by Peter Simpson (Show email address.)

National Vegetarian Week 2008

National Vegetarian Week (19-25 May) kicked off for MKVEGAR with our annual information stall at the Leighton Buzzard May Day Fayre where we were blessed with dry & warm weather for a change. On this occasion we were sited I guess not deliberately next to the large mobile burger van. A lot of people were pointing out this mistake. On the positive side there were exchanges of banter with our comment encouraging the passing fast food consumers to make it their last meat meal. The ‘Meat-free made easy’ recipe booklets had not arrived in time for this event but we distributed a lot of the NVW fliers and other leaflets on the environment theme.

On 10 May MKVEGAR ran a street stall at Newport Pagnell outside Somerfield to distribute the Meat-free made easy booklets and the NVW fliers. The weather was kind if not hot and the public response was generally very positive so much so that by 1pm we had run out of stock we had brought along. Terence Catmull's support was very much welcomed on the day.

Our annual NVW booking of the Community Desk in thecentre:MK was on 15 May where we have the opportunity for a large spread of information, making use of the Information Sheets for those people without access to the website. Given the rules of conduct here, the response was as usual more sedate. With shops open later here, it is worth staying until after 6pm. Help from Terence Catmull was very much appreciated.

On 20 May we ran an information stall in Bletchley outside the entrance to the old Co-op store where we had the opportunity to spread our posters around. The response here was again positive as we have found at other times, distributing our remaining Meat-free made easy recipe booklets. Even some non-vegetarians were keen to obtain a copy and other information.

Our monthly meal at Veggie World restaurant on 21 May coincided with NVW and we had a turnout of 15.

An emergency supply of the recipe booklets arrived in time to allow us to run our planned information stall on 22 May outside Waitrose in Central Milton Keynes. The response here was generally sedate until later in the afternoon when the interest picked up, the last of the emergency ration of recipe booklets ran out at which point we turned to the packs of 4 recipe cards.

Animal Aid Street Collections

Luton, 3 May – our first collection was rather disappointing, firstly I had expectations that we were going to be inside the Arndale Centre but in fact we did not have permission and were restricted to George Street outside. There was still a lot of potential interest here on a sunny day. We set up our stall in a good location but the response was generally slow throughout the day and would have been worse had there not been a Christian event at the other end of George Street which attracted a lot of religious activists some of whom show interest. We were also short of volunteers with only Caroline Turner and myself available. In the end we raised £86 despite being there from 10am – 4.30pm.

Buckingham, 17 May – with five volunteers, the prospects were looking good and with the Budgens store closed and soon to re-open at the time as a new Waitrose, we sited our stall under cover next to the old store. It was however a chilly and cloudy day which did not make it feel pleasant. The interest was steady throughout the day on the stall if not spectacular. With other collectors doing fairly well we raised £145, only £4 short of our best of three collections here so far thanks to Jane Wilson-Thornley, Jackie Dewhurst, Trisha Willette and Phyllis Brockhurst.

Stony Stratford, 24 May – again there was good support with five volunteers. Unlikely the previous three collections here, this time we had a large stall (6 foot) and was set-up outside the old Martins Newsagents (in the High Street) that was being dismantled on the day to the disappointment of many locals. The windy weather made it a little unpleasant as we were showered with dust maybe from the building site across the road not Martins. The response from this relatively quite shopping centre was steady as we come to expect and with two or three of us around the stall during the best part of the day. We raised £124, an increase of £15 on our previous best last year thanks to the efforts of Miriam & Trevor Jones, Lesley Richardson and Sheena Hirst-Styles.

Dunstable, 14 June – I was optimistic of a good day here well in advance with many potential volunteers. In the end we just had enough to cover our main two collection locations during the period 10am – 1.30pm. We setup our stall outside the Quadrant adjacent to the A5 where it was chilly early on but improved as the sun approached. The Big Issue seller was very competitive and as usual preferred us to set-up elsewhere but stood our ground but allowing him enough space. The response appeared to be a little slow on the stall but as it turned out, our collectors at the other entrance adjacent to the A505 were doing particularly well. Despite the Big Issue seller’s presence until he sold out at 3.45pm, we appeared to do well in the afternoon near the stall. We raised in the end £175 thanks to Lesley Powell, Shelley Marshall and Caroline Turner.

Environment Theme

On 7 June we ran a stall outside theCentre:MK and near McDonalds using Viva!’s new posters for their Hot! Campaign supported by Heather McCartney. The leaflets unfortunately did not arrive in time but we still had plenty of other options with Viva!’s existing ‘Planet and its People’ leaflet. Took the opportunity to hand out packs of four leaflets including Viva!’s leaflets on Nutrition, Dairy and Fish giving people plenty to think about. Arrived later than expected as I did not have all of the posters mounted and sealed as normal and unfortunately there were no volunteers available in advance. Taking a risk with groups of youths around outside and some rather hyperactive at times, I stood away from the stall to distribute the packs of leaflets. The response to the environment theme was very encouraging and well before the end I had run out of the packs and moved on to other leaflets. Was also distributing Viva!’s young person’s leaflet ‘ No more excuses, go veggie’. Stayed until 4pm and retired to a well earned drink in Starbucks where soya is available if you did not know and vegan falafel wrap if not sold out.