Written evidence submitted by Kerry McCarthy
MP
I understand you are the person to contact with comments/suggestions
about catering facilities in the Commons.
I am a vegan, as are at least two other MPs. There
are many others who are vegetarian. (I emailed around during the
last parliamentary session and I think about 20 MPs replied to
say they were vegetarian, or in some cases ate fish but not meat).
The provision for us in Parliament really is poor.
In particular there is no reason why the salad bars could not
be made more suitable for vegans/vegetarians—for example,
not putting meat in the pasta salads, not smothering everything
with mayonnaise, etc. I wish the caterers would just stop and
think before they add extra ingredients to a dish, and consider
whether they could produce something very similar, with either
the meat/ dairy option on the side, or without it altogether.
This would also be helpful to those with food intolerances. Why
can't the salad bars operate on a similar principle to places
like Tossed, where all the ingredients are separate and people
just make their own combination?
Also—and you may not be the right person to
lobby on this—it's World Vegan Day on 1st November, and
the whole of November is earmarked as World Vegan Month. Any chance
of noting this, for example, by having a day when there are several
vegan options on the menus around the House?
Thank you for reading this.
October 2010
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