After our Start Your Own Community Potluck post aired, several Herbies wrote in asking for more details on the "how to." Having not done one myself (I know! The shame!), I started thinking about suggestions and advice when Kelita emailed me saved the day!
A few days after my potluck post, Kelita told me about a recent plant-based potluck at her church. Her experiences answered many of the questions I and other Herbies had about potlucks in general, so I asked if I could share her email on the blog. Thankfully, Kelita agreed! I hope you find some inspiration from her and the Rock Family Worship Center in Parkersburg, WV.
By the way, if you don't belong to a church, etc., consider working with a veg society in your area or even with the local health food store. When I was in Colorado, I also attended a function at my library. The library had a cookbook club and one month they did vegan and vegetarian cookbooks — it was a lot of fun and everyone brought a dish. There are great ways to create events. If nothing else, have some friends over and as time goes on, ask them to bring a friend!
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From Kelita: I have to tell you what we did at my church yesterday.
First, background — After being diagnosed with painful osteoporosis last May, I began to do some research and came across Forks Over Knives, which led to The China Study, which led me to Happy Herbivore. I took the Engine 2 28-day challenge with my hubby, and we felt great and all my pain disappeared. So I shared this with my pastor, who is very health conscious, but had been unable to stabilize his blood pressure or blood sugar for the last 5 years. After watching FOK, he was convinced and he went plant-based. Within 3 days, his BP and sugar were NORMAL.
Six weeks later, he shared his results with our congregation. My husband and I had a couple of people doing this already, but that day, several people hopped on with us. Six weeks later, 23 people had lost over 300 pounds! Not only that, they were dropping BP meds, acid reflux meds, diabetes meds, etc.
Our church has a coffee bar and Grille, and they started offering plant-based foods after service and were selling out! Plant-based energy drinks and so on.
So yesterday, we held a LIFE Fair. We arranged through several nurses at our church and a local lab company to draw blood and have lab work done for a nominal fee. We did free blood pressure checks and free diabetes screenings. We found 2 people whose BP was at stroke level and didn’t have a clue! We found 2 people whose sugar was over 300 and were unaware!
We had folks, who had been plant-based for a couple of months, get up and share the difference. One man is no longer on extended release nitro glycerin! Several are off diabetes meds and blood pressure meds. Acid reflux is gone. Joint pain is gone. Sleeping and energy improved. Whoohoo!
AFTER church, the Grille sold plant-based foods for lunch and several of us vegans brought in dishes for folk to try. We had over 100 people stay for lunch and I added 30 people to my email list. The Grille served Life Pizza, Life quesadilla, Baja Burgers, and even vegan chocolate cake. Our samples were Spicy 13 bean soup, Vegan Taco meat, stir fry, vegan chili, vegan potato soup, rice and beans, and a cold bean salad. It was a huge success.
We are going to do a plant-based pot luck (subsidized by our Grille) once a month this year!
Thank you for all your recipes and blog info! I pass much of it on to my list and share a lot of it on my plant-strong Facebook page. I love your weekly recipes and menus. Thank you so much!HH: Thank YOU!
