Join Try Vegan PDX for our second annual Valentine’s Day Bake Sale!

Visit us at Jet Black for an array of festive holiday treats for your valentine, yourself, and even your pooch! We will have tasty baked goods donated by some local businesses, as well as those handmade by the Try Vegan PDX Committee. And of course, we need your help as well. If you would like to volunteer to donate treats for the bake sale, sign up here.

At last year’s sale we earned enough to print the first round of our new and improved Vegan Guide to Portland. This year the funds we raise will go toward printing more guides for distribution to the newly vegan and veg-curious of Portland, as well as toward the fun and educational community events we host throughout the year.

Mark your calendars and follow our event on social media for the latest updates on what delicious snacks to expect. You won’t want to miss this!

Are you new to Portland and/or veg curious? Maybe you are new to veganism?

We are hosting a lunch gathering to introduce ourselves as a committee, chat with newbies (to Portland or to the lifestyle) and answer any questions you might have. We may also have a guest speaker, who is also an acupuncturist, attending.

Yuan Su is an all vegan restaurant with offerings like chow mein, kung pao chikn etc. So, if you are looking for a way to kick off the New Year, and want to eat some tasty vegan food in a casual environment and meet some people, we hope you will come join us!

We look forward to seeing you on the 5th!

FREE ADMISSION!!! 

This is a new event for us, and is one we are really excited about! We are hosting a vegan maker and craft fair on December 2nd from 1-4pm at Taborspace. 

This will be an opportunity for the public to see the talent of 25 local vegan makers and crafters, and support their crafts. Think of it as Crafty Wonderland, on a smaller scale featuring vegan crafts and goodies. 

Those of you that will be attending, save the date. Admission will be FREE! Please share the event, and invite ALL of your friends in the Portland/Vancouver/Metro area. 

We look forward to seeing you at the First Annual Vegan Maker and Craft Fair! :)

Join TryVeganPDX and Daniela Lais (The Vegan on the Go Girl) for a fun-filled, delicious holiday cooking demo.

Daniela has been vegan for more than ten years and is passionate about ethical eating. She worked for many years at the long established vegetarian/vegan restaurant, Ginko in Graz, Austria and is now based in Portland. She is co-author of the books, Easy Vegan Baking and Vegan on the Go.

Event details:

Location: People’s Co-op Community Room (accessible via stairs and wheelchair lift) 3029 SE 21st Ave. Portland OR 97202

Date: Wednesday, November 7th

Time: 6:30-7:30

Cost: Free (donations for TryVeganPDX welcome)

Menu includes: Fig -walnut rosemary crackers with vegan garlic cheese

Shepherds Pie with roasted sweet potatoes and maple glazed Brussels sprouts with cranberries

Almond Strudel with vanilla sauce (and ice cream)

Try Vegan PDX Presents - Saturday Sessions - Vegan Pizza and Beer! Come sample pizza from local restaurants to find your new favorite vegan pizza in Portland! 

Are you new to veganism? Maybe you are vegetarian but haven't yet explored vegan options yet? Have friends that are curious about veganism? Perhaps you are a conflicted omnivore who is curious to try more vegan items to see if you can do it. If so, this might be the perfect event for you! Long time vegans are welcome too!!

Try Vegan PDX wants to show you how tasty vegan pizza can be, while learning about some great restaurants in town. 

Lagunitas is donating vegan beer to the event, and it will be hosted at their space. Businesses around Portland will be donating vegan pizza for you to sample. 

We are asking for a $10 donation to attend this event which will get you two beer tokens and pizza samples from at least 10 different restaurants. 

We'd love to see you there!

Hey there! VegQuest has been happening for several years in different forms. This year we decided to change things up and partner with an escape room. We will still be tracking the times of each team and the fastest team (who escapes the room the quickest) will receive a prize bag. 

We will be specifically partnering on the Alien Zoo escape room. Here is the basic info on this challenge. "Welcome to your new life as an exhibit in the Alien Zoo! Intelligent lifeforms from all over the universe come to this intergalactic space station to view less evolved creatures in captivity. Your keepers have done their best to recreate a natural human habitat within your enclosure. You will spend the rest of your days here being ogled and teased by alien families as you attempt their insulting “intelligence tests.” The aliens think humans are among the most primitive lifeforms in the zoo. Can you prove them wrong? Other humans have been here for some time. Perhaps if you work together, you can escape the zoo!" 

To register head to the Escapism website and book the hour block of time you want to race on Sunday, July 29th. When asked how you heard about the escape room during registration, be sure to mention VegQuest so we know your team is one to track that day. This room accommodates 8 people so feel free to sign up as a complete team or as part of the 8, and perhaps you will get the chance to meet some new folks. 

Escapism will donate a portion of each ticket to our organization so it is a fundraiser for us as well!

https://escapismportland.as.me/schedule.php?calendarID=1344000

Eating for Liberation: Food as a Medium for Social Change

We are witnessing an unprecedented, profound shift around veganism and plant-based diets in our society. We can understand these changes from three frameworks. One framework presents veganism as the morally-superior ethical response to nonhuman animal exploitation (i.e. a reaction to speciesism). This 'single-issue' vision tends to reproduce oppressive dynamics in society around race, gender, and capitalism.

A second framework reduces veganism to a plant-based diet, which becomes then a matter of individual choice and something to be practiced for different reasons (health, ethical, environmental, etc.). This individualistic framing fails to acknowledge veganism as worldview, and threatens to deepen capitalistic power relations (e.g. the impossible burger).

A third framework conceptualizes veganism as a integral part of eating for liberation, a radical lens that responds to the root problem: anthropocentric imperialist white supremacist patriarchal capitalism. Framing veganism in this way can allow us to be more compassionate towards ourselves and others, while cultivating a deeper understanding of how forms are oppression are interconnected. It is quite the mouthful, but worth saying: for as we name the problem, more pathways towards justice, peace, and liberation open in front of us.

Anne DeLessio-Parson is an educator and scholar-activist, whose work focuses on liberatory currents of social change and the revolutionary potential of veganism. She holds a PhD in sociology and demography, and master's degrees in rural sociology and political science. Her studies have involved work in the United States, Latin America, and South India.

Join the TryVegan PDX committee on a group volunteer outing to Wildwood Farm Sanctuary in Newberg, OR.

Wildwood is hosting an Earth Day celebration on the 22nd and they need our help to get the sanctuary ready for their big event. We will be feeding animals, cleaning barns, helping with farm chores, and, of course, spending plenty of time snuggling with the adorable animal residents.

Plan to arrive at the sanctuary by 10am. We should be done no later than 1pm. Please dress weather appropriately and be prepared to get a little dirty. Any tools needed will be provided by the sanctuary. Carpooling is encouraged. If you are in need of a ride or are able to offer a ride, please sign up on our rideshare spreadsheet at  https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1_MG9R892XGAuy_Gc48Oy2nwI9Bgl7IKfhEPDhIX-jo8/edit#gid=0

Bake sale for the new Vegan Guide to Portland!

We are almost done with the new edition of the Vegan Guide to Portland and since we have never had a bake sale, know you all love bake sales, and could use some extra $ to pay for the printing of the guides we are going to have a bake sale... and right before Valentine's Day!

We will have tasty treats donated by some local businesses such as Back to Eden, Shoofly Vegan Bakery, and Voodoo Doughnuts! We'll also have treats made by the TVPDX Committee and more.. We plan to have the event go until 4:30 pm or until we sell out. It's gonna be tasty!

If you would like to donate baked goods for the bake sale, please sign up here

Burnt Lake Trail #772

Forest fires are not new to the Pacific Northwest, and the area around this hike was burned around 1900. The forest around the trail is now home to Douglas-fir, western hemlock, silver fir and vine maple. Forests do regenerate! We'll also see several small creeks and micro-waterfalls as we head up into the Mt Hood Wilderness to a beautiful lake with a great view of Mt Hood reflected in its waters. We'll stop here for lunch before heading back down, so bring some food!

We'll meet at 9am at Gateway Transit Center in the parking garage lower level (east end) and carpool to the hike location.

More info and RSVP on Facebook or Meetup.