No More Homeless Pets Conference: The Food!
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I am attending Best Friends’ No More Homeless Pets Conference for the first time this year.
I have visited and volunteered at the Best Friends’ Sanctuary in Kanab, Utah. While there I enjoyed eating lunch at the buffet in this beautiful setting. The food at Best Friends is vegetarian and sometimes very imaginative. I wondered how it would be at the conference.
Turns out it is also vegetarian. Many of the dishes are vegan, however, and labeled that way. They are the type of dishes that are likely to be familiar to a wide group, including the many omnivores who attend this conference. Friday the main dishes at lunch were fettuccini alfredo, eggplant parmesan, and soy chicken with a red sauce (that was vegan). The soups are vegan – minestrone Friday, black bean Saturday. The desserts include fruit “cocktails” – mixes of berries and small pieces of other fruits – along with the dairy-and-egg-laden pastries.
what I had Saturday
Saturday was Mexican-themed. I had rice and beans, a roll, vegan fajitas (for some reason there were both vegan and vegetarian fajita mixes and they looked identical).
Snacks are the usual hotel fare: chips and sodas, pretzels. I don’t know what is offered for the “continental breakfast” but I don’t think I would be surprised by it.
Perhaps in a year or so Best Friends will take that final leap and go vegan. It might require getting a good vegan chef to work with the hotel kitchen, because most hotel chefs are willing to accommodate but don’t have a lot of imagination in the vegan area. I do not think that the omni nature of this conference should prevent this move, and a good vegan menu could turn heads and change minds.
As an FYI, I considered getting a booth at the event to give away free vegan food and literature. The hotel (not Best Friends) refused to allow a food booth. And Best Friends (not the hotel) would not allow any “graphic images” though that wasn’t clearly defined. I opted to focus energy elsewhere this year, but perhaps next year we’ll have a booth.
I will be writing an article on the amenities and extras at this conference. I am glad that there was a conference evaluation form that allowed us all to comment on all aspects and make suggestions. There are probably reasons for the decisions Best Friends made on food, the exhibit hall, internet access, for example, but it never hurts to let them know what we liked and didn’t like.