Vega

VEGA is an educational Trust, also imbued with practical considerations of meals at uni which were just as important as the catering for schoolchildren. Dietary and physiological - and psychological - changes at puberty and adolescence, some unfortunate and irreversible, engaged our attention as urgently as the wider academic issues. 3. Institution... al catering affects staff, teachers, doctors, nurses and visitors at places such as schools, universities, and hospitals and it has to include provision for shift workers and consumers with special and well-understood needs. A VEGA researcher has just returned from a day's international conference at Birkbeck College, London University (on genetics and other factors in degenerative diseases such as parkinsonism) at which his special vegan offering was suitable, but appropriate only if he had been a celiac as well; much as the ordinary veggie fare appeared suitable for a strict vegetarian, as was proved when boxes of surplus sandwiches, still in their takeaway packaging, offered for doggy-bags, proved their acceptability, it seems that the caterers don't understand that "normal" vegans eat bread and use oil and don't lead protein-deficient diets. 4. September began with the British Association's Festival of Science, held this year at the University of East Anglia (UEA) at Norwich. For our purposes it was an excellent choice: the campus itself is pleasant and modern, the accommodation and facilities are good, and the University is strong in the Sciences and Arts. Within the Campus or in the abutting Colney Park are the Norfolk General Hospital and the John Innes and Food Research Institutes; Norwich itself is within easy reach by frequent bus services and offers cultural entertainments, some provided within the Festival program. The Uni is excellently equipped with athletic and sports facilities and environs have arresting characteristics from many points of view - the Norfolk Broads and Brecklands and Fens, to mention a few. The Sainsbury Building is an Arts Centre ...Read More