Every year a huge number of businesses, organisations, schools, community groups and individuals take part in National Vegetarian Week and make it a huge success.
This year we're giving a special Cauldron Local Hero Award to those we think have made an exceptional effort to celebrate the Week. The winners in each category receive a special trophy, a hamper full of vegetarian goodies and the right to boast about their brilliant achievement!
Our panel of judges has poured over the Events Diary and we’ve chosen the winners of our Cauldron Local Hero 2010 awards.
The winners are:
Cauldron Local Organisation Hero:
JOINT WINNERS: The Angel Inn and L’Artichaut
Our judges found it immensely difficult to choose between these two so they were made joint winners.
The Angel Inn, a gastropub in Skipton, organised a vegetarian gourmet charity evening using local Yorkshire produce and wine and all proceeds were donated to charity. The evening was so popular that an incredible £1,200 was raised for UNICEF clean water projects in Ethiopia.
L’Artichaut, a recently opened vegetarian restaurant in Edinburgh, ran a whole week of veggie activities that included exciting new menus and special events such as a wine tasting dinner, Sunday roast and vegan tasting menu. There was also a competition for diners to create an original veggie starter or main with the winner having their dish featured on L’Artichaut’s menu during the Week!
Cauldron Local School Hero
WINNER: Salford City College
With 7,000 students over five sites, Salford City College has plenty of hungry students come lunchtime. During National Vegetarian Week, the college had a huge veggie BBQ to celebrate a meat-free lifestyle. Veggie kebabs, burgers, sausages and more were cooked outdoors on campus and National Vegetarian Week booklets were handed out to students as they filled up on great veggie grub!
Cauldron Community Group Hero
WINNER: Rosemary Conley Diet & Fitness Clubs
During NVW, franchisees of Rosemary Conley Diet & Fitness Clubs all over the UK organised talks, tasting sessions and information displays for their members and others wishing to learn more about how healthy a vegetarian diet can be. As well as groups hosting these events in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, the Rosemary Conley website featured videos of chef Dean and Rosemary Conley diet and fitness instructor for Brighton Lesley Jeavons cooking up a range of delicious veggie meals in the studio kitchen.
Cauldron Individual Hero
WINNER: Neil Stephens for organising Cardiff Vegetarian Festival
Co-ordinating, planning and organising a city centre vegetarian festival as an individual is a fantastic achievement and we’re delighted to announce Neil Stephens as our Cauldron Individual Hero award winner. Now in its second year, the Cardiff Vegetarian Festival 2010 was a full day of veggie entertainment with food from local caterers, live music, information stalls, art exhibitions and even an afterparty with DJ’s that kept the fun going until 2am!
Cauldron National Hero
WINNER: Giraffe
We hadn’t originally planned to have this category in the awards but after seeing some of the great deals national companies and organisations were adding to the Events Diary we felt we needed to highlight this and reward their efforts.
National restaurant chain Giraffe has always boasted excellent veggie choices on their menu, but for NVW they made their food taste even better with a ‘2 for 1’ offer on all veggie main meals for the Week. With 36 restaurants across the country, this was a generous offer to really get stuck into!
Congratulations to all of our winners and for everyone else that added their event to the diary – we had a very hard time deciding who would receive this year’s Cauldron Local Hero Awards.
