
Our Million Plates program works with hospitals, aged care facilities, and public venues across Australia to bring more plant-rich meals onto menus.
Our goal? One million plates!

What we do
As a non-profit organisation, we provide all of these services completely free of charge

Menu consultation
We provide advice to help improve menus by:
- Providing real choice and rebalancing menus
- Using positive language and subtle plant-based promotion
- Training chefs and offering taste-testing
- Introducing plant-rich menus & planet-friendly days
- Celebrating your plant-forward journey with our ProVeg Sustainability Awards

Recipe development
Working with expert chefs, we create nutritious recipes for the people they serve, whether that’s patients, residents, staff, or the general public. Our recipes are affordable, commercially practical, and built around familiar, well-loved meals. They’re also designed with environmental sustainability in mind.
Good food supports recovery, wellbeing, and quality of life. That’s why all of our Million Plates recipes:
- Match meat-based dishes in protein content
- Are lower in saturated fat
- Are rich in fibre and essential nutrients
- Are low or very low carbon-rated
- Meet Australian hospital and aged care nutrition standards
Why our recipes are better for everyone:
- As low as 27% of the emissions of non plant-based meals
- 20% lower cost compared to the average meat-based equivalent
- 30% more fibre and 87% lower in saturated fat

Workshops and training
Through our plant-based cooking workshops, we give caterers the tools, techniques, and confidence to serve healthy meals with sustainability in mind.
In-person training
In these hands-on training sessions, our experienced and enthusiastic plant-based chef trainers work alongside catering teams, development chefs, and kitchen staff from hospitals, aged care facilities, workplaces, and public venues, sometimes joined by local suppliers too. Our aim is to help everyone approach plant-based food with fresh eyes, build confidence with new ingredients and recipes, and have plenty of fun along the way.
Online workshops
Our sessions are built for caterers, foodservice managers, sustainability leads, and anyone curious about plant-based cooking. We show you how to prepare simple, affordable, nutritionally balanced and, above all, delicious plant-based recipes that diners genuinely enjoy.
Each live workshop runs for one hour. You’ll get recipe demonstrations, insights from an expert guest speaker, and plenty of time for questions.
Topics we cover:
- The Million Plates program: why healthy, sustainable menus built around planet-friendly meals matter
- Practical plant-based cooking: how to work with plant-based ingredients and cooking methods, brought to life through recipe demos
- ProVeg Sustainability Awards: an introduction to the awards and the evidence-based actions behind them
Built around you
Every kitchen is different. We can build a tailored training plan around your menus, your team, and your service model. Get in touch to see how we can support you.

ProVeg Sustainability Awards
Caterers across Australia are doing incredible work to make their menus healthier and more sustainable.┬á Our menu-certification scheme, the ProVeg Sustainability Awards, are our way of recognising the positive steps they are taking for people’s health and the planet.
The ProVeg Sustainability Awards is an evidence-based, tiered awards system that presents caterers
across Australia with Gold, Silver and Bronze awards, a prestigious recognition of their commitment to
healthy and sustainable menus.
Taking part is free. It’s simply our way of celebrating your amazing efforts.
If you’re interested in taking part, get in touch with us at [email protected].

Climate, health, and budget analysis
We help you measure the impact of introducing powerful, plant-forward actions such as planet-friendly days and increasing vegetables and legumes in dishes. Caterers can lead the way in fostering healthy eating habits that minimise the environmental impact of our meal choices.
The data supporting the benefits is compelling, and it highlights the transformative potential of embracing sustainable and healthy options on menus across Australia.
We’re here to help you demonstrate the positive impact of the changes you’re making.
By providing us with some basic data and working with our program analyst, we can generate a report showcasing your personalised impact data. You can share this report with your stakeholders to advocate for change and celebrate success together!

Network meetings and Webinars
We host a regular online networking meeting, featuring presentations from caterers and organisations sharing their experiences. Participants explore the impact of their menu changes, and discuss what has worked well and the challenges they have overcome in making their menus more planet-friendly. It’s a great opportunity to learn more about Million Plates, to ask questions, share ideas, and seek peer support.
We’d love to see you there! You can sit quietly and soak up the information or get more involved, it’s entirely up to you.
We also offer customised webinars for caterers, climate and sustainability organisations, as well as public health and other government departments, to share how we can work together to make food service healthier and more climate-friendly. And we’re happy to join your events, including climate or health summits, to talk about food or facilitate workshops.
Why we do it
01
Improve health
Moving towards plant-rich diets is one of the most powerful steps we can take to reduce the risk of chronic disease including heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and obesity.
02
Help the environment
Moving towards plant-rich diets is one of the most impactful actions we can take to reduce our environmental footprint: water use, carbon emissions, land clearing, biodiversity loss, and pollution.
03
Save time and money
Moving towards plant-rich menus built on affordable staples like legumes, grains, and vegetables simplifies catering for diverse dietary needs, with a single dish often suitable for vegetarian, dairy-free, halal, and kosher diners.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Million Plates program?
Million Plates is a ProVeg Australia program that works with hospitals, aged care facilities and public venues across Australia to bring more plant-rich meals onto menus, with the goal of one million plant-rich plates. It provides menu consultation, recipe development, workshops and training, the ProVeg Sustainability Awards, climate, health and budget analysis, and network meetings and webinars.
Does Million Plates cost anything?
No. As a non-profit organisation, ProVeg Australia provides all Million Plates services completely free of charge.
Who is Million Plates for?
Million Plates works with food-service providers to hospitals, aged care facilities, workplaces and public venues across Australia, including caterers, foodservice managers, development chefs, kitchen staff, and procurement and menu-development teams.
What does the menu consultation involve?
The menu consultation helps improve menus by rebalancing them to provide real choice, using positive language and subtle plant-based promotion, training chefs and offering taste-testing, introducing plant-rich menus and planet-friendly days, and recognising progress through the ProVeg Sustainability Awards.
What standards do Million Plates recipes meet?
Million Plates recipes are developed with expert chefs around familiar, well-loved meals, and are affordable and commercially practical. Every recipe matches meat-based dishes in protein content, is lower in saturated fat, is rich in fibre and essential nutrients, is low or very-low carbon-rated, and meets Australian hospital and aged care nutrition standards.
How are Million Plates meals better for the planet, budget and health?
Compared with the average meat-based equivalent, Million Plates meals can have as low as 27% of the emissions, cost 20% less, and provide 30% more fibre with 87% lower saturated fat.
What training and workshops are available?
Million Plates offers hands-on in-person training, where plant-based chef trainers work alongside catering teams, development chefs and kitchen staff, and one-hour live online workshops featuring recipe demonstrations, an expert guest speaker, and time for questions. Sessions cover the Million Plates program, practical plant-based cooking, and the ProVeg Sustainability Awards, and can be tailored to your menus, team and service model.
What are the ProVeg Sustainability Awards?
The ProVeg Sustainability Awards are a free, evidence-based menu-certification scheme that recognises caterers across Australia with tiered Gold, Silver and Bronze awards for making their menus healthier and more sustainable.
How can a caterer or venue get involved?
Get in touch with the ProVeg Australia team at [email protected] to arrange a tailored plan built around your menus, team and service model.
Why serve more plant-rich meals in food service?
Moving toward plant-rich menus is one of the most powerful steps to improve health, helping to reduce the risk of chronic disease including heart disease, type 2 diabetes and obesity; to lower environmental impact such as water use, emissions, land clearing and biodiversity loss; and to save time and money, since dishes built on affordable staples like legumes, grains and vegetables also simplify catering for diverse needs, with a single dish often suitable for vegetarian, dairy-free, halal and kosher diners.






