Free Vegan Eats and a Rally for Food Justice: It’s PETA’s Pre-Thanksgiving Party in Inglewood
Los Angeles — The Tuesday before Thanksgiving, PETA and PETA Latino along with local vegan eatery VegainzLA and cohost DJ Krystal “Bee” Guzman Olortegui will give Inglewood residents something to celebrate: They’ll dish up 300 free vegan wraps—stuffed with plant-based carne asada, vegan chicken, or chickpea tuna—as part of PETA’s food justice campaign.
PETA Latino will also give away 150 vegan meal starter kits—grocery bags stuffed with tofu, soup, fresh fruits and vegetables, recipes, and more—and invite locals to text JUSTICE to 73822 to call on their representatives to redirect meat, egg, and dairy industry subsidies as incentives for grocers in food deserts to stock fresh fruits, vegetables, and other healthy, humane vegan foods.
When: Tuesday, November 23, 12 noon
Where: VegainzLA, 701 S. La Brea Ave., Inglewood
“I was born and raised in Inglewood, and the unhealthy food that I grew up eating left me sick and tired,” says VegainzLA owner Alan Herrera. “I started VegainzLA with the idea that food is medicine and that our community deserves delicious vegan food that heals us, instead of killing us.”
Adds Guzman Olortegui, “I grew up in L.A., and I saw how many of my neighbors and friends didn’t have access to fresh groceries—and their health suffered. I’ve now been vegan for nearly a decade, and I want everyone to have the same opportunity to choose healthy meals.”
The U.S. government spends about $38 billion in tax money each year to subsidize the meat, egg, and dairy industries—the vast majority of which goes to big corporations, not American farmers—while only about $17 million is used to subsidize the fruit and vegetable industries. Livingston-based poultry giant Foster Farms, for example, has received millions of dollars in state and local subsidies to expand its product lines in California in recent years, while nearly a million Californians have no access to nearby supermarkets or large grocery stores. In Los Angeles alone, nearly 20% of the population lives in a food desert. That’s why Herrera and Guzman Olortegui will also send letters to their elected representatives, including Gov. Gavin Newsom, calling for them to do more to help the approximately 8 million Californians who live with food insecurity have reliable access to nutritious plant-based foods.
PETA launched the food justice campaign in Atlanta with Pinky Cole of Slutty Vegan; held other giveaways in Indianapolis, New York City, and Tulsa, Oklahoma; and has more giveaways planned for Baltimore, Boston, and other cities.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
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