The Vegan Food Aid program, organised by the non-profit Vegan Outreach, has been serving vegan food to communities in need in the US city of Sacramento during the COVID-19 crisis, from April 2020 to February 2022. Jackie Va, the Director of Food Events for Vegan Outreach, said that the program served over 2 million meals and grocery bags nationwide to over 119,000 people, and over 70,000 of those meals and grocery bags were distributed in Sacramento. She said, “Our initial goal of this program was to keep staff employed during the pandemic… We wanted to feed families healthy, filling foods. We did not require or ask families to go vegan…We knew that these communities were suffering because of the pandemic, and they were unable to get help from government programs… We worked with Nor-Cal Resist and the non-profit Mobile Pathways to help immigrant families.”
Anthony, one of the vegans who benefited from this programme, said to Sacramento news, “I have been vegan for almost 6 years and I have never seen any other vegan organization directly help the community in the way that Vegan Outreach has. Vegans get a bad rep most of the time, but this was a clear example of how much good comes from the vegan movement.”
Victor Flores, the Online and Community Outreach Specialist at Vegan Outreach, delivered over one million meals to the Navajo Nation. He said “The families were hesitant to go to other food banks or get assistance from other groups due to fear of being asked too many questions… We have to continue to provide safe spaces for these undocumented families, but there is still a tremendous amount of work to be done on these reservations including, giving them access to fresh produce, clean water and even electricity in some places.” People holding the philosophy of veganism should be compassionate towards any sentient being, and this includes, of course, humans in need.
