Schools located in Waltham Forest in the UK have been recognised as having the ‘greenest’ school menus in Britain, following a transformation of the area’s menu to serve one million vegan meals across 50 of its primary schools in a year. The schools have weekly ‘Save the Planet’ days and plant-based options are served every day, with options including creamy coconut korma, Jamaican patties and cheezy pizza. The students were involved in curating the vegan options via tasting sessions with Waltham Forest Catering.

Waltham Forest’s win was uncovered by The Green School Menu League, an initiative that was launched in early 2022 by Meatless Farm (meatlessfarm.com/for-kids-by-kids), in partnership with Omari McQueen (the UK’s youngest professional vegan chef) and non-profit ProVeg UK’s School Plates programme. The collaboration wanted to find the UK’s greenest school menu to inspire, educate and encourage children to eat more sustainable food, with an end-goal of making 15 million school meals meatless by the end of the year.

Pupils from Jenny Hammond Primary School, one of the 50 Waltham Forest schools serving Waltham Forest Catering’s winning green menu, received a live cooking masterclass from McQueen, whilst Waltham Forest Catering received a ProVeg UK plant-based workshop. The young chef also awarded £5,000 investment towards the school’s sustainable eating programme.

An innovative start-up from Ireland has created what may be the first-ever plant-based whole 'cod' filet which looks and flakes like actual fish. The exciting company, Sea and Believe, uses Irish seaweed and microalgae to create the product, which has recently gained investment from scientific entrepreneurial support and investment firm, IndieBio (indiebio.co). Founded by businesswoman Jennifer O’Brien and food scientist Piyali Chakraborty, the alt-seafood brand is expanding, seeking to raise $3 million USD to scale the seaweed ingredient and develop its supply chain. Sea and Believe is currently building the first seaweed farm in Ireland and working with agencies to train people to harvest seaweed.

Just opposite Boston’s Fenway Park baseball stadium is a brandnew vegan sports bar, PlantPub. It’s the second PlantPub venue and a collaboration between the company’s founders Pat McAuley (serial entrepreneur), Sebastanio Casssio Castiglioni (vegan investor), and Mary Dumont (head chef), in partnership with Matthew Kenney (celebrity vegan chef). According to the founders, the new PlantPub seeks to make vegan food approachable and fun for people everywhere, allowing sports fans to eat better for both themselves and the planet. It will serve familiar favourites with locally sourced, sustainable ingredients, including burgers, nachos, buffalo cauliflower wings, pizza, sundaes and Boston cream pie.

Five times the size of the original location (launched in Cambridge in 2021), the new PlantPub can seat almost 300 people, and features a substantially larger kitchen, which means that Dumont and her team will be able to work on additional menu items throughout the year. PlantHub Boston also serves a substantial drinks menu which features a range of non-alcoholic and alcoholic craft beers and cocktails, all of which have been sourced from New England brewers and producers.

In an interview, Dumont commented on the launch: “We are mimicking all of the flavours that people know and love in a complete plant-based form. We have an opportunity to expose so many people to a new way of eating that is becoming more and more mainstream.” (livekindly.co)

It’s certainly an exciting opening and a venue that is sure to encourage people from all walks of life to try vegan food for the first time.

Known for its azure blue waters and gorgeous white architecture, the idyllic Greek island of Santorini is now also home to its first vegan boutique hotel. The swanky MOD Santorini (modsantorini.com) opened at the end of last summer, but this year will mark its first full tourist season, in a more ‘normal’, post-COVID world.

The stunning hotel was originally built in 1980 and features four new luxury suites, a vegan kitchen and a rooftop for yoga classes and workshops. All aspects of MOD are vegan, from the bed sheets to the food served, whilst the hotel also aims to be as low waste as possible. Everything in the hotel was made using sustainable materials, plastic
use is limited, and water is heated using solar power.

Founded by Christina Boutrou, a Greek Australian, and Anargyros Fousteris, a Santorinian, MOD will enable the owners to share their love of plant-based living, Greek food and culture — guests can enjoy local wine tasting and visits to traditional villages, included in trip packages. Although the complex is still undergoing renovations, it is ready to welcome guests into its calming and comfortable space.

With 26 years of experience producing and exporting soya-based food products, Malaysian brand Hoshay Food (hoshayfood.com) has turned its attention to creating a new range of cruelty-free snacks and ready-meals. In its latest series, named ‘Sizzle, Munchies and Now’, Hoshay has invested in research and development into more natural, less processed food products with a focus on nutrition. Using healthful ingredients like tofu skin and shiitake mushrooms, Hoshay is giving consumers more choice to switch out meat and dairy products. Primed to become a consumer favourite is Hoshay’s Crispy Fried Chicken, which is pre-fried and coated with herbs and spices.