Looking back on Philly Vegan Day

Philly Vegan Day

was two weeks ago, but only now have I had a chance to collect the responses and reports I wanted and put them out in the form of an update.

To recap, World Vegan Day is November 1st every year.

» READ MORE: This year it was also named Philly Vegan Day

by the City of Philadelphia, in a proclamation signed by Mayor Michael Nutter. The proclamation was officially read at a noon ceremony at

Essene Market & Cafe,

followed by persepctives on vegan living and eating by

Freya Dinshah,

President of the American Vegan Society;

Christina Pirello

of "Christina Cooks" and many other vegan-cooking initiatives; and

Juliene Featherman

of Juju organics, a cruelty-free salon. The event packed Essene's cafe and was very well received, bringing the concept of an animal-free lifestyle down to earth in different ways.

But a large part of the point of Philly Vegan Day is that it could be celebrated by everyone, wherever they happened to be (either physically or on the "path" toward veganism), so there were many other projects and events, a small sample of which I will recap here.

Many nonvegans elected to enjoy a special vegan meal for Philly Vegan Day, and one was

» READ MORE: Joel Spivak

, whose role in making South Street a Philly destination area is well established. Soon after the Essene event, (at which Spivak casually mentioned to me, "you know, I built the original Essene...") he and I headed north to make good on his promise to try a vegan "Philly Taco" at

Blackbird.

The renowned vegan pizzeria was for one day offering this bizarre concoction of a cheesesteak wrapped in a huge pizza slice, all vegan of course, and we each got one and agreed that vegan living was not always something ascetic, not always even something particularly healthy. But boy was it tasty and satisfying.

Blackbird was only one of a couple dozen eateries that did something special on their menu for the occasion.

Vegan Commissary

launched its Thanksgiving sandwich, which will be avialable through the holiday season. Owner Steve Laurence reports that many customers have enjoyed the holiday fundraising item concoction and that "we're counting on our customers and our neighbors to make us write a big check for the East Passyunk Crossing Civic Association.

(Laurence took the opportunity to note that for those who prefer their Thanksgiving dinner in non-sandwich form, Vegan Commissary will be hosting their own on November 20, featuring "Chefs Matt and Damian's Sweet Potato Pave with Cherries, Cornbread stuffing with Chestnuts and Apples, Roasted Garlic Mashed potatoes along with traditional favorites Green bean Casserole with Mushroom Gravy and fried onions and Mac and Cheese. The meal will be topped off with Meagan's Pumpkin Pie with whipped cream and praline.")

Meanwhile, during the course of the afternoon, the

Penn Vegan Society

held a Philly Vegan Day tabling event at Houston Hall, exposing many people (who ducked in to the student-union building due to the near-constant drizzle that day) to vegan education and samples of vegan food. PVS leader Brianna Kerjci explains:

PVS brought in four vendors who showcased a wide array of cuisines and food styles. These vendors were:

* Pure Fare, who sampled vegan, gluten-free dessert items,
* Shakti Catering, who had a variety of vegan Indian foods available,
* Koliyan, who specializes in Cambodian cuisine, and
* A Better Cake, who provides delicious, single serve cakes to their customers.

November 1st was both Homecoming and World Vegan Day on Penn's Campus, which was crawling with thousands of people. The attendees of the PVS event were blown away by the amount of satisfaction that they received upon trying this delectable spread. They left with both a greater understanding of veganism and a delicious taste in their mouths.

Some people took an artistic approach to Vegan Day, and put together creative tributes to the concept. My favorite of the finished projects was

Alden Cole's

assemblage which you can see above in the left portion of the photo. Cole is a member of the

» READ MORE: Philadelphia Dumpster Divers

, and his work combines that scrappy spirit with a strong formal elegance that is both fun and inspiring.

As a chance to look at vegan living, imagine oneself partaking and even trying aspects of it out, Vegan Day inspired a few people to examine the gap between where they were and where they might wind up, i.e. being vegan. Legendary Daily News columnist

Stu Bykofsky,

whom I had challenged o eat something specifically vegan that he wouldn't ordinarily eat, opted for vegan ice cream, and having made good on giving it a try,

» READ MORE: wrote a short essay

on why he's still not vegan.

Among his most salient observations:

I haven't eaten pork for 25 years to protest the factory farming of pigs, which is terrible for the environment and terrible for the pigs.

I am eating very little beef, but know that in terms of sheer volume, no animal suffers more than chickens.

The good news is there have been great strides in recent years in producing food substitutes that do not come from animals and cause no suffering. Whenever possible, I look for those in the supermarket.

The better news, once Bykofsky processes the fact that any animal who's provided anything he's eating is part of the exact same system (with the same-size if not larger problems) as the pork he contientiously avoids, is that he can easily avoid all animal products in a place like the Delaware Valley, where vegan offerings are plentiful and sometimes incredible.

Because I've talked to Bykofskiy about this and other matters over more than a decade and have ascertained that he tries more than most to live according to the values he has personally arrived at, I aver here that he will someday adopt a vegan lifestyle. It just makes sense.

Similarly, nonvegan NYT essayist and former publisher (she published my vegetarian cartoon collection The Joy of Soy in 1997)

Roz Warren

both attempted a day eating vegan and also went the essay route. But she came up with two pieces - one a social-media report on her friends' reactions to her musings about veganism, the other a more contemplative assessment.

Her piece

» READ MORE: "Today Is World Vegan Day. So Why Aren’t I a Vegan?"

on the Women's Voices for Change site opens: "I should be a vegan.  So should you. It’s better for your health, and better for the planet. And it’s kinder to animals, too.  So what’s stopping us?"

Her answer is a litany of daily temptations that obstruct even efforts to spend one full day eating entirely plant-based. I can remember this phase, and particularly the allure of cheese, which I couldn't imagine going the rest of my life without eating. But maybe I could do one day - and Warren and her vegan-leaning colleague finally pulled it off for once.

After months of attempting to achieve just one Vegan Day, Mark and I realized last Thursday that we'd actually done it.  We'd both managed to overcome all temptations and enjoy a day of nothing but delicious, nourishing plant-based food

!

Warren closed with: "Today is World Vegan Day. I don’t know what you’ll be up to, but Mark and I will, once again, be trying to go vegan.  If only for a day.  Wish us luck."

As she told me in a follow-up, she did wind up making it, making her Philly Vegan Day a day of all-vegan eating. For that, and for embracing the idea of Philly Vegan Day to such an extent as to do that plus publish two separate essays on the topic (not to mention her role in helping to alert Bala Cynwyd Library to the advantages of a Philly Vegan Day book display at its entrance), Roz Warren wins the prize for Best Philly Vegan Day celebration, and will receive a copy of the superb vegan cookbook Plant Power by Nava Atlas.

I want to thank not just Roz Warren but everyone who participated in this day of raising awareness, knocking down myths and trying out tasty food. I'm gratified that many people encountered the concept of veganism - living as fully as possible without participating in the exploitation of animals - and others looked more closely at it than before.

And let me add, in the face of Roz Warren's decrying the "temptation" aspect, that it gets better. The change happens when you decide that you are a vegan. Before that point the lifestyle looks like dieting - something where you have to deny yourself what you want to get what you ultimately hope for - but once you become vegan, it looks very different.

As for me, after two months without cow's-milk cheese I had no craving, no sense of loss, no idea, in fact, why I had ever thought of cheese as something so extremely desirable. More than that, though, as a vegan, I simply don't eat animal products - that's who I am.  So there's no temptation to "cheat" or "backslide" or whatever, because the person eating animal products would not be me.

Remember, if you missed Philly Vegan Day, it's still World Vegan Month, and this month - or any month - is a perfect time to take steps in this direction. Feel free to let me know how you're doing and where you're going!