{"id":649,"date":"2020-11-01T08:30:31","date_gmt":"2020-11-01T08:30:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/InvictaNews\/?p=649"},"modified":"2020-11-01T08:30:35","modified_gmt":"2020-11-01T08:30:35","slug":"world-vegan-day-five-vegan-places-to-eat-in-kent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/InvictaNews\/2020\/11\/01\/world-vegan-day-five-vegan-places-to-eat-in-kent\/","title":{"rendered":"World Vegan Day: Five vegan places to eat in Kent"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As the environment steadily marching towards a tipping point, concerns around the globe have prompted a boom in veganism in recent years. According to The Vegan Society<\/a>, in the UK there were 600,000 vegans in 2019 and the number had quadrupled since 2014. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On this World Vegan Day, we are celebrating five entirely vegan eateries in Kent who not only champion the benefits of veganism but also have captured the stomach of their customers, both vegans and non-vegans, with tasty vegan dishes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vegan Antics<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a Vegan bakery in Gravesend<\/a> that has turned many of their non-vegan customers into vegan baked goods lovers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apart from catering to specific dietary needs, they also commit to using only bio-degradable and recyclable packaging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The owner of the business, Grace Apps, said veganism meant \u201cgive it what you can, to live a life but not harming anything else\u2026It is about protecting those that can\u2019t protect themselves.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having been a vegan for animals for six years herself, the 25-year-old said the reasons for someone becoming a vegan did not matter. \u201cThere are so many benefits whether it is for the animals, environment, or your own health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEven if someone goes into veganism for health benefits, ultimately they are helping so many different aspects, so the reason isn\u2019t too important.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grace admits that running such a business has its challenges. Being on a quite street in Gravesend means less footfall and having a small team means she has to be very hands-on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As many other businesses, Covid has not been easy on them. A large number of birthday cakes fell through and many wedding cakes were either cancelled or postponed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But luckily over the years the bakery has secured a group of loyal customers who would come in daily or weekly, sometimes from a faraway city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBecause there aren\u2019t too many vegan places around here, it is really nice when people travel to us. So it is really nice when people say they have come all the way from Essex or whatever to come to us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Potato Tomato<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A fully vegan restaurant in Whitstable<\/a> run by two sisters, Becky Jones and Niki Forster, who have been vegan since they were babies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The two said: \u201cVeganism to us is all about living your life causing the least amount of harm to other living beings. The environmental and health aspects are an added bonus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seeing the drastic expansion of veganism in recent years, the two found a spot on Oxford Street, Whitstable and decided to open their vegan restaurant in 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since then the business has continued to grow, especially during January when people are trying to eat healthily or do Veganuary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before Covid running a vegan restaurant in Kent was not hard for Becky and Niki.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhitstable is a very popular tourist destination and so we get a lot of visitors from all over Kent and London.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cVegans also tend to seek out places to eat on trip advisor or happy cow. We get people who come to Whitstable purely because we’re here!\u201d said the owners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Wallflower Caf\u00e9<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A caf\u00e9 in Herne Bay<\/a> that serves a broad spectrum of vegan foods and is loved by a wide range of customers, from children to retired people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The owners, Katie and Jone, took over the business early this year after the previous owners immigrated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having been vegan for a few years herself, Katie said she would not work in any other restaurant. \u201cI would only work in an entirely vegan place because of my beliefs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cVeganism sits in with my morals and my ethics, and lots of criticism of veganism is spread by myths and misinformation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 50-year-old said before things with the business were not at all difficult until Covid, \u201cWe had to close for quite a few months and when we re-opened we re-opened takeaways only, so we had to completely change a lot of what we did to make it suitable for takeaway\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Veg\u2019 n Out<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the first fully vegan chip shop caf\u00e9 in Kent. Based in Broadstairs<\/a>, the business is now run by two sisters, Michelle Goodwin and Stacey Goodwin, who believe we can have all the taste and flavour of any dish without using any meat, dairy and eggs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With an aim to share their passion for animals and provide a cruel-free diet, the caf\u00e9 has been known for its famous Vish \u2018n\u2019 Chips.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michelle, 42, said veganism was not just a diet but a way of life, \u201cIt is for the animals, I don\u2019t believe any living creatures should be enslaved and exploited just for the benefit of another being, it goes far beyond the diet,\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Vish ‘n’ Chips<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The veg box cafe<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The only vegan caf\u00e9 in Canterbury <\/a>that aims to make simple food spectacular using local and organic produce available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The caf\u00e9 was recently taken over by the current owner in March and now cooks and serves breakfast and lunches every day, along with teas, coffees and homemade cakes. They also provide compostable boxes for takeaways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A spokesperson for the caf\u00e9 said veganism was very important to her, \u201cI do it for the environment, for as long as we live on this earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo the caf\u00e9 veganism means healthy and delicious food and we want to show just because it is made of vegetable does not mean it has to be boring.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As the environment steadily marching towards a tipping point, concerns around the globe have prompted a boom in veganism in recent years. According to The Vegan Society, in the UK there were 600,000 vegans in 2019 and the number had…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":651,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[]},"categories":[14,39,7,1],"tags":[113,112],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/InvictaNews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/InvictaNews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/InvictaNews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/InvictaNews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/InvictaNews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=649"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/InvictaNews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":664,"href":"https:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/InvictaNews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649\/revisions\/664"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/InvictaNews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/InvictaNews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/InvictaNews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/InvictaNews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}