A Month of Discovery and Mutual Support
A Growing Community of Curious Friends
January 2026 saw the Vegan Curious QVW WhatsApp group flourish as a space of genuine experimentation, vulnerability, and collective learning. What began in October 2025 as a re-launch of the old QS4CA Veganuary chat became a vibrant community of Friends supporting each other through the practical and philosophical dimensions of Vegan and plant-based living.
The group grew organically throughout October and into the new year, welcoming Friends from across Britain Yearly Meeting – from Lancaster to Bournville, East Garston to Garstang, and beyond. By January’s end, the community had become a daily source of recipes, troubleshooting, ethical reflection, and gentle encouragement.
Pathways into Veganism: Diverse Motivations
What emerged powerfully was the multiplicity of routes Friends are taking toward vegan living. A Friend, a long-term vegan in early stages of exploring Quakerism, noted the alignment between the two: “I see the two as highly compatible and aligned, I assumed many Friends might be vegan and surprised that’s not the case.”
Others arrived via environmental concerns. One Friend shared: “I finally reached veganism (having gradually given up various meats) due to climate concerns about big ag. & also its effects on our rivers.” Another Friend noted: “Same here but when I got there, being an ethical vegan was a very small step.”
A Friend brought an effective altruism perspective, supporting corporate welfare commitments while appreciating the community’s recipe sharing. The conversation demonstrated how animal welfare, climate action, ethical veganism, and simple curiosity can all be valid entry points.
The Practical Challenges: Honest Conversations
The group provided crucial space for Friends to name their struggles without judgment. A Friend from Bournville was characteristically direct: “I have a long way to go! Pescatarian for about 5 years… That still leaves yogurt, butter and Cheese. I’ll start with yogurt. Thanks for setting this up – I’m aware that I need help.”
The community responded with practical wisdom. A Friend shared: “I found that butter was the hardest thing to give up, but I’m now very happy with Flora Buttery! Despite its name that product is vegan and also contains no palm oil.”
On cheese – widely acknowledged as the toughest hurdle – one Friend noted: “Vegan cheese is either pâté (though nice) or rather tasteless slices or slabs. Fine for chopping/grating and sprinkling, but not for sarnies, unless with chutney.”
Umami: The Missing Piece
Perhaps the most significant contribution came from a Friend, who shared his breakthrough understanding: “I tried to be vegan at least twice since the 1980s but kept reverting to eggs and cheese from what I thought was weakness and addiction. I then heard about UMAMI.”
He explained how recognising umami as a basic taste with its own receptors transformed his approach: “Our bodies crave umami, and we have to acknowledge this, or we will be drawn to its richest source, which is meat.“
His comprehensive list of vegan umami sources – from dried shiitake mushrooms to miso paste, kombu to nutritional yeast, Marmite to black garlic – became a practical resource that several Friends reported using immediately. “I now keep these always available,” he concluded.
This reframing of “craving” as legitimate bodily need rather than moral failure shifted the conversation significantly.
Recipe Sharing and Culinary Adventure
Throughout January, the group became a repository of practical knowledge. Recipes were shared for everything from cauliflower steaks to proper vegan gravy, from cashew cream to aquafaba meringues. Links to YouTube tutorials circulated. Specific product recommendations proliferated: which plant milks work best with tea versus coffee, where to find decent vegan cheese, how to make hummus properly.
The tone remained exploratory rather than prescriptive. When someone shared an elaborate recipe, others might respond with simpler alternatives. When vegan convenience foods were mentioned, no one suggested they were inadequate compared to whole foods cooking. The ethic was clearly: whatever works for you, wherever you are on the journey.
Veganuary Outcomes: The Poll Results
At month’s end, we posted a poll asking how Friends had experienced Veganuary:
- 25%: “I’m fully Vegan, sign me up as a Quaker Vegan!”
- 10%: “I now feel a little more confident with becoming Vegan and hope to carry on…”
- 65%: “I enjoyed the experience and will reduce non-vegan options going forward.”
- 0%: “A month was enough for me thank you very much.”
Crucially, no one felt the month had been wasted or wanted to revert entirely. The largest group – those reducing rather than eliminating – suggested the initiative successfully met people where they were and remained curious and living adventurously.
Individual Testimonies
One Friend’s reflection captured the texture of the month beautifully:
“Thanks for organising! Not sure what sort of report you’re after – but I can say it was a good experience and made much more enjoyable by joining this group. Have to confess I finished a day early as it was my dad’s best friend’s big Birthday and I hadn’t the heart to tell him I couldn’t eat the food and cake he’d prepared. So I’ll need to try again next year (if not before).
Highlights that will stick include: humous with lunch, switched to water-based porridge, vegan pizza, got used to drinking black tea at work (and might get hold of dried oat powder). Also appreciated feeling of doing a little worthwhile thing, and colleagues being extremely accommodating providing vegan alternatives to team cake including oreos, fruit pastilles and Greek biscuits.
Lowlights included: the cafe that only served vegan chips and a granola bar; discovering how many things contain milk powder, feeling a bit fatigued (probably didn’t fully offset for the protein I usually get from eggs) realising how much scientifically dubious writing is out there on both sides of the case on health benefits.
Enjoyed my first day off eating some leftover Christmas chocolate but already considering doing it again for Lent. Thanks for all the encouragement and inspiration! I’m going to stay in the group so that hopefully some of your rays of light continue to reach me and encourage me to keep up with being at least better than before!”
Another noted: “That’s so fab! I didn’t do Veganuary either; I did a sort of ‘soft launch’ into veganism, at my own pace, and never looked back. Everyone has a route that works for them.”
A late reflection arrived from a Friend in Kenya, revealing how cultural context shapes the vegan journey in profoundly different ways:
“Participating in Veganuary has been a refreshing and meaningful experience for me. Doing it as part of a team made it even more encouraging, knowing that what I was doing individually was also being done by many other friends. That sense of shared purpose gave me strength and motivation to stay committed.
In my normal lifestyle, I am already used to eating vegetables, so adapting to a plant-based diet did not feel overly complex. For several years, I had already reduced my intake of meat, especially beef. I still occasionally take goat or sheep meat, but not regularly. Because of this background, avoiding meat was not my biggest challenge during Veganuary.
The real challenge for me was avoiding eggs and milk. In Kenya, milk is deeply embedded in daily life, especially when it comes to tea. For tea to be called tea in most Kenyan households, it is understood as milk plus tea leaves — that combination is what people recognize as proper tea. Tea without milk is often not considered tea at all. Black tea is usually given different names depending on the location or the community language. Nationally, the common slang used is ‘strong tea.’ If you visit someone and request ‘strong tea,’ you should expect to be served black tea. This term is widely understood across the country, although it may not be commonly used in five-star hotels.
However, even before Veganuary, I had already started adjusting my habits. Since last year, I have grown comfortable taking black tea, warm water, or herbal combinations such as cinnamon, hibiscus, and turmeric. This gradual adjustment made it easier for me to cope with avoiding milk during Veganuary.
Eggs were another difficult area. Eggs are among the quickest foods to prepare, especially when combined with sukuma wiki (kale) and ugali — a simple meal that is both filling and convenient. Interestingly, by the time I joined Veganuary, I had already bought ten eggs. By the end of the month, I still had seven left. This small but practical detail clearly shows that I made a deliberate effort to avoid them and remain committed to the challenge.
Fish was another personal struggle. I honestly still find it difficult to avoid fish. Even the aroma — especially of tilapia, which is very common here — feels like a phone ringing and demanding attention. This remains an area where I am still learning and gradually improving.
Perhaps the most culturally challenging aspect has been chicken (hen). In our culture, chicken is treated as something special, especially during visits and important occasions. If you visit someone and they do not prepare chicken for you, it can easily be interpreted as a sign of disrespect or a lack of appreciation for your visit. Chicken is deeply connected to hospitality, honor, and social relationships. Because of this strong cultural meaning, avoiding it requires sensitivity, understanding, and gradual change.
Overall, I truly appreciate the spirit of Veganuary. The experience has helped me become more intentional about my food choices, more disciplined, and more reflective about health, culture, and community. I am willing and motivated to continue with this lifestyle, fully aware that change is a step-by-step journey, not an instant transformation. Step by step, we are moving forward.”
This testimony powerfully demonstrates how veganism intersects with culture in ways British Friends might not immediately recognise. The linguistic dimension alone – where “tea” means milk-tea by default – reveals assumptions embedded in language itself. The chicken-as-hospitality question presents a genuine ethical dilemma perhaps not as pronounced in a European context: how does one honour both animal life and human relationship?
Philosophical Grounding
A Friend’s closing message as Veganuary drew to its end provided important framing:
“Being vegan is not a diet. It is not a religion, political party, elite group, club or cult. It is a conscious, responsible, ethical decision to make every reasonable effort to live and enjoy life without harming, exploiting, depleting, contaminating and killing. Making the choice to be kind, compassionate and loving to all living beings and the Earth.” – Karrel Christopher
Another Friend reflected: “I expect we all get different ‘benefits’ from being vegan. One of mine is being able to walk across the fells looking at the wonderful sheep and lambs with at least a moderately clear conscience. I still feel extremely sad for them, knowing what their futures are likely to be, but at least I’m not contributing to that any more than I can help.“
This was met with: “I think what you’ve captured in that comment is the essence of ‘doing the best you can do’ in an imperfect world.“
Looking Forward: Sustaining the Momentum
Multiple Friends expressed gratitude for the community itself: “Thanks to all for a joyful Veganuary. You are all amazing at sharing and cheering us newbies on.” “Thanks to the Admins for setting this group up.”
The group clearly fulfilled a need that extends beyond a single month. As one Friend put it: “I’m going to stay in the group so that hopefully some of your rays of light continue to reach me.“
This Friend’s framing proved helpful here too: “It might be helpful to view going vegan as something, like any other learned behaviour, eg being more kind, compassionate, tolerant, friendly, generous, that we can certainly get better at through mindfully practicing it.”
Key Insights
A fantastic resource was the Veganuary daily prompts. So many positive reflections arose from thinking about food choices each day:
What made this Veganuary initiative work? We think perhaps:
Mutual vulnerability: Friends felt safe to name their struggles – butter addiction, cheese cravings, fatigue, social awkwardness – without judgment.
Practical wisdom: The group prioritised what actually helps people succeed over ideological purity.
Multiple narratives: Animal welfare, climate, health, and ethics were all honoured as legitimate motivations.
Flexibility: “Doing the best you can” was genuinely meant, not weaponised as excuse for inaction.
Community: Daily encouragement, shared recipes, and celebration of small wins sustained momentum.
Scientific literacy: Friends engaged seriously with nutrition science (while critiquing “scientifically dubious writing” from all sides).
Continuing the Witness
The Vegan Curious QVW group has established itself as an ongoing resource rather than a one-month experiment. Friends continue to share recipes, ask questions, and support each other’s gradual transitions.
As we move forward, the question is not necessarily “how many became fully vegan in January” but rather “how is this community nurturing long-term transformation?” By that measure, Veganuary 2026 was profoundly successful.
“Someone at the Woodbrooke course I was running last night name-dropped Quaker Vegan Witness’s Vegan Curious WhatsApp as a place where she could learn ‘without being judged for not knowing’ and described her experience of Veganuary as ‘joyful not judgemental’. Thought you’d like to hear that :)”
Finally, one Friend said “We’ve just finished Veganuary. Is ‘Vegan for Lent’ the next thing?“
In friendship,
Quaker Vegan Witness