The NYC Vegetarian & Vegan Meetup

This past month, I joined and attended my first Meetup EVER — the NYC Vegetarian & Vegan Meetup, a group with over 10,000 members and the largest vegetarian/vegan group worldwide. The second largest vegetarian/vegan group in the world has 5000 members.

Our Meetup gathered at the sixth annual NYC Vegetarian Food Festival at the Metropolitan Pavilion on 18th Street. I met up with several group members, including the group organizer, David Greene. We walked around the pavilion and met others along the way. There were 114 exhibitors, including local and national food companies, vegetarian restaurants, wellness and lifestyle vendors, expert speakers, live entertainment, fitness classes, and innovative cooking demos. The events centered around education and plant-based living.

David was a part of the original group (NYC Vegetarian Meetup) that was started in 2002 by Meetup, where he met Scott Heiferman, the company’s CEO and co-founder. At that time, Meetup ran all of their groups. They would organize the group venues and only allow members to vote for one of three venue options.

In 2009, Meetup.com gave away all of their thousands of groups, each to one person who would oversee a group and make all of the decisions. At the same time, they decided to allow people to start their own new Meetups. David took over the NYC Vegetarian Meetup and three years later, he changed the name to the NYC Vegetarian & Vegan Meetup because it was more representative of the many vegans who were part of the group, including David.

The group meets on a regular basis and is always well attended. They’ve had 420 different Meetups, according the website data. In the month of April alone, there were six Meetups with an average attendance of 111 members per meeting. The venues included restaurants and bars for dinner and drinks, and music.

According to David, the core group members and leaders are all vegan. While they do welcome non-vegetarians, their ultimate goal is to actively encourage everyone, including the vegetarians in the group to go vegan. David said the vegan members believe that this will happen when others “see how much fun it is to be vegan.”

I used the Meetup app to ask the online community if anyone wanted my ticket when I was admitted into the festival with a press pass. There was an immediate flood of friendly responses through the app and I gave my ticket to the first responder, Tapan Garg. Tapan and I met and talked about his involvement with the NYC Vegetarian & Vegan Meetup. He’s a vegetarian most of the time, but sometimes eats meat.

Many in the group are animal rights activists, but some eat a plant-based diet just for health reasons.

Members communicate mostly online through the Meetup website and mobile app, but many have developed strong friendships and often get together outside of the organized Meetups. There’s a strong community bond between vegans and vegetarians that is reflected in their group description:

“Do you love trying new vegetarian & vegan restaurants? Do you enjoy the company of fellow vegetarians & vegans? Are you occasionally frustrated that your meat-eating friends ‘don’t get it,’ and do you wish to dine with others that have the same enthusiasm for vegetarian and vegan food that you do?

Welcome to our group. What I am especially proud of is all the wonderful members we have. We seem to attract some of the very nicest, most thoughtful people in New York. Given the focus of our group, I am not surprised.

New York has many excellent vegetarian and vegan restaurants, and new ones are opening all the time. Join us as we explore them all, and enjoy dining with some of the kindest, most gracious, most socially-conscious people in New York.

Plus, join us as we go out on the town to vegetarian and vegan friendly bars and lounges. And partake when we go to visit some outstanding music venues. Great ways to have delightful nights on the town in the company of a fun and friendly group of vegetarians and vegans.

We warmly welcome all vegetarians and vegans as well as those that are considering a vegetarian or vegan diet.

Our Meetup group was profiled in a news story on CNN’s Headline News channel. Check out the video.”

David told me that his number one reason for running the Meetup group is because it’s fun. He said, “Our active goal is to get people to go vegan rather than vegetarian, something we feel will happen when they see how much fun it is.”

I joined a second Meetup group that was also attending the NYC Vegetarian Food Festival. The group, organized by Charles Chen, is called Fresh Circle NY. Their description on the Meetup website states:

Fresh Circle NY is a COMMUNITY gathering every month at various parks, wellness centers & kitchens providing fun healthy living classes, inspiration, and community. Come get FRESH, meet new friends, and join our community focused on healthy living & empowerment. We have potlucks, Healthy Living Workshops, Fitness, Zumba, Yoga, Meditation, Community Detox Cleanses & MORE! We LOVE Gluten-Free, Plant-Based Recipes, and of course we welcome all FOODIES! :)

I met up with Chen at the NYC Vegetarian Food Festival. It turns out that he is also a member of the NYC Vegetarian & Vegan Meetup. Small world. :)