Exploits of a Vegan Wannabe

Photo By: S. Duquet

Last Summer I shared Project Produce with you. It was our grass roots program where Sandy and I collected fresh fruits and vegetables in a big pink cart in our farmers market every Friday. When the market closed at 1pm we drove the fresh foods to our local domestic violence shelter for the women and children in transitional housing. It was an amazing experience to provide hundreds of pounds of fresh food for women in our own community rebuilding their lives.

Photo By: S. Duquet

Well one of the things we realized last summer was that so many of the people receiving the food did not know how to prepare it. One afternoon we showed up with a bountiful crate of organic beets.

Photo By: S. Duquet

They were the most gorgeous, dirty things you have ever seen. Not even the volunteer accepting the food really knew what to do with these crazy root vegetables. We knew that this year that we wanted to take our project a step further by adding a cooking, educational component that would provide usable skills for creating inexpensive food from the best ingredients. So…here is the exciting news, yesterday we applied for a grant that we intend to use to hold free cooking classes for low income women in our community. We will use the church kitchen next to the farmers market, buy the produce from the market and offer instruction to prepare satisfying, spectacular dishes that are plant strong (read vegan) and so incredibly inexpensive because we will be using grains, beans and veggies. This grant popped into my inbox from a dear friend and I knew it was fate. Educating people on how to prepare beautiful, inexpensive, freshy fresh foods while healing their bodies and nourishing their soul is exactly what I want to do!

I don’t know how quickly we will hear if we have received the grant, but I will keep you posted. I wanted to share so you could launch some positive energy into the universe for Project Nourish. We are very excited and I am absolutely confident that we can help change peoples lives and alter the way they nourish themselves and their families if given this chance. Yeah Project Produce and Project Nourish!

Have a delicious day.

Tags: compassionate eating, dairy free, going veg, plant based diet, project mothers day, Project Nourish, project produce, trying vegan, trying vegetarian, vegan, vegan challenge, vegan experience, vegan wannabe