Every American City Needs a Vegan Restaurant Month
Heather and JR Dahman from Fort Wayne, Indiana, are leading the American plant-based revolution one bite at a time by organizing a Vegan Restaurant Month
Los Angeles, November 24th, 2024 — In the heart of Fort Wayne, Indiana, a quiet revolution is taking place. This unassuming Midwestern city, ranked the 83rd largest in the U.S., is setting an example for the nation with its transformative Vegan Restaurant Month. Spearheaded by the dynamic duo, Heather and JR Dahman, this initiative is proving that vegan dining isn’t just more compassionate, it’s also fun, delicious, healthy and very social. This husband and wife duo share a passion for everything plant-based and also run The Herbivore Next Door, which sells vegan t-shirts and other merch. UnchainedTV’s Jane Velez-Mitchel had a conversation with this entrepreneurial couple, which you can watch in its entirety here:
A Template for Positive Transformation
What started as a single week of vegan dining has now blossomed into a month-long celebration. Fort Wayne’s Vegan Restaurant Month offers diners the chance to enjoy plant-based pizzas, milkshakes, Thai-inspired creations, and more—all entirely vegan and free of any animal products, which makes all of the dishes cholesterol-free too! Restaurants are thriving as new customers flock to explore these innovative dishes. JR Dahman explains why everyone benefits from their vegan month:
“It’s really great for the vegan community. But, it’s also really good for the restaurants because they lose nothing by offering these vegan options. Their regular people are still going to come in, but they’re gaining a whole new market. Without Vegan Restaurant Month, they wouldn’t just throw something on the menu, because they don’t know if it’s going to work or not. So, this campaign is a great opportunity for them to try something out. Then, they realize this vegan community comes out in force. So, a lot of this stuff winds up staying on the menu.”
Heather is also a certified Master Vegan Lifestyle Coach & Educator, and a Food for Life Instructor. She teaches vegan cooking classes in Fort Wayne and hosted a Let’s Beat Breast Cancer event to promote how eating plant-based can help prevent breast cancer.
The Dahmans have built a network of over 3,000 members in their local vegan Facebook group, fostering a strong sense of community. This digital and in-person support system is the backbone of their initiative, ensuring that restaurants have eager patrons ready to support vegan dining.
Soft Activism Is Effective
Not everybody is comfortable with protesting at demonstrations and marches. But, there’s no excuse for staying on the sidelines when it comes to advocating for an end to industrialized animal agriculture, which is devastating the climate, human health and animals. Confrontation-adverse “soft activists” can get busy starting a Vegan Restaurant Week or a Vegan Restaurant Month in their community. This no-chanting zone of activism can be lots of fun and extremely effective. Diners who might otherwise dismiss vegan food are drawn in by the promotions, special discounts and creativity of vegan dishes. Many leave with a new appreciation for plant-based dining, sometimes inspiring family-wide dietary changes.
Around the world, there have been other days, weeks or months set to celebrate veganism. In the following video, you can learn about Vegan Earth Day:
An International Model for Nationwide Impact
It’s not a coincidence that Fort Wayne Vegan Restaurant Month happens in November. World Vegan Day, November 1st, was created in England to honor The Vegan Society, which invented the word “vegan” in 1944. The first World Vegan Day was on November 1, 1994, and this was later extended to become World Vegan Week and then World Vegan Month. Every November, World Vegan Month is celebrated worldwide as a time to shine a light on the vegan movement. So, Heather and JR Dahman picked up that torch for the Midwest United States.
Franchising the Vegan Restaurant Week/Month Concept
The Dahman’s initiative also taps into a wider vision: providing other cities with a blueprint to replicate their success. They are now ready to expand their impact. Heather is working on a comprehensive toolkit, complete with scripts, logos, and even pre-made websites, to make it easy for any city to launch its own Vegan Restaurant Week/Month. The plan is to publish a step-by-step guide, starting with how to create and publicize the initial Facebook group all the way up to generating local news media coverage of the event. The aim is to normalize plant-based eating across the U.S., one community at a time.
This initiative aligns with the growing demand for sustainable and compassionate food systems. It’s a reminder that veganism isn’t limited to big cities — it’s thriving in places like Fort Wayne, proving that plant-based living is accessible to all.
Fort Wayne’s success story demonstrates that every American city can benefit from hosting a Vegan Restaurant Month. The Dahmans are providing the roadmap for how to do it. Now, it’s up to vegans in other cities to follow suit.
Another month dedicated to celebrating something important is Black History Month. You can watch this video to see how vegans celebrate it:
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