By Joyce Santos
Earlier this year, we held weekly challenges and giveaways on our VegOttawa Instagram page to celebrate Veganuary – a month dedicated to encouraging a vegan lifestyle. While many of our followers are already vegan, it was also a great opportunity to celebrate, share experiences and facts, and win vegan prizes!
We received generous prize donations from VegOttawa partners with vegan menus: Keepin’ It Vegan, Hometown Sports Grill, Strawberry Blonde, Cinnaholic and Maverick’s. As we rolled out our first week, we sparked excitement and had more local businesses offer prizes! Ottawa’s newest plant-based restaurant and wine bar, St. Elsewhere, joined in on the fun, as well as 613 Plant-Based meal service. Peace-Garden Vegetarian offered gift cards as they celebrated the opening of their new location, a relaxing and welcoming space, after 31 years at their previous spot. Local delivery superstars Gopher It Deliveries also hopped on to deliver a vegan pizza kit prize to one of our nine lucky winners. It was amazing to see the Ottawa community come together to celebrate and inspire the plant-based lifestyle. You can find these Ottawa vegan restaurants in our Ottawa Veg Business Directory.
In our first weekly challenge we asked VegOttawa followers to cook a vegan meal. We saw photos of delicious-looking creations including taco salad loaded with greens and olives, pizza with mushrooms and greens, nachos with kale and red habanero sauce, split pea soup, a Persian dish called Ash, chocolate and pear coffee cake, and even vegan leftovers assembled into food art! That same week we saw local plant-based chef and nutritionist, Amy Longard appear on CTV Morning Live to give tips for eating more plant-based meals in 2024. The segment featured her Chickpea Salad Wrap recipe and beautifully prepared meals from Naturally Vero Cafe. Local Instagram foodie and blogger @veganeats613 celebrated the month with 31 Days of Easy Vegan Snacks presented in beautifully-made reels and photos with accompanying recipes. Veganuary was really off to a great start in the Capital!
In week two, we asked everyone to tell us why it’s environmentally sound to be vegan. Interesting truths included, “Two words: Manure Lagoon” and “To save the rainforests from being clear-cut to create areas for cattle grazing.” Other facts shared: oat milk uses less energy, fewer carbon emissions and land use compared to cow’s milk; less water and land pollution; being vegan helps maintain ocean ecosystems by eliminating overfishing; it decreases the burden of food production on the planet; cows emit large amounts of greenhouse gases. We loved seeing the high-level of environmental awareness in our vegan community! There are numerous environmental reasons to go plant-based and the VegOttawa team will be sharing these and other interesting facts at an upcoming Earth Day event.
In week three, we asked how being vegan can benefit your health. Our followers benefit from more fibre, reducing the risk of heart disease, diabetes and inflammation; lowering cholesterol and blood pressure; improved skin appearance, gut health, mental health knowing they are lessening harm, and being motivated to cook at home from scratch. One response pointed to “wallet health”! And it’s true – discovering tasty recipes using pantry staples such as dried legumes and grains can be very friendly to your grocery budget – something we can all appreciate these days. If you love savings too, you can enjoy discounts on Ottawa vegan menus with a VegOttawa Association Membership.
In our final week of Veganuary we asked everyone to share what inspired them to be vegan. Some were inspired by talks like “The Best Speech You’ll Ever Hear” by Gary Yourosky; Animal Justice’s Paw & Order podcast; Dr. Greger’s evidence-based talks on a whole foods plant-based diet, and the documentaries Vegucated, Cowspiracy, and Dominion. Others were inspired by personal experiences: “The animals. I grew up on a farm. I saw they are sentient beings, no different than cats and dogs”, “Learning more about the egg and dairy industry”, realizing “animal milk is to feed their own babies”, and from visiting animal sanctuaries. More inspirations were climate change, trying to live more sustainably and nourish their body, and even food intolerances.
Our followers then shared helpful tips for new vegans like checking out recipe bloggers Nora Cooks and Sam Turnbull, “Get a pressure cooker and look up one-pot recipes”, “Massage your kale!”, “Start small and slow – take foods you love and adjust the ingredients to vegan alternatives and have fun with it!”, and to try recipes from other countries as many of them are delicious, healthy and easy on the budget. More helpful tips can be found on our Vegan Resources page.
We loved reading all of these thoughtful and inspiring responses and welcoming many new followers and members. Veganuary highlights can be found on our @VegOttawa Instagram page. Check our new Ottawa Community Events page regularly and sign-up for our monthly newsletter to stay in the loop about Ottawa vegan events and meetups, and we hope to see you soon at an upcoming event.
P.S. We’ll have free vegan food at our Annual General Meeting on March 24, 2024 at Hometown Sports Grill’s penalty box room.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Joyce Santos is the current Vice President of VegOttawa Association. She has been vegan and previously vegetarian for over 25 years. In addition to her role with VegOttawa, she does freelance PR and Communications for vegan businesses. She can often be found enjoying the live music scene and exploring trails with the Ottawa Vegan Nature Club.
This post is not sponsored by any of the businesses or organizations listed.
VegOttawa Association 