Join me for a trip down memory lane. Here I document the birth and early years of organized vegan activism in the Kansas City area. A special thanks to all the people -- including many who contributed but don't happen to be in these pictures and clippings. Together we helped lay the foundation for the exponential growth of vegan products, vegan-friendly menu items, and vegan community that now make it attractive and easy for so many more people to make the connection and go vegan!
My husband Joe Farb manning one of the grills. In 1992, I knew of exactly three vegans in the entire Kansas City area. Victoria Moran, her daughter Adair (who went by the name of Rachel, back then) and myself. Few knew to say, "Vee-gun" rather than, "Vey-gun" let alone what the word, "vegan" meant.
So in 1993 a small group of vegetarian's started what I believe was the first vegetarian society in Kansas or the greater KC area -- and we called it Vegetarians of Kansas City. At first all we did was have monthly potlucks in Siobhan Defeo's home. Siobhan and a friend of hers had gotten the ball rolling by putting up notices on bulletin boards at Clearly Nature's Own at 43rd and Main, seeking to find other vegetarians. Soon after, there were 10 to 20 of us regularly sharing monthly meals and dis-
So in 1993 a small group of vegetarian's started what I believe was the first vegetarian society in Kansas or the greater KC area -- and we called it Vegetarians of Kansas City. At first all we did was have monthly potlucks in Siobhan Defeo's home. Siobhan and a friend of hers had gotten the ball rolling by putting up notices on bulletin boards at Clearly Nature's Own at 43rd and Main, seeking to find other vegetarians. Soon after, there were 10 to 20 of us regularly sharing monthly meals and dis-
cussing how we could grow our group, and provide more support for others who might be ready to embrace this lifestyle. I began promoting veganism to the rest of this group. Though not all of us were vegan, everyone agreed that since vegan was the common denominator between vegetarians and vegans, that is what we would encourage.
We decided to have a vegan BBQ at Shawnee Mission Park to celebrate Independence Day, publicize our group and educate others about the benefits of veganism. The press was extremely cooperative and supportive of our efforts Here is what I think was the very first article run in any newspaper about our group:
We decided to have a vegan BBQ at Shawnee Mission Park to celebrate Independence Day, publicize our group and educate others about the benefits of veganism. The press was extremely cooperative and supportive of our efforts Here is what I think was the very first article run in any newspaper about our group:
Three local independent natural foods stores, Clearly Nature's Own, The Food Bin, and Manna Nutrition were happy to help us out by selling tickets for our BBQ. That's my Dad serving food in the picture below. Behind him is Victoria Moran (more visible in the two photos below this one) who was the Emcee for our BBQ. You may know Victoria as the author of many books including Main Street Vegan, and the founder of the Main Street Vegan Academy. Back then if you were a serious vegan activist there was a good chance that you had probably heard of almost every vegan author and speaker in the country, and probably knew someone who knew how to reach them, as there weren't that many of us, and we were a very tight-knit community! I could count on one hand the number of books with, "vegan" in the title.
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The following year we organized our second BBQ, This time, we advance sold over 130 tickets. Here are more pictures and some of the media coverage of that event and the additional media opportunities that followed it.
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As you can see in the article below...I did a cooking demonstration at the BBQ. It turned out that a staff member from St Joseph Hospital was an attendee at our BBQ. She saw my demo there and invited me to begin teaching vegan cooking classes at the hospital's wellness center, AND offered to let our group have free use of their large wonderful education rooms for our meetings and potlucks. This became an important part of what allowed our group to grow, host speakers and allow anyone to attend for free.
We hosted many nationally-known speakers over several year's time, including Jim Mason, Victoria Moran, Howard Lyman, Suzanne Havala Hobbs, Michael Greger, and Robert Cohen.
Here we are preparing food for the second BBQ --- and this time I was now a mother...that's my daughter Sarina in the back pack!
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The vegetarian Resource Group in Baltimore published an article about our BBQ's in their national magazine, Vegetarian Journal :
Excited by how easy it was to get the media to help us raise awareness and get coverage of our events, we decided to organize a celebration for World Vegetarian Day. Eden Alley Restaurant was just opening up in Unity Church on the Plaza. I approached them about working with us to put on a huge, all-you-can eat vegan feast with multiple buffet lines each featuring foods from a different geographic region.
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Eden Alley was wonderful to work with. Many food manufacturers donated products for us to use too, and Eden Alley did a superb job of using everything that was donated and turning it all into an incredibly delicious and beautiful feast. Well over 300 people came. Very few of the attendees were vegetarian, let alone vegan, yet everyone was blown away by how tasty and varied the food was, and without exception, everyone there learned more about the benefits of veganism. It certainly helped introduce lots of people to Eden Alley, helping them get off to a good start.
And we got MORE coverage. Not only in the newspapers, but several TV stations and radio stations invited me onto their morning shows to talk about veganism. I don't recall who this newscaster was (this is a photo I took of my TV set when the segment aired)...but you can see I had brought with me some of the (very few) vegan products we had back then.
We did other important outreach as well. When a KC Star columnist made disparaging remarks about vegetarianism...we paid her a visit ...and look what happened as a result:
One of the things we also did for the WVD event, was to make paper placemats for every seat at World Vegetarian Day, which most people took home with them. These were filled with information, recipes, and our sponsor's logos. Look carefully inside the boxed area along the bottom and you can actually see what food was served at each of the different food stations. The back is filled with what were my favorite recipes at the time. I still use that placemat to this day, when I want to make one of those recipes.
Photos from the World Vegetarian Day Event...
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These events grew our membership and brought in enough funds to officially launch our group, incorporate as a 501 C-3 non profit, and allowed us to purchase a dedicated telephone line with a recorded message of our events and information (remember this was before the internet!) We also published a monthly newsletter, which was sent via U.S. Mail to over 100 members. In this example below, you can see how we pointed out and corrected published misinformation that misconstrued the science in ways that might discourage veganism.
And these are some of the posters we put up around Kansas City to advertise our World Vegetarian Day event.
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We also organized an event in Lawrence even though my family hadn't yet moved from Kansas City to Lawrence. We were thrilled when the Lawrence Community Mercantile chose to collaborate with us to bring in Howard Lyman to give a free public presentation. Here's the ad The Merc took out in the newspaper to advertise the event. Kind of amazing to see that they actually endorsed free speech at one time. (But that was before they started collaborating with local meat and dairy producers. (Read more about that HERE.)
Another thing that was wonderful back then -- all the libraries had display cases and welcomed community groups to create displays to educate the public. Here is a display we created at the Antioch Library:
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And here is a display we created at the Olathe Library:
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Which brought more coverage in the local papers...
Thank you for joining me in this look back! It was fun and an important reminder to me, that in spite of the challenges facing us now, the work many of us did back in the 1990s -- DID MAKE A HUGE DIFFERENCE...just look at how popular veganism is today!
Now go forth and do what you can to help to educate others about how critical it is to the well-being of the generations that follow us, that we all switch as quickly as possible to an entirely plant based diet. And help everyone make the connection -- that if you believe it is wrong to hurt animals unnecessarily, then you already agree with veganism.
Now go forth and do what you can to help to educate others about how critical it is to the well-being of the generations that follow us, that we all switch as quickly as possible to an entirely plant based diet. And help everyone make the connection -- that if you believe it is wrong to hurt animals unnecessarily, then you already agree with veganism.
