Becoming a CreatureKind Institution

On 31 January 2018 Friends House announced its commitment to promoting compassionate eating. The venue became a CreatureKind Institution. CreatureKind is a charity that engages churches in new ways of thinking about Christian ethics, with a special focus on farmed animal welfare issues.

CreatureKind Institutions like Friends House aim to improve practices related to farmed animals, with benefits for humans, animals and the environment. They reduce their consumption of meat, dairy and eggs and commit to a cycle of sourcing remaining products from increasingly higher-welfare sources.

Promoting compassionate eating at Friends House

The Quaker Centre Café already serves vegetarian and vegan food daily for lunch, and Friends House Restaurant always offers vegan and vegetarian options. Every week the Restaurant participates in the ‘Meat-free Monday’ campaign, when the menu is 100 per cent vegetarian and vegan.

Our partnership with CreatureKind will take these initiatives one step further. Within the next two years Friends House will reduce the amount of animal products (meat, dairy and eggs) served in its catering facilities by 20 per cent. Last year our chefs had training in pulses and plant-based recipes and will now be offering more plant-based recipes to customers. We hope you’ll come and taste these creative dishes as we launch our new CreatureKind menu.

Our event catering, including for The Light, will also feature fewer animal products. Our customers can already choose from vegetarian and vegan catering options. Last year we launched our Wellbeing Day Delegate packages, which feature menus that follow Public Health England’s Eatwell Guide. We offer delegates food made with pulses, beans and fewer starchy carbohydrates, making our event catering healthier.

Why compassionate eating matters

Reducing consumption of meat and dairy:

• lowers the number of animals subjected to intensive farming
• improves food and water security
• protects the efficacy of antibiotics
• reduces greenhouse gas emissions and pollution.

Buying remaining animal products from higher-welfare sources:

• urges the food industry to adopt methods and policies that help animals to flourish
• reduces the risk of disease in humans
• reduces pollution from industrialised agriculture.

At Friends House we source high-quality animal products. We were one of the first venues to earn a ‘Good Egg’ Award and a ‘Good Chicken’ Award. This means the eggs and poultry we serve are cage-free, ensuring your food is cruelty-free. We also work with local farms to source our animal products and vegetables. We do not use products from industrial farming and wherever possible serve organic and Fairtrade products.