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DefaultVeg Congregations
By making plant-based food the default, we make the choice at every meal to help animals, the environment, and other people (including farm and meatpacking plant workers all over the world). At church or other group events, we give people the choice to opt in for meals with animal products if necessary, instead of having to opt out of them.
Could your local church help us pilot CreatureKind’s new DefaultVeg Congregations program?
The Pilot Program
CreatureKind is piloting a new program aimed at encouraging local church congregations to make changes towards plant-based foods in the food they serve. DefaultVeg Congregations will recruit a cohort of CreatureKind DefaultVeg Fellows to mentor them in how to work for change in their local churches to align their faith commitment with the food served at church. The heart of the program is CreatureKind’s DefaultVeg approach: switching default choices to plant-based options, while allowing individuals to opt for an animal product alternative. This has been shown to reduce consumption of animal products by up to 80% in contexts where switching to an entirely plant-based menu would trigger resistance.
Your Congregation?
We are piloting the new program with 5 US church congregations. We are seeking to recruit the first 5 CreatureKind DefaultVeg Fellows to work with us over a six-month period
Starting on Earth Day April 22, 2025
The DefaultVeg Fellows will meet once or twice a month to learn about the connection between Christian faith commitments and the DefaultVeg approach, to get advice on how to get conversations started about changing the food served at church, and to share with one another how they’ve dealt with obstacles. By the end of the program, we hope we will have achieved practical change in these congregations and trained a cohort of Fellows who can use their experience to help subsequent cohorts.
If you or someone you know has the potential to be one of our first cohort of CreatureKind DefaultVeg Fellows and work for food changes in a local church, we want to hear from you.
The Details
What is DefaultVeg?
DefaultVeg is simple. By making plant-based food the default, we make the choice at every meal to help animals, the environment, and other people (including farm and meatpacking plant workers all over the world). At church or other group events, we give people the choice to opt in for meals with animal products if necessary, instead of having to opt out of them. A DefaultVeg approach is simple, inclusive, and cost-effective.
Why DefaultVeg?
DefaultVeg helps Christian communities turn their commitments to creation care, farmed animal welfare, justice, and stewardship into eating practices that mean good news for everyone. Every plant-based meal has benefits for farmers, farm and slaughterhouse workers, the global majority, animals, and the environment. And with DefaultVeg, everyone can choose the food that’s right for them.
DefaultVeg makes meals inclusive, accessible, and just.
Examples of DefaultVeg in Action
On Your Own
Make plant-based meals your default. If you use meat, eggs or dairy, use them as an add-on, instead of as the focus of the meal.
Planning a Church Potluck
Ask congregants to bring their favorite vegan or vegetarian dishes to share. For instance, "If your last name begins A-M, please bring a vegan or vegetarian main dish; N-Z bring sides and desserts."
In a Dining Hall, Cafeteria, or Buffet Line
Nudge people towards plant-based options by placing them first on menus, placing at the front of buffet lines, and increasing the ration of plant-based to meat dishes overall. Features specials like an "Autumn Bowl with Ancient Grains, Moroccan Roasted Root Vegetables, and Herbed Cashew Tahini Dressing" and offer a small portion of meat as an optional add-in, if at all.
For a Small Group
When ordering food for a group, make the meal veg by default. Those who want to consume animal products can opt-in by request. For instance, "We're planning ordering bean and soyrizo burritos for our meeting on Tuesday night. Please let Stacy know if you want her to order you an alternate option."
At a Conference or Event
Instead of asking vegetarians and vegans to request a special meal during the registration process, change the default to providing vegetarian and vegan food, and asking those who want meat options to tick a box. For instance, "Your Justice and Climate Change Conference registration fee includes two lunches and two dinners, which will be plant-based. If you would like to request a meat meal, please check this box."
Why is DefaultVeg CreatureKind?
To be CreatureKind means to change the way we see ourselves and other creatures. We see that we are one among many of God’s beloved creatures. Just as we are aware of our vulnerability as human creatures, and the vulnerability of the humans we love, so we become aware of the vulnerability of the creatures around us, many of whose lives are even more fragile than our own. We become aware of the power we exercise over these other creatures: how our lives impact theirs.
By adopting DefaultVeg for our meals, and especially by adopting DefaultVeg in community or group settings, we can significantly reduce our demand for animal products, and witness to the possibility of a more peaceful co-existence with God’s other creatures.
When we gather for fellowship and food, we can love our neighbors well by reducing our consumption of animal products to provide benefits for:
Animals
Worldwide, about 70 billion land animals are killed for food every year and 109 million metric tons of fish are extracted from the oceans. God sees every sparrow who falls, but the standard practices of industrial animal agriculture fail to treat animals as anything more than protein-production units. By adjusting our meals to focus on plants, we can begin to abstain from participation in an inhumane and unjust system.
The Environment
The world’s largest user of land resources is livestock raised for the production of meat and milk. Industrial farming produces enormous quantities of waste and pollution which threaten the health of workers and nearby residents and damage ecosystems. When we begin to rely on plant foods for our nutritional needs, we drastically reduce our ecological foodprint.
Farmers and Slaughterhouse Workers
Small family farmers are suffering from laws and policies that favor the unhealthy practices of mega-corporations. Many industrial farm and slaughterhouse workers are migrants and immigrants who are exploited to the extreme. These vulnerable people are routinely sickened and injured by working conditions. Reducing demand for products from this system will help drive desperately needed reform.
Other Humans and Ourselves
Decreasing our demand for animal products improves food and water security, contributes to healthier diets with lower disease risks, reduces the problem of growing antibiotic resistance, and reduces the risk of new zoonotic diseases such as swine and bird flu.
