Natalia Gosiaco works at a vegetarian restaurant. The owner of the business said she continuously excelled for the past three years providing excellent customer service and always showing up on time. (One of the biggest hurdles for restaurants and groups is to find hard working long-term employees who always show up.) The owner reported that Natalia also “made important contributions to our business by offering some of her vegan recipes, of which we sometimes added to our special’s menu. She has certainly been a gem in our organization.” Another employee mentioned how Natalia kept her “kind demeanor even during high stress peak hours.” Natalia said for the restaurant she developed “a chocolate soft serve flavor by pouring a mixture of bananas, coconut milk, dark chocolate, and cacao powder into our soft serve machine. It is served with granola, papaya, banana, and macadamia nuts. I have also baked small treats, including vegan cookies and muffins that can be sold in the front by the cash register.”

When Natalia Gosiaco and her friend went vegan, they decided to create the first vegan club at their high school. The Vegan Club’s high school advisor said “Natalia took initiative to organize two formal assemblies at our school inviting a well know vegan activist … to speak about veganism and the environment. Natalia single-handedly proposed the guest speaker to administration, completed all necessary paperwork, and organized the event’s logistics. These two assemblies reached over 800 students.”

Additionally, this past fall Natalia helped organize healthy vegan alternatives during a bake sale to raise funds for victims of Hurricane Maria and Hurricane Harvey. The club advisor added, at our school’s annual spring fair “Natalia and her co-president of Vegan Club created a first-ever vegan snack option featuring Tofu Poke, It was a huge success and many people came up afterwards to share how exciting it was to have not only a healthy alternative (compared to cotton candy, hot dogs, etc.), but also a vegan option.” Natalia received an email from the head of student life at her high school regarding the sample vegetarian menu she created. The student life head is speaking to Sodexo food service about incorporating more vegan options in the cafeteria.

Natalia wrote that she planned her fully vegan graduation party, which included vegan Hawaiian food for over 150 people. The menu was Lau lau, Luau, mock chicken long rice, mock lomi salmon haupia, poi; “all of which are delicious traditional Hawaiian foods that we made vegan.”

Natalia plans to study nutrition and business, which will allow her to continue to stay involved in the movement. Her perfect life in the future will be to own a vegan restaurant, that sells vegan breakfast and lunch, with a farm where all of the vegetables could be harvested, from farm to table. While in college, she will work with a vegan caterer, and with a friend she is starting a business delivering vegan ingredients in a box to households so they can easily prepare vegan meals.