Foundation Week Without Meat is a Dutch organization that was founded by Isabel Boerdam. Isabel has been a vegetarian since the age of 9 and has been sharing vegetarian content on her Dutch food blog ‘De Hippe Vegetariër’ since 2013. In 2018, she decided it was time to do more. Leveraging her communication expertise and food network, Isabel wanted to contribute to the challenging climate goals and societal health. She created the ‘Week Without Meat’-campaign and independently launched its first edition in 2018 in the Netherlands. This first edition went viral and showed proof of great potential.
Therefore, Isabel launched a non-profit foundation to carry the campaign going forward. Foundation Week Without Meat now has its own team, which, as part of the LIKE-A-PRO project, is responsible for the implementation of the Week Without Meat in both the Netherlands and other European countries. What started as a one-(wo)man initiative, grew into an international movement over the past years.
The goal of the Week Without Meat campaign is to challenge people not to eat meat for 7 days, to help them experience how easy and delicious it is to eat plant-based more often. With that, the foundation aims to move people towards a more flexitarian diet, in which animal products are more often alternated with plant-based alternatives.
In order to do so, the campaign offers recipes, tips, and tricks through their social media channels, website and free downloadable kickstart magazine. Ever since it was launched in 2018, the campaign has proven its success in the Netherlands and by now has 3 million yearly participants (20% of the population). In order to create impact across the Dutch border, Foundation Week Without Meat has been expanding its behavioral change campaign into other European countries since 2023.
BELGIUM
In 2023, Belgium was the first country on the roadmap for Week Without Meat’s European expansion. The Belgian campaign was organized under the name ‘Week Zonder Vlees’ (in Flanders)/’Semaine Sans Viande’ (in Wallonia). Almost 380.000 people participated in the first edition, which is 4% of the adult Belgian population. The second edition of the Belgian campaign in 2024 was an even bigger success: within one year, the campaign more than doubled its impact by managing to inspire 850.000 people to participate in the second edition (9% of the adult population). Besides a big social media and PR campaign, the campaigns in Belgium featured a cozy winter barbecue and a plant-based launch event with media and press in a local restaurant – setting the tone for an inspiring week. And the best news: 86% of participants say they want to keep eating less or no meat after having taken part in the campaign. This way, the Week Without Meat leads to lasting behaviour change!
DENMARK
A year after first being introduced in Belgium, the Week Without Meat conquered new European territory by launching its campaigns in Denmark and Germany. In Denmark, the campaign was launched under the name ‘National Kødfri Uge’ from 9 to 15 September 2024. In order to reach as many people as possible, not only was the campaign actively present on social media, but it also used an effective PR campaign.
Moreover, Foundation Week Without Meat was present at Aarhus Food Festival the weekend before the campaign to inspire visitors with free recipes and delicious tastings. Media and press were tempted with a plant-based press dinner at Bistro Lupa in Copenhagen. All in all, these efforts led to the first ever Danish campaign being noticed by a whopping 19% of the Danish population! About 100.000 people (2% of the population) participated in the campaign, of which 89% intends to keep up their behaviour change after having taken part.
GERMANY
Germany also experienced its first-ever Week Without Meat campaign in 2024, under the name ‘Eine Woche ohne Fleisch’. And what a success it was! In just this first edition, 8% of the German population participated — which is roughly 5.5 million people. In Germany, the campaign left its mark by not only creating a big social media campaign and PR storm, but also travelling through the country with the one and only Eine Woche ohne Fleisch foodtruck to hand out more than 1,500 free plant-based meals. The result? 95% of participants say they want to make a lasting change to their eating habits!
Changing the European food system one plate at a time
All in all, in 2024 alone, 9.3 million participants from four different countries took on the challenge of eating vegetarian or plant-based for a week during the Week Without Meat. Together, they helped save a millions of tons of CO₂ emissions: this shows that a small change, embraced by many, can have a powerful impact. With no need to go fully vegetarian or vegan, the campaign offers an accessible way to shift societies towards a more plant-based food system. By eating plant-based more often, together we can create a more sustainable world, one plate at a time!
“Don’t wait for a better world. It is up to you.
You may even find the solution at the end of your fork.”