Los Angeles-based restaurants promote vegan specials in their 2024 menus, and UCLA’s Animal Welfare Alliance invites students to try vegan in the new year
(Los Angeles, CA – January 10, 2024) – Veganuary, the global campaign that encourages people to try vegan in January and beyond, is experiencing a boom of activity in Los Angeles in 2024. This year, several restaurants throughout the city are offering promotions and plant-based specials all month long, while students from University of California, Los Angeles are hosting an entire week of events to promote Veganuary on campus.
Last year, Los Angeles was in the top 5 U.S. cities for Veganuary sign-ups. In addition, #veganuary has been viewed over 1.1 billion times on TikTok – with momentum steadily increasing. A new study conducted by YouGov on behalf of Veganuary reported that 71%* of all US adults are hoping to eat more vegetables in 2024. Veganuary is working with restaurants, brands, and universities nationwide to help meet this demand with more inventive plant-based dishes and more choice overall.
The increased interest in plant-based eating is especially notable with college students this year; UCLA students formed the Animal Welfare Alliance (AWA) to establish an intersectional community with a common cause on campus: empowering and advocating for plant-forward lifestyles for sustainability, health, social justice, and all living beings. In support of Veganuary, the group has launched “Plant-Powered Revolution,” a week-long set of events and activities aiming to encourage, revamp, and spread awareness about a vegan lifestyle to the entire community around UCLA, vegans and non-vegans alike. One of the events is UCLA’s VegFest, organized with the help of Lives Without Knives and hosted by guest speaker John Lewis (@badassvegan), which will feature local vegan businesses, plant-forward student organizations, vegan nonprofits, popular vegan food trucks, interactive workshops, live music, a raffle, and more on Jan. 18 from 11:00am to 5:00pm at Wilson Plaza, UCLA.
Anyone who signs up for the Veganuary pledge at UCLA will receive resources via email, including how to eat plant-based at UCLA dining halls, on campus restaurants, local restaurants, celebrity cookbooks, nutritional advice, exclusive deals, and more. The students in AWA aspire to build a pilot Veganuary program that could be duplicated for other universities, as they are receiving requests by various schools expressing interest in launching similar programs of their own.
“Until this group, I’d never had a vegan friend who was my age, so having a community where I can be myself and connect over food without judgment is very special,” said Jeremy Martinez, Director of Logistics at AWA and student at UCLA. “I wanted to get involved in the movement, beyond Instagram advocacy; it’s important to me to work with other people toward a common goal.”
Every January, businesses around the world are launching more, bigger, and better vegan menus to capitalize on the huge popularity of Veganuary. Some of this year’s highlights in Los Angeles include:
- The Butcher’s Daughter – Launching seasonal pizza at all Los Angeles locations, featuring pesto squash artichokes, squash, kale, cashew ricotta, pesto, and chili oil; also offering a free drink token to anyone who eats a full vegan meal and mentions Veganuary for the month of January, and promoting a special collab tee with Don’t Eat The Homies online and at their Venice location
- Hart House – Launching Wellness Wednesdays during January: Buy an entree and get a free side and drink
- Plant Power Fast Food – Offering Free Handspun Milkshake made with oat milk when you sign up for Plant Power Fast Food’s rewards program during January; also offering Buy One, Get One Free Single Cheeseburger with code VEGANUARYBOGO
- Veggie Grill – Offering weekly “Buy One Get One” specials on a variety of dishes, as well as a $5 off $20 coupon for the entire menu
- Veron – Offering 20% off the Veganuary Churro macaron on their website all month long, along with 20% at their brick & mortar for anyone who comes in and mentions Veganuary
- PLANTA – Including specialty menu items across all locations for Veganuary, including non-alcoholic cocktails in partnership with premium non-alcoholic retailer Boisson; also giving 500 bonus loyalty points to customers who dine in twice during the month
- Hey! Sunshine Kitchen – Offering 15% off online or in-store using promo code VEGJAN15
- Doomie’s – Launching limited time Family Style Fried Chicken Meal, with size, quantity, breast vs leg options, and the choice of spicy batter on the chicken
- Salt & Straw – Launching new “Dairy-Free Decadence Series” featuring five new vegan flavors including Toasted Oat Milk & Cookies, Red Velvet Cake w/ Cream Cheese Frosting, Bananas Foster w/ Candied Pecans, Marionberry Oatmeal Cobbler, and Death By Chocolate Chocolate Cake
- Sugar Taco – Launching a new special called “The Munchwrap,” filled with refried pinto beans, seitan carne asada, a crispy corn tostada, shredded lettuce, pico de gallo, crema, and queso, all wrapped in a toasted flour tortilla
“January marks a large consumer shift towards prioritizing planet friendly eating and living a healthy lifestyle, so we’re encouraging new and existing guests to participate in Veganuary with exciting weekly promotions throughout the whole month!” said Renae Scott, Chief Marketing Officer of Veggie Grill. “We’re looking forward to seeing our dedicated Veggie Grill fanbase in Los Angeles invite vegan-curious or flexitarian friends and family to try our plant-powered salads, bowls, comfort food and more.”
Veganuary aims to help people who are curious about eating vegan by providing free recipes, shopping tips, restaurant guides, and meal plans. Major national and regional brands, retailers, and restaurants have joined Veganuary by offering promotions, giveaways, and special menu items, viewable on Veganuary’s Special Offers page, while creating specialized marketing campaigns for plant-based products. The organization also works with restaurants, retailers, and other businesses to help them launch and promote exciting Veganuary specials and initiatives, outlined in the Veganuary Business Support Toolkit.
About Veganuary
Veganuary is a nonprofit organization that encourages people worldwide to try vegan for January and beyond. Since Veganuary launched its first pledge 10 years ago – in January 2014 – millions of people, coming from almost every country in the world, have officially taken part, with campaign hubs in Germany, USA, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, India, Spain and the UK. This New Year’s revolution has also been embraced by businesses, with hundreds of companies taking part in Veganuary last year, launching thousands of new vegan products and menu items. Veganuary is free to join, and people can sign up at veganuary.com.
MEDIA CONTACT:
Jessie Lingenfelter
Veganuary US Media
*All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc. Total sample size was 1242 adults. Fieldwork was undertaken between 1st – 4th December 2023. The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all US adults (aged 18+).
