If you are
the only vegan in your family or circle of friends, it’s easy to feel like a
bit of an outsider when it comes to meal times, even with supportive people
around you. Your views will more than likely be different from those closest to
you and food and clothing can often become a bit of a battlefield.
For most of
my vegan life I only knew one other, my best friend. All of my family are
omnivores but they have been great, buying and cooking me different food in
separate pans to avoid cross contamination. I know that a lot of people aren’t
this lucky. This is where I think Facebook can often be over looked.
If you know
what to search for you can find some really great help and support from some of
the groups there. I have found support, advice, recipes, new vegan finds and
tons more from some of these groups. Not to mention the new friends I have made
with the same beliefs as myself.
Some of my
favourite groups at the moment, and those I would recommend to any vegan, new
or experienced are:
Vegan Special Offers UK
Here you
will find posts about food, cosmetics, household products, virtually anything
vegan that is on special offer or a constant low price in the UK. Often with
pictures and a date that the offer finishes, members are encouraged to post
their cheap vegan finds for others to take advantage of.
100% Vegan Products UK
This page is
all about new finds, things that are either targeted at vegans or accidentally vegan
things. If something new comes on the market that we can eat, use, clean with etc.
that isn’t tested on animals and has no animal derived ingredients, this is
where you will find it. Members are encouraged to post any new finds, be it
products themselves or an animal testing statement from a company.
What Fat Vegans Eat
Here you will
find lots of pictures of gorgeous looking food, posted from around the world.
In countless languages members post recipes, pictures and posts of their meals.
You can get some great ideas for new meals here, and don’t let the other
languages put you off as you can always get click the ‘translate’ button.
Vegan Food Porn
Another page
aimed at pictures of delicious food. Similar to What Fat Vegans Eat, but often healthier.
You can get great recipes and inspiration to shake up dinner time.
Vegan
As the name
would suggest, this is the group covering the broadest topic. Here you will
find questions, memes, pictures, videos and lots more. This is probably the
group I would recommend first to a new vegan, simply because almost any
question you can think of will get an answer here. Everything from what to feed
your dog to the best curry recipe will have been posted here.
In my
experience, all of these groups have been very welcoming and non-judgemental.
Of course when you’re talking about something that people get as passionate
about as veganism there will be the odd disagreement, but please don’t let that
put you off. All groups are run by moderators who keep an eye to make sure
everything is fair and above board.
