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You can increase the number of vegan options in your hometown. How? With easy vegan activism.
Why Reducing Meat Consumption is Important
Reducing meat consumption has advantages for your health, animals, and our planet. So, it is worth giving it a try.
Vegan food is yummy. When people who are resistant to ditching meat realize how good vegan food can be, they become open to at least reducing their meat consumption.
Eating a plant-based diet makes you healthier and you’re more likely to live longer.
Less meat consumption means fewer greenhouse gases. It is one of the best ways you can impact global warming. In fact, avoiding meat and dairy is the one way you can make a difference in global warming. More than driving a Prius.
In addition to impacting our environment, factory farming of animals is terribly cruel to animals. And it is one of the biggest polluters of our water system.
People can tick off a lot of wonderful accomplishments with a simple diet change.
My Experiences as a Vegan in a Small Town
I live in a small town outside of Knoxville Tennessee. We are in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, but on what we call the ‘peaceful side of the Smokies.’ If you’ve been to Pigeon Forge or Gatlinburg you’ll understand why having a peaceful side is important.
This is also a southern state with all that accompanies that from a culinary perspective – barbeque, home cooking restaurants and buffets. We have never had a vegan or vegetarian restaurant in our county. And, sadly, the nearest larger city, Knoxville, has few options.
Of course, I would love vegan options. But I like to dream big, too.
In my ideal community, people eat vegan as a normal diet, and meat-eating is the diet that is considered strange. Schools, restaurants, and grocery stores have plenty of plant-based foods available at a reasonable cost. There is no factory farming of animals; instead, there are community-supported agriculture programs so local, organic produce is available. My county has such a great vegan vibe that it has become a destination.
This will happen someday. I’m nudging it along.
How to Increase Vegan Options in Your Hometown
My approach to vegan activism is one of encouragement. Using the same approach as when I talk with people about reducing their meat, with encouragement.
I encourage restaurants to improve their business with better options for people who are reducing their meat consumption or are vegan. A positive approach gets your foot in the door. I simply ask them to consider adding vegan options, thank them, and move on. Shaming is not an approach I’m willing to use on people, including restaurant owners.
I was inspired to support veganism in my country by a post on Vegan.com called Local Vegan Activism. The author is Hillary Rettig, who also wrote a great book called The Lifelong Activist. Hillary describes the efforts that led to Kalamazoo, Michigan becoming a vegan mecca. Here is what she says about the results.
What have we gained through all the time we’ve invested into promotion, partnering, message discipline, and so forth? The results have been outstanding!
After six years, we’re up to nearly 5,000 people spread between our Facebook group, Meetup group, and mailing list. We hold several events every month, many of which have dozens of attendees.
Dozens of local restaurants now serve great vegan options, with new ones coming on board almost every month.
Our growth is only accelerating. In the early days, we were growing at a dozen people a month. Now it’s more like a dozen every week!
And we’ve helped support the growth of at least a couple of other area vegan groups.
Not bad for a group in a small midwestern city! If we can do it here in Kalamazoo, you can, too—wherever you are! One or two local activists is all it takes to turn a community that’s dead to veganism into a thriving vegan hotspot.
Enjoy browsing the Vegan Kalamazoo website.
Getting Vegan Options in My Town: My Action Plan
Define Vegan Options
If you’ve been vegetarian or vegan you have experienced restaurant menus with no options. Or perhaps just a garden salad with vinegar and oil. Vegans want more options than that. I decided ‘vegan options’ must include two entrees that are plant-based without any modifications.
For example, if a restaurant offers a veggie pasta with Parmesan Cheese, taking the cheese off would make it vegan. But that is not the entree the chef planned. Vegan Parmesan exists and adds a nice flavor to pasta.
Some restaurants have seasonal menus. So, I make an exception to ‘two vegan options on the menu’ for these restaurants, since I know the chef will prepare vegan options with the local, seasonal produce on request. At one of these restaurants in my area you can call ahead and they will tweak their seasonal menu with several vegan options and a vegan dessert. Awesome!
Create a Website
First, I created a website called Vegan Blount County. On the home page, a person can choose (1) to see a list of restaurants that offer vegan options, or (2) a path for food service businesses.
The restaurant list includes the ability to see the restaurant on a Google Map.
On the page for food service businesses, owners can browse information about getting started with vegan options. I explore the advantages of doing so:
- More customers
- Easy to add options
- Free exposure for the restaurant
- A certificate showing Vegan Blount County supports them
Personal Contacts
I started with a comprehensive list of restaurants from our Chamber of Commerce Directory. Then I culled the list to local restaurants. Restaurants that are part of a chain or a franchise don’t have control over their menu. If a chain restaurant offers at least two vegan options I will list them.
When I visit a restaurant I ask about vegan options. When they have anything vegan, like an entree, appetizer, or supporting options such as vegan cheese or plant-based milk, I make sure to thank them on behalf of the Blount County vegan community. Then I provide my business card that lists information about the website and how to get on the Restaurant List.
My Letter for Restaurants
Another outreach effort is to send a letter to businesses.
Hi,My name is Terri Lyon and I run the website Vegan Blount County.The reason I am contacting you is that I’d love to include you on our list of restaurants that offer vegan options. Do you have entrees without meat, dairy, and egg? If so, will you respond back and let me know, so I can add you to our site?If not, are you interested in being featured on our site? There is no charge. Simply add two vegan options. Vegan food is trending. With vegan options, you should see more customers and revenues. Large groups tend to go to restaurants that offer vegan options because there is usually one vegan in the group.Here are a few ideas:First, a separate vegan menu is awesome, but not necessary. In fact, it is better to place vegan entrees on your regular menu and add the vegan symbol after them. Vegans will understand and others will order it just because it sounds yummy.Consider how to make your existing menu items vegan. For some dishes, this is an easy tweak. For example, curry without fish sauce, pasta with olive oil instead of butter, or a vegetable side dish made into an entree.Add a plant-based option in a category, such as the Impossible Burger to your burger section.You’ll show you want to please vegans if you offer vegan options for coffee creamer, cheese, mayonnaise, and milk.Feel free to also check in with me if you have any questions about supporting the vegan community. I’d love to help.Sincerely,Terri Lyon
I encourage restaurants that provide vegan specials to post in our Blount County Vegan Facebook group.
When I add a restaurant to the list, I send them a certificate to post in their restaurant. I also feature particularly vegan-friendly restaurants with a blog post and a featured spot on the website home page.
How It Is Going in my Small Town
Since I started Vegan Blount County the number of restaurants offering at least 2 vegan options on their menu has increased from 10% to 22%. I’m proud of that but I don’t think my efforts were a huge part. Instead, restaurant owners and a chef who wanted their own vegan options made others up their game. When restaurants realize that people want vegan options and especially that large groups want alternatives, they expand their options.
Options if you Don’t Have Time
You may not have the desire or time to try to change every restaurant in your area. That’s okay. But there are still easy vegan activism actions you can take.
- When you visit a restaurant, always ask about vegan options. That will help keep vegan needs on their radar. Sometimes you will end up educating the server.
- If they provide vegan options, thank them. If the chef creates something special just for you, also thank them. Suggest they add it to their menu.
- If they don’t provide vegan options, let them know how that impacted your dining experience. Suggest ways they could tweak their current menu to create vegan options.
My Future Plans for Vegan Blount County
Following the lead of Vegan Kalamazoo, I plan to add other businesses to my list. They feature vegan-friendly caterers, bakeries, healthcare providers, salons, travel agencies, cleaning companies, shoe stores, and even tattoo artists!
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