My company had all of our outside sales reps, product managers and big wigs in the main branch today. Several of these people recently joined the company and a few of the salespeople on our staff are taking on new products. In a valiant effort to build a true team environment the sales director and VP of global sales brought lunch in for the team.
Of course, like many people do when trying to appease different eating habits, they brought in food that they thought everyone would like….Pizza. Now if you are a lacto-vegetarian, no big deal. However, if you are like me and trying to live a vegan lifestyle…well the cheese just screws the pizza up royally.
I had to deal with questions and stares all afternoon because I refused to eat pizza like everyone else. Telling them I am vegan didn’t fly as that of course brought on an onslaught of other questions.
The short is know your food plan. Even when people are talking about “doing lunch” you as a responsible vegan need to bring your own food, because inevitably lunch will be from or at someplace you can’t find a vegan dish. Also make it known you are vegan. Hopefully the HR people when setting up the next lunch will accommodate you.
