Dandies Marshmallows are delicious and vegan. They roast wonderfully over any campfire and can be used to make S’mores with vegan graham crackers and chocolate. Be sure to grab some the next time you go camping. For more information see: https://dandies.com/
Naina wrote, “In my 9th grade year, I noticed that students at my school were unable to engage in science due to the minimal educational opportunities present in my rural town in northwestern Arizona. Also, many students had not yet established a connection with the intricacies of the natural world outsides of sports such as hunting and fishing. I knew that I needed to find a way to interest students in the ecological sciences and then develop an appreciation of the beauty and peace of nature outside of these destructive practices.”
“I first applied for and won a $500 grant from the Sodexo Stop Hunger Foundation, which I used to buy plants, supplies, and tools. I assembled a team of high school students and began breaking ground in a deserted area at the edge of my school’s campus. At first, the rocky terrain, insecure water connection, and oven-like climate threatened to stall the garden’s progress. However, I planned a winding canal system to store and supply water for the trees, bushes, and crops growing in the garden, and installed a greenhouse and raised beds for various varieties of plants.” … “We have grown peaches, plums, apples, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, tomatoes, cilantro, spinach, broccoli, onions, corn, and okra to name a few … Any students who have worked in the garden and helped during our planting season can take home and give away the produce they have grown.”
“When I go to college at the end of this year, I plan to entrust the Garden to my school for its upkeep. I have established a garden club which under the supervision of my science teacher will look after it.”
“In my 11th grade, I also pioneered a salad bar in my school district cafeteria.” “I conducted a survey of all students and faculty at my high school to determine the impact a new salad bar would have on our school cafeteria … I sent a memo to the school district administration to introduce my plan. I then assembled a salad bar needs assessment committee that included my culinary teacher, faculty members, and student representatives. We brainstormed ideas for the salad bar’s offerings, determined the new lunch line procedures, and set the school days the salad bar would be in operation. I scheduled a meeting with my district’s principal and superintendant where I presented the survey results, and addressed my plan to move forward with the salad bar … I also proposed the equipment necessary to store and serve the salads. After hearing my ideas, the administration quickly approved the project and allocated funds to purchase a two-door self-serve salad station for the cafeteria.”
“Monday, March 16th was the Salad Bar’s Grand Opening Day. Flyers were sent to students across the school district, and a school newspaper article detailing the unveiling of this new cafeteria addition was already in circulation. Then, the COVID-19 pandemic ground all school operations to a halt. Classroom learning migrated to the cloud, and months passed without a single student stepping foot on campus. My vision to implement a salad bar at my school had been paused … (Then) I was elated to hear that I could begin the salad bar in a new school year, but knew that I would have to recalculate its setup. Once the school year began, I met with the salad bar needs assessment committee and decided to send an online order form every morning to faculty and students, enabling them to select the options they would like on the salad bar, and then coordinate with the culinary department to pre-assemble the individualized salads. As I worked with other culinary students in the morning, reading orders and portioning salads while wearing gloves, masks, and keeping a safe distance, I gained hope in the fact I could make my goals a reality.”
“My school was a tough place to implement a salad-bar project as most of the students and staff come from ranching and farming backgrounds, and meat is always a part of their diet.” The salad bar was open to students from September to December last year. Then the salad bar was only for faculty due to the COVID-19 restrictions. After its success, it was implemented for everyone. “This week I began the salad bar in person and participants can now order and pick up their salads in my school’s cafeteria. Earlier approximately 200-300 students ordered from the salad bar, and the most popular toppings were the roasted nuts and cranberries, and crunchy spiced lentils. Previously, all of the salads were distributed in pickup boxes to prevent COVID-19 contamination. Now, my school district has allowed the salad bar to operate-in-person. I am working with other students at my school to take orders and create the salads-in-person in my school cafeteria.” Naina made sure that options such as nuts and baked tofu were available.
Naina hopes to become a neurosurgeon and recommend vegetarian diets to her patients.
The deadline for the next scholarship contest for high school seniors graduating in 2022 is February 20, 2022. To see rules and other scholarship winners, visit vrg.org/student/scholar.htm
To support additional scholarships and internships, donate at vrg.org/donate, call (410) 366-8343, or send donations to VRG, P.O. Box 1463, Baltimore, MD 21203.
The Vegetarian Resource Group maintains an online Guide to Vegan/Vegetarian Restaurants in the USA and Canada. Here are some recent vegan restaurant additions. The entire guide can be found here: http://www.vrg.org/restaurant/index.php
To support the updating of this online restaurant guide, please donate at: www.vrg.org/donate
Here are some new additions to VRG’s guide (Note: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic many are doing take-out and/or delivery now):
Dom’s, 134 North Spruce St., Winston-Salem, NC 27101
They have small and large plates including several cauliflower dishes, nachos, crab cakes, burgers, BBQ, chicken, and a few pasta dishes. Kombucha, lemonade, and other drinks, as well as dessert are also available. Some menu items can be made gluten-free on request. It is an interesting combination of Asian, Italian, and traditional vegan fare.
Dunedin Vegan Deli, 2340 Main St., Clearwater, FL 33763
They offer a selection of breakfast foods, wraps, burgers, subs, sandwiches, salads, pizza, and wings, as well as a separate menu of gluten-free items. You can also buy deli “meats” by the pound. They also sell hard to find vegan grocery items and a huge selection of drinks. Sandwiches are mostly made with house made seitan.
Grown Together, 209 E. Mills Ave., El Paso, TX 79901
Order from Grown Together to experience El Paso, TX’s first vegan food preparation facility, which is focused on health, fully vegan dining. They offer a range of cuisine types and respective nutritional information for all of their offerings. Five or more meals must be ordered for delivery and the weekly menu is released every Friday.
Indigo Burger, 5743 Stevenson Blvd., Newark, CA 94560
They offer “In-N-Out” style burgers, sandwiches, and fries, all with house-made sauces. They also have vegan chicken, tacos, smoothies, and other drinks. The Loaded Fries with Impossible Meat Crumbles, caramelized grilled onions, jalapeños, and house nacho cheese sauce made with potatoes and carrots sound particularly inviting. From the look of things on their Instagram page, you won’t go away hungry!
Juicilicious, 224 North Broadway, Salem, NH 03079
Juice bar offering mostly organic, gluten-free, and raw drinks and food. They serve a wide variety of juices, smoothies, tropical bowls, toasts, salads, and wraps. They use locally grown produce and items from local businesses as much as possible.
Mucho Gusto, #1 Calle Muñoz Rivera, Trujillo Alto, PR 00976
At this ice cream and dessert kitchen, all offerings are vegan and gluten-free—and also made from scratch! Mucho Gusto can be found in front of Trujillo Alto’s Codepola and Funeraria Piñero Memorial. From classic vanilla to guava to sunflower stracciatella, Mucho Gusto offers many flavors of ice cream that can also be accompanied by cookies and cakes.
Phatties, 242 W. Mission Ave., Ste. D, Escondido, CA 92025
They offer appetizers, salads, burritos, taquitos, quesadillas, a taco bar, dessert, and a kids menu. Their tortillas are handmade and their Black Bean Tortilla Salad sounds great!
Plant Base Café, 1372 Vegas Verdes Dr., Santa Fe, NM 87507
Serves Mexican, American, and Italian meals. Mexican dishes include Loaded Nachos with house-made chips, Queso Flameado with a veggie protein of your choice, and Tostadas. American dishes include Burgers, Avocado Toast, and Buffalo Cauliflower Wings. Finally, Italian dishes include Spaghetti with your choice of sauce, Build Your Own Pizza, and Caprese Salad. Don’t forget a dessert on the way out!
By Amy Burger
I feel lucky to have been able to work as an intern for The Vegetarian Resource Group during the Spring 2021 semester. I hoped to do an internship as part of my Master of Arts in English, but due to the pandemic, my school’s listed opportunities were much more limited than usual, and often required hours that wouldn’t work for my schedule, since I have a full-time job. As a result of these factors, finding an internship placement seemed like a challenge, but as it turns out, the answer was closer than I’d imagined. Over the previous several months, I’ve been receiving copies of Vegetarian Journal as a perk of my membership with The VRG. Many of the issues featured interns writing about their work with the group, and recent such columns indicated that a remote internship might be possible.
Fortunately, it was. I was able to work remotely from my home office, writing articles, learning about layout and copyediting, and getting a better understanding of the nonprofit world. Not only did the internship represent an opportunity to work with an organization whose mission I care about, and to learn hands-on, it also allowed me to further develop skills I’d learned in my classes, through taking a grant-writing workshop and writing several pieces, from restaurant guide listings to articles for the VRG.org blog and for Vegetarian Journal. The tastiest parts of this experience were when I got to write a review of a local restaurant, try fishless tuna for a Veggie Bits review, and sample recipes from Vegan Boards, a new cookbook I had the chance to review.
The internship lasted for fourteen weeks, and for the last few of these, I focused on two more in-depth projects related to The VRG’s upcoming 40th anniversary in 2022: an article about former scholarship winners, and one about former volunteers and employees. These projects required a lot of legwork, in terms of tracking down current contact information and getting in touch with people to get answers to my questions for the articles, and then putting everything together. While writing them was somewhat challenging, it was ultimately very rewarding.
In communicating with individuals who’d worked at some point with The VRG in some capacity, I was impressed by the universal esteem for the organization. People told me how much they loved The VRG, respected its work, and thought fondly of it. One frequent comment was of appreciation for The VRG’s grounding in science. The evidence-based ethos of the organization has been part of its identity from the beginning and has contributed to its reputation as a trustworthy resource today.
As an intern, I can also say that The VRG is an incredibly supportive organization to work for. I, and other previous interns, appreciate that the coordinators allow each individual to pursue their own interests through their work, and connect them to opportunities related to these interests.
While my internship is ending and graduation is finally in sight, my involvement with The VRG is just beginning. I plan to continue volunteering by writing articles and helping with projects, and maybe someday soon I will be able to visit Baltimore and thank them in person.
For more information about interning with The Vegetarian Resource Group, see vrg.org/student/index.php
To support The Vegetarian Resource Group internships, donate at vrg.org/donate Or join at vrg.org/member/cabdacae.php
By Shantika Bhat, VRG Intern
As a vegetarian, it is often hard to find places that have great vegetarian and vegan options. Upon my visit to my first vegan restaurant, it felt very reassuring that I could get food from a place without stressing over my dietary needs. If you had similar experiences, I suggest if you are living in the Baltimore or Riverdale, Maryland area that you should check out Gangster Vegan Organics! Whether you are looking around the Baltimore Harbor or trying to explore your vegan food options, Gangster Vegan Organics might be the perfect spot for you.
On my first visit to the Cross Street Market in Baltimore where one Gangster Vegan Organics is located, I had a tour of what foods people near the harbor like to eat. During the time of COVID-19, businesses have been hit hard and seeing all of these small businesses in one place made me feel relieved. Gangster Vegan Organics has wonderful options from sweets, to green juices, to burgers, to bowls, to smoothies, and even salads; there are so many options to choose from, which put me in a dilemma. The prices of the items for the quality seemed like a great deal as well. After making a tough decision, I decided to get the Alchemy (Mediterranean) which has: pickled cabbage, tomatoes, carrots, cucumbers, brown rice, romaine, Mediterranean marinated garbanzos, ginger date sauce, and cashew cheese. I have never had cashew cheese before, which made me very curious to see what they all tasted like.
As soon as I got my bowl, I was in awe of how beautiful the colors of the veggies looked together. From the dark fuchsia-colored cabbage to the green cucumbers and orange carrots, this bowl was a beauty. In my first bite, I was shocked at how strong the pickled cabbage and its addition to the bowl really stood out. The combination of the tomatoes, carrots, garbanzo beans, and cucumbers helps to clean the bite and smooth out the bowl from the strong Mediterranean and ginger sauces. Overall, this was one of the most delectable bowls I have had in a while. This made me want to explore more of the menu the next time I come to this place. I would rate this restaurant a 9.5/10 because of the great service, location, and food variety.
If you haven’t been to Gangster Vegan Organics or you don’t live in Baltimore/Riverdale, MD, whenever you find yourself in these areas looking for a healthy place to grab food, with an expansive menu, and a great area to explore, I highly suggest you try Gangster Vegan Organics (and what a cool name too).
Check out the restaurant’s website
For information about other veggie restaurants throughout the USA and Canada, go to vrg.org/restaurant/index.php
Arpi wrote, “Knowing that millions of animals are suffering and being killed in factory farms each year, just to be served as school lunches that would usually be left uneaten, completely broke my heart. I knew that something had to change … I decided to create a plant-based survey and send it out to students across my school district. In this survey, I questioned if the student would want to have more plant-based options, what plant-based meals they are interested in, and what their reasoning was behind their answer. I then used ArcGIS (an online mapping application) to create a dashboard displaying the survey results. I included bar graphs, pie charts, and maps to demonstrate the percentage of students who wanted vegan and/or vegetarian options and I displayed where the data was gathered from with the use of a pie chart and a map. I then set up a zoom meeting with my school’s nutritional services director where I pitched my idea and used my survey and dashboard results as evidence that our school district had a clear demand for more plant-based options.” Arpi’s reference stated: “She got the whole district food services administration to join Zoom, and led the meeting, presenting fact based data to support incorporating vegan options on a regular basis for school meals. Our district food services director was so impressed with the work she had done researching affordable vegan options for our lunch and snack menu that she thanked Arpi for doing the survey saying that data does make a difference, and asked her to send her the data collected from her survey. Through her efforts the food service director did commit to including falafel, soymilk, fruit parfaits, and other vegan items to the school menu.”
Additionally, to further encourage vegetarianism in her community, Arpi partnered with the Factory Farming Awareness Coalition to represent them at her high school’s AP environmental science courses. As a guest speaker, she spoke to two classrooms regarding the ethical and environmental issues linked with factory farming. In addition, she also created a quick-and-easy vegan recipe tutorial on her school’s tv show, Quarter Past Clark.
For her senior thesis, Arpi did a paper on food subsidies. She plans to focus her career around advocating for and creating new food-based policies in the United States. She said, “Major topics that I am interested in are transitioning governmental food subsidies away from animal agriculture towards fruit and vegetable farms. … I believe that in order to further spread the vegan and vegetarian movements, it is essential to stay compassionate in all aspects of life, by treating everyone with kindness, both humans and nonhuman animals alike.” Arpi will be attending UC San Diego for a political science and public policy major, with a minor in climate change studies.
The deadline for the next Vegetarian Resource Group scholarship contest for high school seniors graduating in 2022 is February 20, 2022. To see rules and past scholarship winners, visit vrg.org/student/scholar.htm
To support additional scholarships and internships, donate at vrg.org/donate, call (410) 366-8343, or send donations to VRG, P.O. Box 1463, Baltimore, MD 21203.
By Emilio Gironda, VRG’s Volunteer Coordinator
The availability of food made and marketed expressly for vegans in the last few years has skyrocketed. The fact that one can pull up to a Burger King and order a plant-based burger with fries would have been unthinkable 20 years ago. But easy availability has its downside – particularly when it comes to cross contamination. Were the burgers cooked on a separate grill? Were they manufactured in a factory that provided separate processing? Is the packaging cruelty-free? Where do these pickles come from? The same types of questions that apply to eating out apply equally to shopping at the market. How many times have you blocked the isle in your friendly neighborhood Safeway trying to read the microscopic ingredients on a frozen vegan pizza? Or asked an exasperated server at your favorite local haunt if the vegan soup has a fish base, or if the chipotle ranch dressing is made with Vegenaise? For me at least, this brings to the fore the vegan elephant in the room. Once we have committed ourselves to this ethical, compassionate life, how far do we go up, or down, the food chain to ensure that the food we eat, and that we feed our loved ones, is truly vegan? How certain can we ever be that the food we eat is vegan?
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is responsible for assuring that food sold in the U.S. is safe, wholesome and properly labeled. Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act and the Fair Packaging and Labeling Act (1) are the Federal laws governing food products under the FDA’s jurisdiction. But the question “is it vegan?” has so far not come to a top priority. Generally the FDA does not require manufacturers to disclose specific food content if it is below a set minimum and the ingredient does not have a health, functionality, or safety impact – so trace amounts of animal related ingredients do not have to be disclosed on labels. This exception also covers a variety of “unintended” ingredients it’s best not to contemplate. However The Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act of 2004 (FALCPA) (2) does provide some help to vegans. This Act requires food manufacturers to label food products that contain ingredients from a specific list of food allergens. This list includes any flavorings, colorings, or incidental additives. Of note for vegans and vegetarians the presence of milk, eggs, crustacean shellfish, and fish must be disclosed. So at least we as consumers can rely, with a reasonable degree of certainly, on the presence or absence of these particular animal sourced ingredients, but no provision under this Act is made for ingredients that may be derived from other animal sources.
WHAT CAN BE CALLED MILK OR MEAT?
Plant milk producers have scored a key victory in the 2018 US Court of Appeals case Painter v. Blue Diamond Growers (3). In a nutshell the Court ruled that calling almond milk “milk” is not deceptive. At stake is what the FDA calls “standards of identity (4),” legally binding definitions of products to ensure consumers know what they’re buying. The dairy industry has complained for years that the FDA hasn’t policed the definition of “milk” and has allowed products made from soy, almonds, cashews, rice, hemp, and oats to fill shelves in the dairy aisle. In this case, the dairy industry alleges that these products shouldn’t be allowed to use the term milk because they are nutritionally inferior. But the court said the complaint does not plausibly allege that a reasonable consumer would be deceived into believing that Blue Diamond’s almond milk products are nutritionally equivalent to dairy milk based on their package labels and advertising.
The Real Marketing Edible Artificials Truthfully (MEAT) Act (5) seeks to require plant-based meat packaging to prominently feature the word “imitation,” along with a statement that clearly indicates the product is not derived from or does not contain meat. This is strongly backed by traditional meat producers and it was in committee as of this writing. (Though if it passed, depending on the regulations, we still may not know if an items is vegan.)
Also of some relevance is an agreement between the FDA and the USDA (U.S. Department of Agriculture) regarding oversight of human food produced using animal cell technology (6). Could this be a step in the right direction or is it just one step closer to Soylent Green (7)? For you old timers out there, the movie takes place in 2022. See VRG’s related testimony here: https://www.vrg.org/blog/2021/03/10/the-vegetarian-resource-group-submitted-this-testimony-to-the-fda-concerning-labeling-of-seafood-produced-from-cultured-seafood-cells/
NEW YORK CASES
A New York case involving an alleged violation of New York’s Deceptive Acts or Practices Law is somewhat helpful, if only for the result and not for any precedent it may establish (8). In Borenkoff v Buffalo Wild Wings Inc et al, 2018 U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (9) plaintiff alleged that defendants use beef tallow to fry non-meat food items like mozzarella sticks and French fries, whereas the “industry standard” is to use non-beef cooking oil to fry such items and that a reasonable consumer would assume that non-meat oil would be used for non-meat foods. The court dismissed the complaint, deciding that the plaintiff failed to state any “actual injuries” over and above the monetary cost of the purchase. It remains subject to conjecture what the Court would have decided if the case was differently pled.
The New York State Department of Agriculture & Markets generally regulates food manufactured and packaged for retail sale in New York and local Departments of Health, mostly at the county level, regulate restaurants and menu labeling. I can say from years of experience that there is often a huge disconnect between State, County and Municipality rules and regulations and their implementation. That being said, there is scant New York State Law on this front for them to interpret or implement anyway.
One bright light on the local level however is the New York City Bar Association’s Animal Law Committee. They have championed numerous anti-animal cruelty initiatives over the years (10). As an apropos example, they issued a report on the use of the names of dairy foods in the labeling of plant-based products. They argued that “the standard of identity for milk (limiting it to the lacteal secretions of cows) was established to address the rampant adulteration of dairy milk products in the early 20th century that harmed consumers who wished to purchase cows’ milk, not to preclude or hinder the marketing of truthfully labeled new variations or new foods” (11).
As far as any additional, specific guidance, there is this statement from the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets about “Imitation Foods” which may by extension apply to vegan food: “If any food product is an imitation of another, and is nutritionally inferior to that product, it must be labeled “Imitation _____,” with the space being filled in with the name of the food imitated, and with the word “imitation” in type of uniform size and prominence as used for the name of the food.” (12) Query what “nutritionally inferior” means in this context. However, as far as I can tell, there are no New York State regulations specific to the use of the term “vegan” in food labeling. This being the case, are there any other cases or statutes that address the government’s role in the regulation of food that may help us in our quest? The answer lies, perhaps, in the regulation of kosher food.
Outside of Israel, New York has the largest population of kosher consumers with more than 135,000 products available on the market shelves (13). Possibly as a consequence of this, New York State has had one form of kosher labeling law or another since 1915 – most recently the Kosher Law Protection Act of 2004 (14). Basically the act requires those who market their food as kosher to label it kosher and to identify the individual certifying the food by filing with the New York State Department of Agriculture. The Act has been challenged as unconstitutional in Commack Self-Service Kosher Meats, Inc. v. Hooker 680 F.3d 194 (2d Cir. 2012) (15) where the court, applying the Lemon test from Lemon v. Kurtzman, 403 U.S. 602 (1971) (16), rejected plaintiff’s contentions and decided that the act is constitutional. Even though it’s a small victory and may be more related to religious questions, it’s one that could have an impact on vegan food labeling.
For now, we as vegans and vegetarians need to remain vigilant. I guess I’ll see you at the supermarket. I’ll be the one studying the ingredients on a bag of chocolate covered pretzels. Happy “hunting.”
References
https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid%3AUSC-prelim-title15-chapter39&edition=prelim
(5) https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/4881/text
(7) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soylent_Green
(8) https://codes.findlaw.com/ny/general-business-law/gbs-sect-349.html
(9) https://casetext.com/case/borenkoff-v-buffalo-wild-wings-inc
(10) https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/403/602/
(11) https://www.nycbar.org/issue-policy/issue/issues/Animal//////1/10
(12) https://codes.findlaw.com/ny/agriculture-and-markets-law/agm-sect
(13) https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/799604/commack-self-service-kosher-meats-inc-v-hooker/
(15) http://www.blslibrary.com/2012/06/12/kosher-law-protection-act/
(17) https://asakeisar.com/en/vegan-kosher-certification/
This is not legal advice, for which you should consult your own legal professional. Emilio Gironda practiced law for 35 years. He has come to the vegan table late in his journey of self discovery and evolution. He believes that all living beings deserve our love and compassion and that to live any other way is to fill our lives with dust.
For more labeling information, see:
https://www.vrg.org/journal/vj2015issue4/2015_issue4_GelatinCarmine.php
To support The Vegetarian Resource Group research, donate at www.vrg.org/donate
Or join at https://www.vrg.org/member/2013sv.php
The contents of this posting, our website, and our other publications, including Vegetarian Journal, are not intended to provide personal medical or legal advice. Medical advice should be obtained from a qualified health professional. We often depend on product and ingredient information from company statements. It is impossible to be 100% sure about a statement, info can change, people have different views, and mistakes can be made. Please use your best judgment about whether a product is suitable for you. To be sure, do further research or confirmation on your own.
Jasmine stated, “In Arabic, the word ‘AtIka’ means noble born. But in my family, it’s the name of the thirteen-year-old grey Lincoln town car we turned into a taxi … It was where Atika carried us in her arms for two years.” Jasmine began to work nine years ago to help her family. She said, “On the bus ride to my client’s home, I read the fact that promoted my conversion to veganism: Animal Agriculture produces more greenhouse gas emissions than the entire transportation sector … I made the connection between human lives and animal lives clear to my family and forged my own path to cruelty-free, noble living. Following my ninth-grade conversion to veganism, I was compelled to tell the stories of those lives because in Atika they had become an extension of my own.”
In high school, Jasmine was one of seven Americans selected for an international scholarship to study microbiology, robotics, and Arabic in Cairo, Egypt for four weeks. She chose to do a plant-based project, posing diet change as a viable method for reducing suffering. At the same time, she interacted with Egyptian families and registered 23 members to a vegan coaching program, as well as distributed veggie pamphlets.
Back in Miami, Jasmine set up tables on the Florida International University Campus and discussed veggie diets with students and faculty. She also worked long distance with an English vegan group to help them apply for grants, and supervised eight adults in this process. In addition, she worked to bring the vegan group’s school lunch information to Florida.
Jasmine’s high school science teacher stated, “Jasmine effectively communicates the intersectionality of sustainable consumption. Her discussion consists of science, but also of ethics, poverty, racism, and fiscal policy; this makes her outreach intellectually stimulating for all participants, myself included. I along with a majority of faculty and the student body, have started to transition to plant-forward diets as a result of her advocacy. It is due to her passion that I have been vegan since March of last year.”
Jasmine will be pursuing a college degree in Biological Physics with a minor in Middle Eastern Studies or Environmental Studies. She hopes to create a nonprofit that will provide environmental, STEM-geared, plant-forward education to inner-city youth. Jasmine sums up her message this way: “I want to help people find their kindness.”
The deadline for the next scholarship contest for high school seniors graduating in 2022 is February 20, 2022. To see rules and past scholarship winners, visit vrg.org/student/scholar.htm
To support additional scholarships and internships, donate at vrg.org/donate, call (410) 366-8343, or send donations to VRG, P.O. Box 1463, Baltimore, MD 21203.
By Reed Mangels, PhD, RD
My kitchen cabinet always has had one shelf devoted to cookbooks. Although some move into this place of honor and some move away to the less-used living room bookshelf, there are a few cookbooks that are always there. They’re the ones I turn to when I’m looking for a favorite recipe or, sometimes, just for nostalgia’s sake.
One classic that has lived on the kitchen shelf for the past 30 years is Peaceful Palate by Jennifer Raymond. As you can see, it’s been used frequently and is missing the cover and has some loose pages that are tucked into the book. A newer edition is available, but I plan to keep this one. It has a note from my mother who used it to make banana muffins for us when our first child was born. There are my notes on various recipes – “also works with TVP,” “nice crunch,” and “EVERYONE ate this one.” There are marginal notes from doubling and tripling recipes for potlucks and other gatherings. The tofu burger recipe is almost unreadable; it’s been used so many times and shared with friends. No matter, I have this one memorized. There’s the Spicy Pumpkin Soup I’ve brought to friends who needed comforting, the Bread Dressing that’s always on the Thanksgiving table, and the Fresh Peach Cobbler that I make most summers.
It’s funny how one spiral-bound book can hold so many memories. Thanks to Jennifer for her gift of this cookbook.
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