Vegan Restaurant Activism
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When I travel I do my research beforehand. I look on Happy Cow and Veg Guide to find vegan and vegetarian restaurants. Sadly, many small communities have few or no vegan restaurant options.
It makes sense that there aren’t many completely vegan or vegetarian restaurants in small communities given the small population. Any restaurant is a big financial risk and a vegan restaurant is an even bigger risk.
What if there was a nonprofit organization dedicated to setting up vegan restaurants in cities where there are none?
What would the nonprofit organization do?
- The organization could offer small business grants and loans to vegan restaurateurs.
- The organization could run a few restaurants at a loss or break-even as a form of vegan activism. Maybe even something as simple as a food cart of veggie hot dogs or bean burritos.
- It would be a very focussed niche to serve vegans. It would be about vegans’ rights and opportunities, not necessarily about animal rights/ liberation.
- Its mission: to provide vegan people with adequate dining options and a sense of community.
- The restaurants would be sort of like vegan churches and the restaurateurs would be sort of like vegan missionaries.
- Donations would, of course, be tax deductible.
- It could be called something like “Vegangelist” or “V Church.”
- It would encourage tourism among vegans, vegetarians, and food lovers.
- The models: Kiva and Prosper
- It could overlap into other types of community activism.
- For example, low cost vegan restaurants are a great option for people who are poor, homeless, or otherwise in need of nutrition.
- And grants and loans for vegan restaurants can help individuals and families earn an income from a peaceful, healthy, pro-community business.
Now that’s a nonprofit I could support!
That would be a great idea. In a sense, there are collective vegan cafés that work like that. They rely on charity as well (although in this case people’s willingness to volunteer).
They are small enterprises, though. An overarching organisation would have more resources and the ability to help people set up their own vegan place.
Yes, an overarching organization would help bring veganism to communities with very few vegans or support small vegan communities in areas where they have few vegan options. And it would work well with the local food and organic food movements.
People could contribute time or money. The money contributed could be in loans (like Kiva or Prosper) or it could be pure donations (tax deductible) to fund grants.
The great thing about veganism is that it’s food based. Food has always been a a big part of cultural identity, but it’s also been a bridge for varied cultures to learn and accept one another. Vegan restaurants can help bridge the human-animal gap, the vegan-omnivore gap, and the fastfood-healthfood gap. I think loans and donations towards vegan restaurants are ultimately investments in community in general, not just in the vegan community. This idea excites me.
I own a heart healthy restauraunt in a small farming community. I serve vegans and vegetarian meals, I would love to go completly vegetrian, but because of money, I have to serve some meat. I do only have vegetarian breakfast foods. I have the only restauraunt in the city I live in. I am listed on Happy Cow. I am struggling a lot with funding and may have to close if something don’t change by the end of this month. Any suggestions would help
Melanie, I suggest that you look into providing mail-order or delivery service for your vegan items. And I suggest that you do some cheap guerrilla marketing to promote your vegan food.
I am a Peace Corps Volunteer serving in Mongolia, easily the meat capitol of the world, which has been an interesting experience for me, as a vegetarian. Mongolians of course eat meat for good reasons: herding is their livelihood, fruit and vegetables are not easily come by and are more expensive, while meat is relatively cheap, and, on the plus side, all animals are free range and are slaughtered relatively humanely. Despite all this, vegetarianism (and even vegan-ism!)are actually slowly making their way through this country and, happily, encouraging a lot more veg-eating on the part of Mongolians! There are a series of vegetarian/vegan restaurants that have begun to open up around the country, though primarily in the bigger cities. I live in a smaller town and I have a good friend who is interested in opening up a vegetarian restaurant with her vegetarian sister. Unfortunately they don’t have the start up capital to do so. Do you know if there is any sort of organization or nonprofit along the lines of what you suggested above that might actually be able to fund this? I’m sure it’s a long shot but doesn’t hurt to ask! Any suggestions you have would be much appreciated!