The Sunflower Story

Alexia: Do you run the University of Glasgow Vegan Society?

Paul: Not on my own. I am one of a few staff members that set up the society a few years ago and since then many students have joined, now they outnumber us by far! We now have about 100 members, not all of which are vegan of course but they supported our work in getting better vegan catering and labelling in the canteen. We originally set up the society because we wondered why the students weren't organising themselves, so decided we should just go ahead and do it ourselves. We wanted to raise awareness of veganism within the university body. It turned out that we were the first staff society there since 1953!

A: Tell me about the journey you undertook to become the first 'sunflower university' in the UK.

P: Basically we wanted people to realise that vegan food is for everybody and to make it more accessible on campus. We were having regular meetings with the hospitality service that run the catering at our university and somebody mentioned the Vegan Society trademark in passing. It was discussed a little but we didn't hold out much hope as it something that has to be paid for. We then found out that the hospitality service contacted the Vegan Society themselves!

A: So you went for a different approach to outright 'campaigning' then?

P: Yes, we decided against a campaign strategy as we wanted to work WITH the hospitality service rather than against them. So working alongside colleagues makes it sound much more approachable. But then I guess it was easier for us as we're staff members, not a wholly student organisation. However, I do suggest going to campus staff with solutions rather than problems. When you say 'campaign' it generally means a battle and immediately puts people's backs up.

A: If you have achieved your goal now, do you have any other plans?

P: Good question... Well it has all been a great success, we got a lot of media coverage, the university is willing to sell healthy food and also caterers around the UK talk to each other so you may see this springing up more and more. Our main objective to start with was to get people thinking differently towards a compassionate, healthy diet but without getting their backs up. So whilst getting the sunflower accreditation was an important step in that, it is a long term project that we continue to work on.