Roadmap for Switching to Vegan Foods

Most of us weren't born vegan or vegetarian, and just thinking about making such a change can be really overwhelming for some people. When I first realized there were more reasons to be vegan than not, I still struggled with concerns about my (at the time) poor health, learning where to eat, or even knowing what to eat made me hesitate to even get started. Fortunately shopping guides for vegans can help you understand what vegan products you already own and use, as well as simple tips for veganizing your old recipes without even noticing any difference.

The following are steps I took during my transition period which helped ensure more positive experiences than negative:

Week 1

• Make a shopping list with items from each list, subtract anything you already have at home, and see if any of the ingredients overlap, for example you might want to use "nooch" to try a new mac-n-cheeze sauce with a healthy dose of B12 and other vitamins.

• Try to food prep some meals so you don't have to try making a new meal while you are already hangry. If I can't commit to batch cooking a few dishes at once, I sometimes stagger the dishes throughout a week, so one day I'll make a weeks worth of pasta salad for lunch, a day or two later I might make a big stir fry, a tray of roasted veggies, or a shepherd-less pie, and some random evening I might make up a few days worth of porridge or a tray of protein bars to snack on.

• Any time you (and/or others) like a recipe: Save it in a file! Also make sure include any notes or changes ASAP otherwise they are very easy to forget.

"Nooch" (nutritional yeast) is famous for it's rich B12 content and cheezy flavor, but it is also high in niacin and other nutrients. Marmite isn't gluten-free, but it is also high in a variety of B vitamins, and gives food a beefy flavor. The British eat it on toast or in sandwiches, but it also makes a good beef broth substitute if you can't use soy sauce or find other  beefless bullion alternatives.

Week 2

• Look at your list and decide what if anything you want to try again or try to improve. Include anything you need for these on your shopping list.

•  Look at the list and pick out some foods you didn't try last week. Make sure any needed items are added to the shopping list.

• Repeat the same steps, and if you are using a diet tracker (which is highly recommended, at least for your first few weeks!), then pay close attention to any nutrients you are low on. Each week I would asses which (if any) nutrients were the lowest/below the recommended level, and would search for vegan foods that were high in those nutrients, then make sure to pick recipes/food items that included these. For example if your iron or calcium get low, you might want to add some spinach to your sandwiches or learn to cook leafy greens into tasty side dishes or meals like palak (nondairy) paneer.

Week 3 +

• Repeat the above steps till you have a nice collection of foods you love and will probably eventually learn to make without even looking at a recipe. Add new foods and recipes as often as you want. The biggest limiter is sometimes our imaginations ;p

• If you have any health issues or tend to be deficient in any particular nutrients that you have issues with (such as needing to avoid too much salt/sugar, or if your doctor has determined your body struggles to process B12, D, iron, etc.) then it can be helpful to have a subsection or some type of tagging/colouring system for recipes/foods that help you meet your requirements.

• It is generally recommended to have a yearly check up regardless of your diet, but it can be worth while mentioning your diet to your doctor as this may influence which drugs they give you, and what types of blood tests they may recommend.

Tips for "Fussy Eaters" 

Before even going vegan, meal times were a huge struggle in our home, often resulting in crying, hurt feelings, and sometimes making a different meal if things came out badly enough. 

The best method I've found was to ask our child (and my partner) to give ratings on the overall meal 0 = "worst thing ever/can't even eat it" to 10 = "best food ever" (adjust your phrasing as needed). Then if the meal was made of different parts, we'd go around the plate rating each part: the protein, the veggies, the carb (like rice or potatoes), the sauce if there was one.

Having a numbering system removes the opportunity for them to make cruel comments and hurtful faces, but also provides a more objective rating system especially if your child's vocabulary is still limited. 

At least if your picky eater gives the veggies a 5, saying they like the flavor but hate the texture, then you might realize you just have to try a different cooking method but can use the same flavorings, instead of totally giving up on that food type all together.

This opened the door to me realizing they actually liked foods a lot more than they'd been letting on. This information helped us come up with meal plans and shopping lists together. We started letting our child pick one meal a week to learn to cook, I'd buy the ingredients, and we'd learn together or I'd teach them to cook so that they eventually gained a better appreciation for the effort that goes into making meals.

When fussy eaters learn to cook this helps them open up to new foods, and can improve their empathy for the people who usually cook for them.

Meal Planning

Comparing Foods & Their Impacts

Vegan Substitutes & Recipes

How to Help Others

Community-Level Adoption

Restaurants & Cafeterias

Examples

• Policy Leaders (USA) "The organizations listed below have board-approved mission-driven vegan or vegetarian menu policies. If you would like to see your group listed, please submit your policy to us. Need some inspiration? Check out these sample policies!"

• Sample Event Menus "Hosting a vegan event and need inspiration? Check out our sample menus from real events hosted by our grant recipients!"

Documentaries & Movies

Health & Wellness

Medical Professionals

International

• Plantrician Providers: Plant Based Docs Find nutritionists, doctors, nurses, life coaches, and more vegan-friendly professionals in your area.

Resources

Africa

• Which Crops Have the Most Potential in a Changing Climate? Use the tabs at the top of this site to narrow your search to vegetables, fruit, etc. Includes a colour-blind option in the top right corner.

Europe

Denmark

• Ministry for Food & Fisheries of Denmark: Danish Action Plan for Plant-based Foods 

Grants & Funding

International

• Animal Charity Evaluators "ACE Movement Grants (formerly “Effective Animal Advocacy Fund”) is for anyone who is interested in making the animal advocacy movement more effective."

• A Well Fed World "Apply for a grant to support your plant-based feeding, farming and/or advocacy."

• Awesome Foundation "Every two months, the Vegan Chapter of the Awesome Foundation grants $1000 to an awesome vegan project, no strings attached."

• Beyond Animal "Where investors and vegan businesses meet" "Using technology, for online funding, networking and business services, to accelerate the transition to an economy free of animal exploitation. Our vision: a kinder, cleaner, healthier world."

• EA Animal Welfare Fund "The Animal Welfare Fund supports advocacy, research, and movement-building work aimed at improving the wellbeing of nonhuman animals, primarily farmed and wild animals. This includes corporate and policy advocacy, research, and the promotion of alternative products."

• Farmed Animal Funders "Our group is open to all individuals and foundations giving more than $250,000 per year to end factory farming."

• The Greenbaum Foundation "At The Greenbaum Foundation, we focus our funding on effective and efficient projects working to bring about the end of suffering (human and non-human) in areas of the highest need and where we can have the most impact. We assist organizations with guidance, networking and funding."

• Lush Charity Pot "Charity Pot grants range from £100, up to a maximum of £10,000 per project/application. The average Charity Pot grant is between £2,000 - £4,000. It is unusual to award the maximum of £10,000, as this reduces the range of projects that can be supported."

• Open Philanthropy "Open Philanthropy’s mission is to give as effectively as we can and share our findings openly so that anyone can build on our work."

• The Pollination Project (TPP) "is a vegan foundation that offers seed funding to grassroots activists working to build a kinder, more compassionate world for human & non-human animals.
  
  TPP focuses on early stage ideas and funds individuals directly. Over the years, they’ve seen the power of bottom-up, community-led grassroots activism. Through “pollination philanthropy”– a democratic model of peer-to-peer decision-making — TPP works with a global network of grantees, community partners, and volunteer advisors to identify extraordinary project leaders who, due to the grassroots nature of their work, are often not in a position to receive funding from other foundations or institutions.
  
  They make micro grants 365 days a year to grassroots global change agents and have a growing global community of 4,500 grassroots leaders in 150 countries. They support vegan outreach projects around the world, and have a special program for farmed animal activists in Brazil, India and Mexico. Their goal is to offer not just seed funding, but capacity-building support and connectivity with other activists working in the same geographic or issue area."

• Pro Veg Grants "We offer financial and training support in vegan advocacy and meat reduction efforts through grants, which fund work to reduce and eliminate animal consumption and through our skill-building accelerators, which offer advocates the skills they need to manage effective organizations and campaigns."

• Vegan Society "The Vegan Society Grant is open to individuals and grassroots organisations. It exists to support projects which will encourage non-vegans to go vegan and stay vegan. There is no maximum grant, but a typical award is no more than £1,000."

• VegFund "offers grants to help you do just that! VegFund accepts applications for funding outreach in three areas: Community Events, Special Projects, and Online Campaigns."

Europe

UK

• Lush Charity Pot "Charity Pot grants range from £100, up to a maximum of £10,000 per project/application. The average Charity Pot grant is between £2,000 - £4,000. It is unusual to award the maximum of £10,000, as this reduces the range of projects that can be supported."

• Vegan Society "The Vegan Society Grant is open to individuals and grassroots organisations. It exists to support projects which will encourage non-vegans to go vegan and stay vegan. There is no maximum grant, but a typical award is no more than £1,000."

North America

• Food for Thought "We have several grant opportunities to help you make these goals a reality!"

USA

• A Well Fed World "Apply for a grant to support your plant-based feeding, farming and/or advocacy."

• Eat The Change "ETC Impact™ is a grant program working to promote and expand access to climate-friendly foods. We're donating more than $1.25 million over three years to support a diverse group of changemaking nonprofit organizations."

• Seeds of Change Grant Program "A foundation helping individuals sow the seeds of a better world."

• Vegan Hacktivists: Grants "We connect you with funders providing up to $1,000 USD in seed funding for animal rights activism! We seek individual and grassroots groups whose primary purpose is to help reduce suffering for farmed animals."

Oceana

Australia

Western Australia

• The Sustainability Grants Program (in the City of Cockburn) "offers funding for projects related to six sustainability themes. Open to small businesses, schools, not-for-profits, and collective households, successful applicants can receive up to $4,000 for their project."