{"id":15827,"date":"2020-07-23T09:00:55","date_gmt":"2020-07-23T13:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/?p=15827"},"modified":"2020-07-14T12:01:01","modified_gmt":"2020-07-14T16:01:01","slug":"vegan-food-at-festivals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/2020\/07\/23\/vegan-food-at-festivals\/","title":{"rendered":"Vegan Food at Festivals"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Photo taken at VegFest in West Palm Beach, FL Jan. 2020<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By Lucia Rivera, VRG Intern<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through selling vegan foods at festivals throughout the\ncountry, young cooks share and promote vegan eating. Two of these cooks are\nAnayeli Camacho and Thomas Woodruff, who, respectively, works at a vegan\nrestaurant and started his own vegan pop-up business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     \u201cI would say the\nbenefits of selling vegan food [in a festival setting] is you can reach more\npeople. People who want to live a healthier lifestyle and people who want to\nhelp the planet,\u201d Woodruff said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Additionally, for\nCamacho, selling at festivals like a VegFest is a great way to gain more\nexposure for the restaurant she works for, named Verdine. She also stressed the\nimportance of marketing the restaurant visually at the festival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     \u201c[Selling food at\nfestivals is] just about spreading your name and letting people know \u2018Oh, we\nhave a restaurant as well and you can come check us out anytime.\u2019 That\u2019s why\nit\u2019s so important when we go to these events to make sure that the food is\ngreat because [customers are] going to taste it and say \u2018Wow, this is good;\nwhere can we try more?\u2019 Then they\u2019re going to come to the restaurant. You’ve just\ngotta make sure your voice is heard and you’re getting customers,\u201d Camacho\nsaid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     In order to\nreceive the benefits from selling food at festivals there are several factors\nthat need to be executed well according to Camacho. In her experience, making a\nprofit has been a central goal, in addition to speed, organization, and\nteamwork. Woodruff agreed that organization and teamwork were the \u201cmost\nimportant\u201d factors, claiming that \u201ceverything is so fast paced and if everyone\nisn\u2019t on the same page it isn\u2019t going to be good.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     \u201cEspecially for a\nfestival, teamwork is a huge thing. [Also] understanding what everybody\u2019s role\nis and understanding what everybody has to have done by the time we’re up and\nrunning [is important]. Like if at 11 it starts, then we need to make sure that\nat 11 everybody\u2019s done what they’re supposed to be doing and we’re ready to go;\nwe\u2019re ready to serve customers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     There are also\ncertain factors that are taken into account when groups choose what food to\nsell. This includes planning for the respective audience and what other groups\nwill be selling at the festival. In the past, Anayeli has made and sold sushi\nrolls, tamales, philly cheesesteaks, and cupcakes with her team. Woodruff\nprefers selling desserts, and in the past has sold at the Front Street Food\nFestival in Texarkana, Arkansas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     \u201cI think the best\nitems to sell at festivals are desserts. People are usually more open to trying\na dessert and if they like the dessert they usually buy a plate of food,\u201d\nWoodruff said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     When Camacho has worked with a prep team at\nfestivals her process has consisted of preparing the food beforehand,\nassembling her station, heating up the food, and then being ready for arriving\ncustomers. Contrastingly, at a restaurant, a team is not focused on producing\nlarge <\/p>\n\n\n\n

amounts of one item. Necessary materials like water are also\nnot always as on-hand as they would be in a restaurant kitchen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     \u201cThe packaging of\nit is different because we\u2019ve got to make sure that nobody at the restaurant\ngets the food meant for the festival. Of course we label it and everything but\nwe’ve got to set aside that equipment and that food and that prepping,\u201d Camacho\nsaid. \u201cIt’s about really working <\/p>\n\n\n\n

with the other prep people because it can become chaotic.\nThere\u2019s people prepping for the restaurant and we’re trying to prep for the\nfestival, so just making sure everybody\u2019s on the same page, everybody knows\nwhat’s happening, [and] everybody knows what their role is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For those that want to organize a veggie festival once the\npandemic is over, this information may be helpful: https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/2011\/09\/07\/putting-on-a-vegetarian-festival-vegetarian-festivals-galore\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can find quantity recipes here: https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/fsupdate\/index.htm<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are items that Thomas Woodruff has sold: https:\/\/www.txkvegan.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Lucia Rivera, VRG Intern Through selling vegan foods at festivals throughout the country, young cooks share and promote vegan eating. Two of these cooks are Anayeli Camacho and Thomas Woodruff, who, respectively, works at a vegan restaurant and started his own vegan pop-up business.      \u201cI would say the benefits of selling vegan food […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15827"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15827\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15829,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15827\/revisions\/15829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}