Spark “Vegan Challenge 2023” – 150 meal swaps and adopting Alice the sheep

Our recent Vegan Challenge was a great success – with the team swapping their regular menus to eat an incredible 150 vegan meals throughout June. Avoiding meat and dairy can save 1,100 gallons of water and spares one animal every day – so as a result of our vegan meal swaps, Spark sponsored four animals at local city farm, Mudchute, as well as a water pump for a remote community in Sri Lanka.

Our challenge was a simple one – the team had to post a picture of vegan lunches or dinners into our dedicated Teams channel. Leaving our resident vegans and veggies aside, Ana and Issy led the way, both hitting double figures for vegan meals eaten in June.

Ana created some tasty burgers from her Gusto box and Issy made me jealous with plenty of leafy green creations. Oli was cooking some Instagram-worthy meals, sharing a snap of a monster roasted cauliflower dinner I simply had to copy. Dom and Nick used their meal deal prowess to round up the best value lunchtime bargains, from Tesco falafel and hummus to Waitrose hoisin ‘no duck’ wraps. It was good to see a few yellow reduced labels on the packaging, to prove you don’t have to break the bank to go with the vegan option.

We marked the end of the challenge by heading to Mudchute farm ourselves to meet the sheep, goat, llama and donkey Spark is sponsoring. As the visit was also sadly Alice’s last day at Spark, we had one of the sheep named in her honour.

It's been great to share some meal ideas while also supporting good causes at home and further afield. Our team has shown how just a few small swaps can add up to a big impact – a really positive message to take away for people thinking about sustainability and their impact on the planet.