Ghent's Donderdag Veggiedag makes Thursday the world's first city veggie day

EVA, Belgium's largest vegetarian organisation, wanted a city-wide way to cut meat consumption for health and the climate. Ghent's city services had the reach to make the idea an official weekly habit rather than a one-off campaign.

Make one day a week meat-free for the city: every Thursday residents, schools and restaurants skip meat and fish, turning climate action into a shared weekly ritual.

In May 2009 EVA and Ghent's environment and health services launched Donderdag Veggiedag: Thursday became the city's official veggie day, public institutions and restaurants offered vegetarian options, and city schools served vegetarian lunches on Thursdays. Around 90,000 printed veggie street maps and restaurant brochures told residents and visitors where to eat, and the fixed weekday gave the habit a repeatable rhythm.

Ghent became the first city in the world with an official weekly meat-free day. Around 90,000 'veggie street maps' were printed at launch, city schools joined the scheme, and within months the idea was reported worldwide and copied by other Belgian towns and cities abroad.

In May 2009 the Belgian city of Ghent, together with the vegetarian organisation EVA (Ethisch Vegetarisch Alternatief), declared Thursday the city's official 'Veggiedag' — a weekly day without meat or fish. Ghent became the first city in the world to institute such a day, framed around health and climate rather than moralising.

The city used its own machinery to make the habit real: public canteens offered vegetarian menus, city schools served vegetarian lunches on Thursdays, and restaurants signed up across town. Around 90,000 so-called 'veggie street maps' were printed to help residents and visitors find the city's vegetarian eateries.

The idea was deliberately simple — one day, every week, the same ask — so it spread without new infrastructure. Within months it was covered on every continent, other Belgian towns adopted their own veggie days, and Ghent's later food and climate strategy still cites the 2009 campaign as the starting point of the city's shift toward more plant-based food.

A fixed weekday made the behaviour self-repeating: no launch event was needed each week, just the calendar.

Official city endorsement gave the idea legitimacy and reach that a private campaign could not match, from schools to municipal canteens.

It framed vegetarianism as a shared civic routine for climate and health, not a personal moral position.

Printed street maps turned participation into a practical, visible choice — where to eat, not just why.

A fixed weekly rhythm plus official city backing outlasts a one-off stunt: repeating the same small ask every Thursday lets schools, restaurants and residents join without new campaigns.

Donderdag Veggiedag ran for years in Ghent and inspired copycats in other Belgian cities and abroad. EVA later became ProVeg Belgium, which still describes Thursday Veggie Day as its best-known campaign, and Ghent's current climate food strategy dates the city's plant-based shift to the 2009 initiative.