5 Ways to Find Free Vegan Samples

Whether you’re exploring a new lifestyle, or just expanding your supplier list of vegan food, this updated list of free vegan samples should help you discover new brands, restaurants and companies.

Because let’s face it, being healthy can sometimes be expensive. I know many friends who are scared of switching to healthier options because the extra $1 to $5 per item can add up pretty quickly.

But if you know which brands to follow, what events to attend, and how to score free vegan samples regularly, going vegan shouldn’t be too costly. So if you’re feeling intimidated with the price or jump in lifestyle, maybe receiving free vegan samples could change your mind and be the push you need to welcome veganism with open arms.

Here are 5 Ways to Score Free Vegan Samples

Don’t know how or where to start? Here are 5 ways you can receive free vegan samples

1. Follow Vegan Brands

The cool thing about today’s economy is that both big and small businesses use social media to launch and market products, which means it is easy to follow vegan brands online.

Once you decide to try vegan, your best bet of getting free samples is directly from the source. Here’s why this is important:

• Companies host contests and giveaways on their social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or others.
• By following them on their respective accounts, you are up-to-date with promotions, announcements, giveaways, and freebies.
• When brands do giveaways, the game involves liking the page/post, sharing the company’s content, or tagging the brand. You cannot participate in any of these if you don’t follow the brands. Your chances of winning get higher when the contest has multi-steps to enter.

If you’re going to be following vegan brands, here’s an incomplete list of brands to follow initially:

• Veggie meats: Gardein, Tofurky, Field Roast, Beyond Meat, Wheaty, Quorn Vegan, Linda McCartney Foods, Fry’s Family Foods Co., Primal Strips, and even Trader Joe’s (that make their own soy chorizo and other kinds of deli).
• Vegan cheese and milk: Tofutti, Follow Your Heart, Wayfare, Violife, Daiya, Almond Breeze, Oatly, Silk, KoKo Dairy Free and So Delicious.
• Vegan spreads: Earth Balance, Pure Free From, Vegenaise, and JUST Mayo.
• Vegan Ice cream, yogurts and other cold desserts: Ben & Jerry’s Dairy-free, Halo Top, Tofutti Cuties, Coconut Bliss, Fry’s Family Foods, Alpro, So Delicious Minis, Daiya, Forager, and Kite Hill.
• Vegan baked goodies: SimplyProtein Bars, Annie’s, CLIF BUILDER’S Protein Bars, and Trader Joe’s.

If the websites of these brands have newsletters, make sure to register. Sometimes, companies are more traditional and stick to sending promotions via e-mail.

2. Join Vegan Organizations

If you don’t have a family member or friend who can recommend the best vegan food, there are organizations already set up to provide useful information. They also host events, give free recipes, and connect you to likeminded people in your area.

The best thing about these organizations is that they welcome anybody. Most even have readily-available free vegan starter kits for beginners too.

Here are some from The Vegan Society, PETA, Veganuary, TryVEG, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, AFA, and Million Dollar Vegan to get you started with baking/cooking guides, meal plans, recipes, restaurant recommendations, and so on.

3. Attend vegan festivals

If you received a couple of vegan starter packs, you’d probably discovered that there aren’t any vegan food samples included in the kits. If you’re still undecided, but don’t want to spend money exploring new food yet, then I recommend you attend a festival near you.

As with any kind of festivals, there would be plenty of vegan food, vegan drinks, vegan desserts, and other similar products. And you can expect most of the booths with free vegan samples, so you can try all the food or drink to your heart’s content before spending a cent.

If you’re lucky to attend an event with a bigger budget, you might even get to take home an entire loot bag.

4. Document Your Journey Online

Another way to get free vegan samples and other freebies is to document your vegan journey online. You have control over how you want to do this:

• Go to Instagram and showcase a newly-discovered product
• Blog on your own website or Facebook account
• Start a Pinterest account and create recipe infographics or photos
• Make a YouTube channel

If you’re good at sharing your newfound vegan lifestyle or reviewing products, companies may even send products over for you to review. You can also be proactive and sent sample requests to companies.

The good thing about this route is that even if there are plenty of vegan blogs around, there is always space for more people to educate, promote, and explore vegan.

5. Announce that You’re Looking for Free Vegan Samples

Now combine all the steps above to host your own event, organize a tasting party, make a mini local support group, or create your own product. To be able to do any of these things, you’ll need the support of existing brands and vegans.

Announce that you’re organizing an event or tasting party and contact vegan brands if they would like to send products as a sponsor. Usually this involves promoting the brands on posters and all other marketing materials in exchange for the freebies.

If you have a blog or becoming an influencer on Facebook (or other social media), one of the easiest ways of requesting vegan samples from companies is to host a giveaway. Some vegan brands even send out free t-shirts and other branded products that would be perfect prizes to include in your contest.

Where Else do You Get Free Vegan Samples?

Do you have a meatless recipe or vegan dessert that has changed your life and you’d be totally willing to share?

If you’re vegan and know all other goodies, where else can people find free samples? What are your favorite brands not on the list above?

Tried vegan food, but miss your old diet? Check out this list of free food you can get via app download, free chocolate, and other free food samples.