Mother reveals son's nursery switched to vegan menu without consulting her

An angry UK mother has slammed her son's nursery after they switched their menu to vegan-only meals without seeking permission from the children's parents. Photo / Getty Images

A furious mother has told how her child's nursery switched to an all-vegan menu without consulting parents.

The British woman, known only as Aimee, posted on the Netmums forum after receiving a letter from the nursery informing parents of the change, which was introduced without their "prior consent".

The mother said she felt "railroaded" into making her child vegan, but that her complaint about the decision to ditch all meat, fish, eggs and dairy from the menu was "shrugged off" by management, reports Daily Mail.

The woman, who revealed she was contemplating contacting Ofsted about the issue, said "this has really got my back up", but while many fellow parents said they would feel the same, some said it was "not a big issue" and that she could feed her little boy meat and fish at home.

Kicking off the thread, Aimee said: "So we had an email this week from my son's nursery saying they are changing their food menu, little did I expect when I received the menu they have changed the whole menu to a vegan menu.

"No prior consent or questions put forward to the parents or the staff from what I can gather," she added.

Explaining that she comes from a meat-eating family and her complaints have fallen on deaf ears, she continued: "This has really got my back up as I feel we are being railroaded in to making our children vegan with out a choice, no option of meat or fish."

And she soon discovered the reason behind the change was the return of the nursery's deputy manager following her maternity leave who had herself turned vegan.

"I have complained but basically was shrugged off by the manager who has basically said it's because the deputy manger has come back from maternity leave and she is the vegan and it's for her son," she claimed.

"Then she started going on about carbon foot print the nursery is on a farm which rears animal to kill to eat part of the natural cycle in life," she added, asking: "Can I go to ofsted with this?".

Many mothers shared her outrage at the decision, slamming the nursery for not consulting the parents.

One woman replied to say she was "really surprised" by the nursery's decision.

"Nurseries have to be inclusive of all children's needs including meat eaters," she said, adding that she would contact the local council's early years education department.

Another questioned whether it could potentially make things more expensive for parents. They wrote: "I can see the issue lots of children are picky eaters at this age and some point blank refuse to eat vegetables and fruit and healthy options. Also will costs go up and be pushed onto parents ? Why can't the nursery cater for all the children?".

And one mother questioned what the reaction would be if all children were forced to eat meat, writing: "Imagine the uproar if this was turned the other way about and the nursery insisted that a vegan family's child would have meat on their plate with no offer of a substitute?"

However others felt the nursery had made the right choice, arguing that the mother was welcome to feed her child meat outside of the nursery.

"I wouldn't have thought this was a big issue. You're free to feed your child whatever you want for the rest of the evening/weekends," one mother wrote.

Another agreed, adding: "You are obviously free to feed your child meat/fish on evenings and weekends. They are not forcing you to make your child vegan. I'd have no issue with the nursery going vegan, assuming the new menu still gave good balance of nutrition".