Natural choice
One of the biggest free vegan festivals in New England is back with more speakers, food samples and vendors than ever before, and its organizers promise the event will help make plant-based eating easier and more delicious.
New England VegFest 2016 runs Sunday at the DCU Center 50 Foster St. from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. VegWorcester, a local nonprofit, is hosting the event. Admission is free and includes a speaker series, free food samples, vegan cooking demos, educational exhibits, book signings, children’s activities and fundraising raffles.
This year’s kids’ play area will feature a children's book reading, family-friendly yoga, local musicians, seed-bomb making for kids presented by the Regional Environmental Council, and kids' art activities presented by local nonprofit Main IDEA.
New England Vegfest attracts thousands from all over the region and brings the local community together to celebrate vegetarianism — an animal-friendly, environmentally sustainable and healthy lifestyle, its organizers say. The event, which began as The Worcester VegFest back in 2010, is now in its seventh year and will feature more than 120 socially responsible exhibitors, inspiring national speakers, a vegan food court, and complimentary samples of food and product, according to Manda Rose Hendrickson, co-founder of the event and organizer at VegWorcester.
Some of the food vendors at the event this year include the Loving Hut, Belmont Vegetarian, Chickpea, Hippiecakes Vegan Bakery, Like No Udder (a dairy-free ice cream truck,) Thai Time, Vegan Treats and Fomu.
“I’ve been involved with the fest since 2010 and have seen it grow and evolve into such an impressive and inspiring event for the community,” Hendrickson said. “I have a true sense of pride being a part of something so powerful that is bringing a message of compassion for animals, vibrant health, and sustainability to thousands upon thousands of attendees each year.”
Living a vegan lifestyle has many benefits, Hendrickson said, and is safe for people of all ages.
“Eating fewer animal products often results in lower cholesterol, lower blood pressure, reduced body fat, and a reduced risk of cancer,” she said. “Vegan food is delicious and our plethora of vegan food vendors at New England VegFest will showcase just that. And, we always have a lineup of impressive and captivating presenters.”
Lorelei L. Plotczyk, a 35-year-old vegan environmentalist from Uxbridge, is one of the presenters at the event. She holds an MBA in environmental management and founded the grassroots campaign “Truth or Drought,” which aims to help people make the connection between water scarcity and animal agriculture. She said she “strives to position veganism in a new light” with the use of humor to disarm people.
“When people think about vegan things they think of it as negative — they think of being scolded, deprivation and things they don’t want to think about,” Plotczyk said. “I try to flip their perspective and reposition it in a way that makes people stop and think, ‘That actually makes sense. I don’t feel attacked by that. It’s actually true.’ I don’t want to be looked at as preaching at people. It is very easy to turn people off with this topic. I want to show them that I am a normal person with other interests, that being vegan is part of who you are and people can embrace it without it defining them.”
She said Sunday will be her first visit to Worcester after living in California for more than a decade, and she is excited she was chosen to present at the event.
“I think more and more, people are awakening to the fact that animal agriculture is at the heart of our current environmental crisis,” Plotczyk said. “It seems like another study comes out every day at this point confirming that. Our habits and awareness just need to catch up with the science like we’ve seen with lead paint or smoking.”
People are becoming more aware that water scarcity isn’t just a problem in California and other dry parts of the world, she said, and that it will affect everyone based on the fact that a lot of food is grown in those areas.
“If you spend a little time looking into it, it is undeniable,” she said. “It’s not just ‘vegan propaganda.’ If you look at the studies conducted by scientists and researchers at universities — the majority of whom aren’t vegan — the fact that all the research is showing veganism is so much better for the environment, it makes us stop and think."
Drew R. Wilson, president of VegWorcester and co-founder of New England VegFest, says adopting a vegan lifestyle is the best way to save the greatest number of animals.
“The competition to produce inexpensive meat, eggs and dairy products has led agribusiness to treat animals as objects and commodities, and our event provides a base for educating the community that what is really going on behind the scenes is cruel and simply not necessary when there are so many animal-free options out there,” Mr. Wilson said.
VegWorcester is a community organization that advocates vegetarian living in central Massachusetts, and organizes educational events around veganism, animal welfare and the environmental impact of meat production.
For more information, visit NewEnglandVegFest.com or Facebook.com/Vegworcester.
Featured presentations
Noon: "Spiralizing: The Fun and Easy Way to Turn Produce into Pasta,” a cooking demo with Beverly Lynn Bennett, vegan chef, writer, animal advocate
1 p.m.: A cooking demo by Stephanie Bogdanich and Jessica Morris, authors of "The Taco Cleanse: The Tortilla-Based Diet Proven to Change Your Life"
2 p.m.: "The Extremism of Veganism," presented by Emily Moran Barwick, artist, activist, educator and creator of "Bite Size Vegan"
3:30 p.m.: "Veganism: Part of Your Complete Climate Action Breakfast!" presented by Lorelei Plotczyk, vegan environmentalist
List of speakers for New England VegFest at the DCU
