On Wednesday 4 November, we gathered in the Jubilee Room at the Houses of Parliament to celebrate the tenth Vegetarian for Life Awards for Excellence in Vegetarian and Vegan Care Catering.
Ten years ago, the idea that a care home kitchen might take a vegan or vegetarian resident’s meals seriously was, for many, an afterthought. This year’s awards showed how far the sector has come: five awards, a room full of the chefs, caterers and suppliers doing the work every day, and two MPs, Neil Duncan-Jordan and Irene Campbell, on hand to celebrate them.
A decade in ten moments
The ceremony looked back at ten moments that made a difference, and the story they tell is one we could never have written alone. It includes the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Vegetarianism & Veganism, formed in 2016; the 2020 parliamentary inquiry into respect for religious and philosophical beliefs around food in care settings; and inspection guidance for good vegetarian and vegan care developed with the Care Inspectorate in Scotland.
Closer to home, it includes 55 grants worth £77,000, a pen- and phone-pal scheme connecting older vegetarians and vegans, more than 1,000 community cookery training sessions across the UK, training adapted for online delivery during COVID, British Dietetic Association accreditation, more than 40 educational titles, and a UK List that has grown past 1,000 care homes and caterers.
Every one of those milestones started with someone in a care kitchen asking a question or making a choice. As our Chief Executive, Amanda Woodvine, put it on the day:
“Our job for ten years has mostly been to notice what the sector was already doing, understand it properly, and help it along.”
The 2026 winners
Guests also rolled up their sleeves for practical workshops, swapping ideas on improving catering provision across the sector, before the celebrations culminated in the presentation of five awards.
Care/Hospital Caterer of the Year, sponsored by Greetwell Purchasing Solutions: Miranda Chubb, Hampshire Hospitals Foundation Trust. Miranda has transformed plant-based patient menus and worked with chefs on training, recipe development and menu analysis, moving the Trust from a single vegetarian option at lunch and supper to a much wider choice of appealing plant-based dishes.
Supplier of the Year, sponsored by Procurement for Care: Eat Curious, recognised for versatile plant-based ingredients and practical support for care caterers through recipes, menu inspiration and hands-on assistance. Stephen Hall, editor of Care Home Professional, collected the award on the winner’s behalf.
Chefs’ Hero Product, sponsored by Tofoo & Co: Jus-RolTM Puff Pastry Sheets, praised for their versatility in sweet and savoury dishes and the time-saving convenience they offer busy kitchens. VfL patron Wendy Turner-Webster collected the award on Jus-Rol’s behalf.
Most Innovative Vegan/Vegetarian Recipe, sponsored by Greencity Wholefoods: Brakes, for its Butternut Squash, Pear and Apple Strudel, which impressed the judges with its creative combination of ingredients, practical preparation, minimal waste and appealing presentation.
The Beulah Charity Trust Special Recognition Award, sponsored by Brakes, a Sysco company: Jody Marshall, Group Hospitality Manager at Meallmore Ltd, for making vegetarian food central to the organisation’s approach to care catering. Through the Academy of Care Chef Excellence, Jody has supported more than 70 chefs to develop their skills and confidence. Jody’s daughter Bella was present to accept the award on his behalf.
What the workshops told us
The workshops threw up as many ideas as the room could hold, grouped by setting. On supermarkets, guests wanted a wider and better-distributed range of vegan and vegetarian products, not just in cities; several groups pictured a dedicated “green aisle” that would include accidentally vegan products, clearly separate from the “free from” aisles aimed at allergens. Promotion mattered too: recipes, celebrity chef endorsements, education in schools and a stronger social media presence.
Lunch clubs came back to welcome and visibility: more options so that vegetarians and vegans feel genuinely included, advertised widely in community spaces, newsletters and notice boards, with the veggie options marked and mixed in among everything else so that meat eaters see them and might give them a try.
In cafés and restaurants, the ask was respect, and better vegan desserts, which guests suggested could be addressed through training and more vegan chefs.
Hospitals and care homes produced the longest lists, and the most practical. Guests suggested plant-based desserts as the default, more variety built on wholefood and plant-based ingredients, plant-based hot drinks and build-up drinks, and more tofu as a protein. They wanted vegetarian and vegan options that can be fortified or made high in protein to support nutrition and recovery, and in care homes, fortified needs properly met where they arise, from thickening to chickpeas and rice flour. Wider mealtime windows so people can eat when they are hungry, higher-level plant-based dishes with colour, texture and protein, staff education from chefs or dietitians, and a nudge that many classic dishes are easy to veganise rounded things off.
We will be taking all of it away, and if any of it chimes with you, our ears are open.
The baton keeps moving
Good vegan and vegetarian catering in care settings has never been about a meat-free alternative on the side of the menu. It is about nutritious, appealing and culturally appropriate food that respects each resident’s choices and identity, every meal, every day.
The trophy was never the whole point, either. A certificate on display in a care setting gets asked about, and one home’s success becomes the next home’s ambition. That is how a sector’s standard rises, and over ten years we have watched it rise.
To everyone who has entered an award, joined the UK List, asked a question or cooked the meal: thank you. The awards are yours to keep growing, and the standard is yours. We will be here to notice, understand and help it along, for the next ten years and beyond.
With thanks to our sponsors, ambassadors and patrons, without whom awards like these simply would not happen.
