Poet Shows How Going Vegan Can Help Local Farmers

By Patricia Bianca S. Taculao
Photos from Me & My Veg Mouth’s FaceBook page

Most Filipinos cannot live without meat. Who doesn’t want to sink their teeth into savory dishes like sisig, lechon, or kare-kare? Some regions even highlight these products as a native delicacy.

But despite the demand in pork, beef, or chicken, vegetable-based dishes are also a usual occurrence on the dining table because there are different nutrients that a person can get from eating a wide variety of produce available in the country. 

This is what poet and author Mabi David had in mind when she started Me & My Veg Mouth. 

Poet and author Mabi David created Me & My Veg Mouth to share the gospel of eating healthy.

“It was really with the intention of spreading the ‘gulay love’ because plant-based foods are healthy as well as accessible,” David said.

Me & My Veg Mouth is a vegan kitchen provides demos to different groups of people on how to prepare their plant-based food from local ingredients found in the market.

David added that some people have a persistent notion that eating healthy is only for the well-off.

When the kitchen was starting out, David and those involved in Me & My Veg Mouth set out programs aimed to teach and empower communities to prepare their own healthy food. They worked with different groups of people like the farmers, construction workers, and the impoverished.

“We share plant-based recipes and do cooking demos where consumers won’t need to feel deprived when eating them,” David said.

This means that picky eaters won’t have a hard time with their food since David says that you can hardly taste the difference when it comes to the plant-based version of the usual food that people eat.

Why Go Organic?

Aside from promoting a healthy lifestyle in the country, Me & My Veg Mouth also aims to teach people how to make their own food for a sustainable lifestyle. For example, the kitchen recently held a two-hour course on how people can make their own miso from chickpeas.

The kitchen also encourages people to switch to a plant-based diet in order to lessen the carbon emissions that come from the cattle and poultry industry in the Philippines.

A sneaky veggie choco spread.

Me & My Veg Mouth also advocates supporting local farmers because they are the backbone of the country’s Agriculture as well as the source of food.

Different Foods for Different Moods

The kitchen comes up with vegan versions different types of food like pasta, desserts or quick snacks that are loaded in natural ingredients like beans or sweet potato to promote eating healthy. This helps their consumers sustain a healthy lifestyle without having to fuss over what they can or can’t eat.

Me & My Veg Mouth also considers the convenience of the people when they come up with new recipes for them to try. 

No bake, chewy caramel cookies from the vegan kitchen.

“We considered the convenience of the people as well because some of them come out from work late or don’t have enough energy to prepare a dish,” David said.

To further promote accessible and affordable ingredients, they hold courses on different recipes concerning a single (usually indigenous) produce and tackle the different ways it can be turned into a delicious, nutritious dish.

For more information, visit Me and My Veg Mouth’s Facebook page.