A plant-based lifestyle can be rewarding no matter who you choose to socialise with, but sometimes it’s nice to meet like minded people who can sympathise with the unwanted cheese on your salad or ham in your soup. 

Get out and about:

If you’re finding it difficult to meet others, here’s a couple of tips:

• Step outside your front door - Check local notice boards or shop windows for any vegetarian groups. If there aren’t any, get creative and post your own! You could suggest a local pot luck dinner or a monthly restaurant outing. 
• Check out your local library - This can be a great source of books on plant-based living, cookbooks and magazines and it’s also a good place to put up notices to start that local veg group.
• Festivals - Many cities hold annual vegan or vegetarian festivals. They’re great places to meet other like-minded folk.
• Online - Search for local groups on yahoo or meetup.com. Veg-related forums are also great resources that allow you to connect with all sorts of people interested in plant-based living.
• Veg groups - Get in touch with your nearest vegan or vegetarian organisation. There are many in the States and the UK and more and more are popping up internationally.

The friendly vegan:

Generally vegans and vegetarians are very friendly and approachable people who would be happy to give you tips on where to shop and eat, community events and opportunities to become more involved in your local vegan scene.

You may even find that once you know a few vegetarians in your area there are opportunities to share the costs of buying produce and goods in bulk, shop for vegan products online together or pitch in with a vegetable allotment or garden. 

This is just the tip of the iceberg!

Once you start searching for like minded people, you’ll soon find that opportunities to build your support network start popping up everywhere!

Got a question?

If you have a question, tip or anecdote about meeting vegan and vegetarian people, feel free to leave a comment on the blog or email me at sarahATtheveganmentorDOTcom.