Boston Veg Food Fest welcomes meat-eaters and vegans alike to try plant-based alternatives
There will be southern fried seitan sandwiches, vegan Turkish pastries, and lots of cashew cheese.
Trying to cut back on your meat intake? Cool. Can’t imagine a life without steak? No worries. Fully vegan? Nice. There’s something for everyone here.
President of the Boston Vegetarian Society Evelyn Kimber has a message for all of the omnivores out there: the Boston Veg Food Fest caters to people at all levels of commitment to a plant-based lifestyle.
She said a main goal of the festival is actually to draw in people who eat a standard American diet and introduce them to new plant-based foods they can incorporate. It’s not about taking foods away, she explained, it’s about adding new ones that you enjoy.
“When you add delicious health foods, then the animal ones kind of fall away,” Kimber said.
As people have become more conscious of their food choices in recent years, worrying about how their decisions affect animals and the environment, the Veg Food Fest has become more popular, Kimber said.
When the festival started 24 years ago, people weren’t even confident of how to say “vegan,” Kimber said. “VEG-an? Ve-GAHN?” Now, there’s a relatively widespread demand for vegan options. Fast food chains across the nation are adopting plant-based meat alternatives. Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat are changing the plant-based narrative for carnivores reluctant to give up the taste and feel of meat.
“There’s just been a huge explosion of interest in vegan eating and living and products everywhere,” Kimber said.
This year’s festival will be chock-full of vegan foods, body products, and more. There will be plenty of free samples (passed out in compostable cups, of course, Veg Fest strives to be a zero-waste event) and numerous other goodies to bring home.
Many of the products available at the event are sold at a discount, Kimber said, so it’s a great place for people who are curious about plant-based foods to start out.
Highlights will include: a vegan southern fried seitan sandwich with fermented sauerkraut, ready-to-cook waffle and pancake batter (no eggs needed), vegan Turkish pastries, and lots of cashew cheese.
Beyond the more than 120 exhibitors who fill the festival, there will also be cooking demonstrations, speakers, and even a kids activities area. Guests will be able to hear from people such as celebrity vegan chef Matthew Kenney, who runs 18 vegan restaurants and is about to open his next one on Newbury Street, and Clarisse Flon, the head chef of a vegan patisserie in London who has dedicated her life to finding new ways to make traditional butter-soaked French dishes and pastries without any animal products.
Veg Fest encourages festival-goers to bring their own reusable bags and water bottles. Many of the vendors also only accept cash, according to the festival website, though there are a couple of ATMs nearby.
If you’re interested in the event but not the crowd it draws, a ticket to get in for a quieter preview of the festival will cost you $5.
The Roxbury Crossing T station on the orange line drops off right across the street from the venue, and free parking is also available adjacent to Roxbury Community College.
Boston Veg Food Fest; Saturday, Oct. 19 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday, Oct. 20 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center, 1350 Tremont St., Boston; free; all ages; bostonveg.org
