Sat 6/4 @ 9:00AM-9PM
Until maybe 25 years ago, Cleveland was almost exclusively a meat-and-potatoes town, overflowing with steaks and hamburgers. Being a vegetarian was lonely; it meant ordering a lot of side salads and orders of French fries while dining with friends at Sterle’s Slovenian House or the old Hofbrauhaus. No one ever heard of a vegan — someone who eats no animal-based food products, including cheese, butter, milk, and eggs.
“Ten years ago, nobody in Cleveland even knew the word,” says Megan Johnson, president and marketing director of the Cleveland Vegan Society, a nonprofit organization founded in 2012.
Things have certainly changed, and they’re changing more each day. Last year, the Cleveland Vegan Society held its first annual VegFest at Cleveland State University.
“We worked really hard but we didn’t know how many people would come,” says Johnson. “We were hoping for a thousand on our best, most hopeful day. We got 2,500 in our first year. That signaled Cleveland is ready for this and wants to learn.”
The event featured numerous restaurants, chefs, and caterers serving vegan dishes, a marketplace of vendors and organizations promoting a healthy, environmentally friendly, and cruelty-free lifestyle, speakers, films, and booking signings.
There’ll be more of the same at this year’s VegFest, again a free, all-day event, taking place at Cleveland State University’s Main Classroom Building.
Leigh Davis, the group’s secretary and sponsorships chair says, “We’ve expanded on some vendors. We’ve tried to get a different mix of food vendors than last year, and added a few new vendors to mix. We’ve got more vendors upstairs [at the marketplace] that aren’t food. We’ve got a short film on feral cats, which is something a little different. We want to invite people in animal shelter community, to make connection with the work they are doing [and veganism]. There’s an overlap with people doing animal rescue, who make the connection between the value in those animals and others.”
She describes the goal of Vegfest as “to make an educational event that is also a showcase for local groups and food and give general populace the tools they need to go vegan. We’re hearing great stories from people who came last year and went vegan afterward. I’m sure a lot of those people were already interested or maybe they were vegetarian. We’re going to do a survey this year to find out.”
Johnson adds, “We got a lot of feedback from individuals after last year’s Vegfest, some of them saying that it actually literally changed their lives as far as how they saw the world. A couple that stand out to me were vegetarians, and they went to Vegfest and they were able to see the difference. They became clear on taking the next step to vegan and understood how it all came together.”
For people in a city that still likes its meat a lot, the idea of going vegan seems like a stretch for most. They shouldn’t be intimidated by VegFest, says Johnson. It’s not their intention to shame or lecture people.
“We’re not out to judge anybody,” she says. “ None of us were born vegans. We found this truth we believe in. We just want to provide access to information and the truth as we understand it, and give people an opportunity to hear from others on a variety of subjects and decide for themselves. We just ask people to be open-minded and the impact has really shone through.”
Part of their mission is the gala fundraiser held earlier in the spring. It’s not just to raise money for the free VegFest, but to raise awareness in the culinary community and encouraging them to make vegan food more available.
“We asked [the participating chefs], don’t just make this a one-night thing, make this a regular thing on your menu,” says Johnson. It’s incredible now when you go out in Cleveland and you see the word vegan on menus regularly.”
Johnson has been a vegan for ten years; Davis for 17. Both credit the Internet with the rapid spread of veganism in the last few years.
“The Internet has helped a tremendous amount because people can find each other easier,” says Davis. “We can we organize much more easily, pass information. veganism is now talked about on a much wider scale.”
“Vegan is not just a diet, it’s a lifestyle,” says Johnson. “We believe there are a lot of impacts of choosing vegan. We make sure we address these topics in our presentations at VegFest.”
In addition to various aspects of eating and cooking vegan, presentations will deal with topics like animal exploitation, training for ultramarathons, animals and world religions, and how food choices affect environmental sustainability.
You can find a full schedule of vendors and presentations here.