Vegan picnic coming to Shaw Millennium Park

By Giselle Wedemire

If you’ve ever sighed wistfully while reading/hearing about the awesome vegan festivals held in hip cities like Portland, LA, Vancouver, and Toronto, fret not. FOMO will soon be a thing of the past for us Calgarians with next year’s VegFest Calgary.

 

Event logo screenshot via Facebook

The event, which is still in the planning stages, is set to take place sometime in May or June next year, with details still being ironed out by the dedicated team of volunteers and organizers.

Since the date is still a bit in the future, a welcome picnic in the park will be held at Shaw Millennium Park on Saturday, August 13 at 11:30 a.m to celebrate and build anticipation for this landmark event.  The picnic itself is free, and attendees are asked to register online, and to bring along their own picnic essentials (like a blanket and an optional vegan picnic food item).

While there, attendees will be able to dig in to some tasty food samples from Vegan Eats YYC, while learning about the ways in which they can help out and volunteer their time to make next year's festival a success.

For more information, check out the VegFest Calgary Facebook page and the Welcome Picnic's EventBrite page.

A DIY solution to the cancelled CNF Stampede breakfast

By Giselle Wedemire

I love this city, but I have a hard time getting jazzed about Stampede. I mean, I’ve had some great fun at some of their concerts on the Coca Cola Stage (including seeing Rooney, The Dudes, k-os, and a chance sighting of Drake at the 2006 Nelly Furtado show), but other than that, Stampede really doesn’t matter to me.

But Stampede breakfasts? Now, that’s something I can get behind. Since going vegan five years ago, my favourite part of Stampede has been hitting up Community Natural Foods’ annual Stampede breakfast. Sure, I had to get up at the crack of dawn and be a complete zombie for the rest of the day, but there were free pancakes involved, so it was worth it!

This year, however, CNF has decided against putting on its annual breakfast. While this is definitely sad news, you can’t really blame ‘em, thanks to this not-so-hot economy of ours.

Screen shot via Community Natural Foods' Facebook

Tips to make your trip to the Calgary Vegan Bake Sale a sweet success

By Giselle Wedemire

Bring on the sugar rushes and the food comas, because the Calgary Vegan Bake Sale is back for its seventh year this weekend. I couldn’t be more overjoyed because a) I love baking, and b) I love helping animals. And, being a regular volunteer baker for this bake sale, I get to combine both of these passions to create a truly satisfying weekend. It's a real win-win!*

If you’re new to the Calgary Vegan Bake Sale, here’s the scoop: every year, around May or June, the hardworking bake sale team sets up shop in the parking lot of the Community Natural Foods Chinook Market (202 61 Ave S.W.) to sell homemade vegan goodies of all shapes and sizes to benefit two great local animal charities. This year, we’ll be selling a variety of goodies and raffle tickets from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., or until we completely sell out, and all proceeds will benefit Alberta Spay & Neuter Task Force and The Alice Sanctuary.

Whether this is your first vegan bake sale or your twentieth, here are some pointers on how to make the most of your bake sale experience:

Sweet treats for a sweet cause: another vegan bake sale hits YYC

By Giselle Wedemire

In case you missed the Sixth Annual Calgary Vegan Bake Sale in May (or if you just couldn't get your fill of cruelty-free sweets the first time around), fear not! Another vegan bake sale is coming to town this weekend.

Event poster via Facebook