Starting the Year Green at LSE

"New Year, New Me." Sound familiar?

One of my New Year’s Resolutions for 2026 is to have a more plant-based diet. Alas, habits are hard to build. Breaking old habits… that’s even harder.

Lucky for me, LSE Catering, the gift that just keeps on giving, introducing options to support “veganuary” to start off the year.

Veganuary is a New Year’s reset for your plate. This month-long challenge encourages you to see how small, plant-based choices can make a big impact on your diet. Introduced by the Veganuary charity, it aims to protect the planet, improve health and promote compassion for animals, one meal at a time.

Meatless Mondays

The LSE catering team took iconic Meatless Mondays one step further with vegan desserts!

Unfortunately for me, I was too late - the highly revered red velvet cake was gone by as early as 7:00 PM and all I saw was red crumbs against enamel white plates across the canteen. According to my friends, I missed out on rich and creamy goodness that you wouldn’t even know is vegan… sigh

Luckily, I still got to enjoy some lovely vegetarian Moussaka!

Vegan Brunch

Last week, catered LSE Halls had a vegan Saturday brunch where English breakfast classics were replaced with vegan alternatives. For example, scrambled eggs became scrambled tofu and fried potato balls took the place of hash browns,  something that I loved to try! You can see more about the impact of meat eating here

Making a Habit Last

What’s next? As much as we love LSE Catering, it won’t be there to support us forever. To carry on the inertia from Veganuary into the rest of the year, I invite you to take action from within. The next time you are at dinner with your friends, with your red tray in hand as you approach the pick-up point, pay attention to the vegetarian or meat-less options. Don’t discard them right away to go for your usual chicken. Instead, have the curiosity and ambition to try something new, even if it's just a main platter.

We don’t have to go vegan to have a positive impact on our planet. However, we can make small changes that add up. Try going meatless one day a week, or maybe two! Try opting for fish instead of red meat, tofu instead of beef. Little by little, we can make a positive change, one that lasts beyond January, and beyond our time at LSE.