This year's Toronto, Boston Food Fests ectend past successes

VUNA Views, Vol. 8, No. 1, Winter (December), 1998

This year's Toronto, Boston Food Fests extend past successes

From Michael Chambers, Toronto Food Fair Coordinator:
The Toronto Vegetarian Association hosted the 14th Annual Vegetarian Food Fair at Harbourfront Centre on September 11, 12 and 13, 1998. This year's Food Fair was one of the most successful to date. We welcomed visitors from across Canada, the United States and around the globe to what has become the largest annual event of its kind in North America.

Ex-cattle rancher turned vegan Howard Lyman packed the Lakeside Terrace for his talks on Friday evening and Saturday afternoon. Brenda Davis, RD, co-author of the best seller _Becoming Vegetarian_ and one of the world's top dieticians, made her first speaking appearance in Eastern Canada at this year's Food Fair. Rae Sikora, co-founder of the Centre for Compassionate Living in Maine, led the Food Fair's first "Vegetarian Workshop" designed to help vegetarians communicate effectively, with understanding and without frustration, with non-vegetarians. Joseph Pace returned this year to give an update on his upcoming book, _Changing the World One Bite at a Time_, which he hopes to have published by late 1999. Local heart and internal medicine specialist Dr. Bhiku Jethalal, MD, captivated audiences with facts and arguments that strengthened the vegetarian case. And TVA's own Nimisha Raja also spoke about making dietary change, whether from omnivore to vegetarian or vegetarian to vegan. Two panel discussions, "Ask the Experts" and "Youth Perspectives on Vegetarianism," gave people the opportunity to ask questions about vegetarianism on different levels. Saturday evening saw some great musical performances on the Ann Tindal Stage.

The Annual Vegetarian Food Fair would not be possible without the continued support and commitment of hundreds of volunteers who make the show go on year after year. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the volunteers who helped make this Toronto event one of the largest vegetarian events in the world!

From Evelyn Kimber of the BVFF:
The third annual Boston Vegetarian Food Festival, held at the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center on October 3, was a great success! Thousands of people attended, and feedback from exhibitors and attendees has been extremely gratifying.

For example, one of our sponsors, a natural foods supermarket, reported fantastic customer response. Following BVFF, customers were coming into their store with shopping lists of foods they tried at the Food Festival, asking where to find them!

Our nutrition speaker also reported that he was trailed by people asking for more information all afternoon after he spoke. It was good to know that attendees were getting information that would help them to become vegetarian, or at least to incorporate more vegetarian foods into their daily lives.

Maintained by Judy Miner jwminer@accessvt.com
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