By: Andrew Bennett

A holiday centered around turkey can be a challenge for vegetarians

A typical Thanksgiving features turkey or ham sitting on the dinning room table, but there are few families who prefer veggies to the meat.

“I never did like the taste of meat, I ate it growing up because we didn’t have a lot of money and you ate what was made,” health teacher Mrs. Kim Scott said. “My brother bet me that I couldn’t go a month without eating it when I was 12, and I haven’t eaten it ever since.”

Mrs. Scott considers herself a vegetarian. Thanksgiving season creates fewer choices.

Over 7.3 million people are vegetarians in the United States, 59 percent are female and 41 percent are male, according to Vegetariantimes.com

“During Thanksgiving, I usually just eat the side dishes, ” English teacher Ms. Angela Smith said. “I don’t really cook a lot myself.”

Instead of eating the main course of ham or turkey, vegetarians go with substitutes such as tofu, casseroles, and other vegetable inspired dishes, according to Lovetoknow.com

From turn of the nineteenth century, many individuals in Britain were developing ideas that involved adopting a meat-free diet. The contexts in which these individuals came together as groups were quite different. The first long-term modern organization to abandon meat eating was the Bible Christian Church, led by the Reverend William Cowherd in Salford, near Manchester, according to vegsoc.org

Vegetarians are carrying on a tradition that dates back to the nineteenth century, modernizing this way of life.