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Title says it all; I'm vegan for animal cruelty reasons, and would rather not be handling meat, which is difficult considering most of jobs available to me are fast food. At this point I'm expecting to just suck it up and deal with it, because that's life, but I thought I'd ask here first, because why not

Edit: I live in Ottawa, Canada

atoms118
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  • It might be beneficial to include your country (or at least larger geographical area if country is too private for you) for people to be able to answer your question. Also, many countries have weird rules regarding jobs for under 16 or even under 18 persons where you either earn painfully little money or you are not allowed to *work* at all. You might want to look into all this before spending time applying to jobs. – Alexander Rossa Feb 27 '18 at 21:52
  • I have updated my question, and don't worry, I've at least done enough research to know that working at 15 in Canada is legal :P – atoms118 Feb 27 '18 at 22:39
  • Glad to hear that, I mentioned that just in case - where I live (Europe) it is either rather hard or outright illegal with only a couple exceptions. Good luck with finding a (vegan) job :) – Alexander Rossa Feb 28 '18 at 00:51
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    Do you want to avoid _handling_ meat, or _cooking/serving_ meat? (A grocery store cashier, for example, would be selling animal products, but wouldn't be "handling" them in the same way.) – Erica Feb 28 '18 at 15:55

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Unless you have reasons other than your age to think "most of jobs available to me are fast food" you are probably worrying over nothing. Just forget about food-related jobs entirely - opportunities are everywhere.

For example, I like music, so I worked at a radio station and later a retail store (guitars etc.), neither of which required much if any prior experience. I got them through personal connections rather than cold calling. I never seriously considered a food-related job because they generally seem like a nightmare: low pay, messy/smelly environment, and demanding physical labor.

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My biggest advice to you is one that you might not immediately like, but please, give it a thought:

Don't look for a job yet.

Go on with your education. Go to university. Learn about agriculture, or about ethics, about the climate, or just about anything you're interested in!

If you think you need to work in order to study, apply for scholarships first. Ask your family.

If everything else fails, work something alongside your studies. It doesn't matter so much what you do, just avoid fast food, and you'll find plenty of opportunities. Look at all the vegetarian restaurants and shops there are in Ottawa. They might have a job for you.

Why all that?

Because you can do so much more with your life than just avoiding work at McDonalds. There are jobs for vegans out there that can change the world, and you can get one of them eventually.

But most probably not from where you are right now. You'll have to work your way up in order to make a change. Complete and extend your education. Build what's called "career capital", which means, skills and such that will help you do a really good job.

Have a look at this short article about where to start to work against factory farming. In order to do something for the animals, research is needed, heck, good politicians are needed.

You're vegan at 15, I'm impressed. It took me nearly double as long as it took you. You're probably strong willed, and you can probably go a long way, and make a big difference.

Turion
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    This is a good answer, thanks! Also, my parents raised me vegetarian so the leap to vegan wasn't as difficult as it is for the average person, especially because of their support – atoms118 Mar 02 '18 at 04:03