How to celebrate World vegan Day

Providing nutritious vegan food is a family affair for Angela Fuller (right), her daughter Jasmine, and her husband Mark of the Power Plant in Whangarei. Photo / Bryce Williams / Mint Floral

The Covid-19 pandemic has claimed another victim, the Whangārei Vegan Festival.

But, one of the festival organisers Cathy Duffield reassures us, it's likely to fully recover and re-emerge in prime shape next year.

"Earlier, as we were going through various alert levels and lockdown, we considered trying to hold an open-air event at the Town Basin but then, as Auckland more-or-less shut down again, we decided it was too difficult to manage all the variables and uncertainties," she said.

The Whangārei Vegan Society expo exploded on to the city's events calendar in 2016, when 800 people surged into what soon became apparent was a too small a venue — Whangarei Intermediate School.

Not only were organisers taken by surprise but many stall-holders quickly sold out and had to make urgent arrangements to restock, an especially difficult challenge for Auckland-based firms.

"We had no idea there would be such a strong response, especially as we had been cautioned beforehand not to call it a 'vegan' festival, as we were told that might put people off," Duffield said.

Accordingly, the next three annual festivals have been staged at a much bigger venue, Forum North, and have attracted increasingly bigger crowds.

"One of the reasons hundreds of Northlanders attend these expos is that we've actually had some really high-calibre speakers and presenters, from doctors, dietitians and other health professionals through to successful sportspeople and acclaimed chefs," Duffield said.

"But this year we have heard that a lot of people are disappointed there won't be an expo, so we just wanted to keep the ball rolling and let people know what their options are if they're keen on pursuing a plant-based diet."

To that end, Whangārei Vegan Society is "more than happy" to provide anyone interested with information on the benefits on a vegan lifestyle, as well as recipes and handy hints (email veganexpo@gmail.com).

For those hoping to be re-inspired by the vegan expo, she says video recordings of most of the talks from last year can be found on YouTube (search for Whangarei Vegan Society 2019).

"These include talks by Dr Neil Barnard, one of the top plant-based doctors in the US as well as cooking demonstrations by local chefs."

As for places to eat, Duffield says the Happy Cow app is free and helps people source vegan food wherever they are.

"We're lucky in Whangārei that most restaurants will offer some vegan dishes and most are very accommodating."

However, two cafes do serve exclusively vegan and gluten-free food.

Partly as a result of the first vegan festival and partly because it has been a long-held ambition, Whangarei Vegan Society member Angela Fuller opened the Power Plant — Wholefood and Organic Store in the Civic Arcade in 2017.

"We specialise in creating nutritious and delicious gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free, refined sugar-free, plant-based and organic food that is made in-house with love," Fuller said.

Down an alley in John St and with herbs and vegetables growing in every nook and cranny is The Palate Wholesome Collective, run by chef Zee Tana, who himself is gluten-intolerant.