as an individual contact or as a group, contact us and we'll put it here.