The Complete Idiot's Guide to Vegan Eating for Kids - M.s.j., Dana Villamagna [24]
Vegan Voices
Always bring the best available vegan organic cake to their friends’ birthday parties, so that all the kids will want a slice of your children’s vegan cake.
—Aviram, India
Explain to the parent hosting the party that your child is vegan and you need to bring a bit of something for him to eat. It’s fine to bring a little vegan cake (like Amy’s Kitchen Organic Chocolate or Orange cakes) or cupcakes to provide something for your child to eat at cake time, and maybe a little something to share. (But be sure it’s not as pretty or as big as the birthday child’s cake! You don’t want to detract from the reason for the party.)
As for other events, it seems like a lot of scouting, church groups, and sports teams events are focused on nonvegan food—cookie sales, pancake and sausage breakfasts, candy sales, pizza sales, pizza parties, cookouts, and camping weekends that contain lots of meaty meals. With your help, your vegan child can participate in almost all these events (minus the sales, perhaps—consider making a donation instead). Help social events be more vegan-friendly for your child by …
◆ Bringing your own veg food, including enough to pass around to others when appropriate.
◆ Joining organizations that are more veg-friendly. Jane Goodall’s worldwide group for kids with local chapters called Roots and Shoots (www.rootsandshoots.org) is an alternative option to scouting.
◆ Hosting events for sports teams, youth groups, or church events at your home. Sure, it takes more work, but when it’s at your home, you can set the menu, know where your child is, and get to know his friends better.
◆ Focusing on other aspects of the event and leaving the food portion out. If it’s a cookout, go out to eat at your favorite veg-friendly restaurant beforehand and show up for the games, for example.
Myth:You’re Depriving Them of Childhood Fun
Fact: Health is fun. Being compassionate toward animals is fun. Saving the environment is fun.
One dad in our vegan parents’ survey put it this way:
My child doesn’t see veganism as limiting or restrictive. He sees it as interesting and a challenge. We make vegan food an exciting thing in our house. His school and society have taught him how fragile and beautiful our environment is … when he remembers his childhood, he will remember it with fondness and a special passion to make this world a little bit better.
That doesn’t sound like deprivation, does it?
Yet some people your child interacts with (including parents like ourselves in the anxious “Am I a good parent?” moments that we all face, vegan or not) will have some lingering questions about the traditional baseball game hot dog, the birthday cake, the ice-cream cones, and the Thanksgiving turkey (with wishbone). How can a child grow up without experiencing these food-based cultural memories?
He doesn’t have to. There’s a vegan substitute for all those sentimental favorites and more—right down to a wishbone in the tofu-turkey. What’s more, some professional baseball stadiums like Yankee Stadium have begun to sell tofu dogs.
Myth:Vegan Food Can’t Taste Good
Fact: From the most elegant restaurant to the best backyard barbecue, vegan food rivals any culinary tradition.
This myth may very well have been true if we were writing this book in 1981. But thanks to dedicated entrepreneurs, talented chefs, creative cookbook authors, and the natural foods movement, veganism has come a long way.
Consider tofu, for example. Once known as a white, tasteless blob that was only edible drowned in soy sauce, tofu now comes baked, fried, cubed, marinated, and more.
Restaurants like the Candle Cafe in