Website a passion project for family new to community

Discovering and sharing Truro’s vegan eats

TRURO - When Kay Whittaker, her husband and son first moved to Truro last March from Ontario, they were having trouble figuring out where they could order vegan options for takeout.

After moving to a new place and leaving her job of 18 years working with people with developmental disabilities, Whittaker needed a passion project.

“I was trying to figure out what's vegan so I thought, well, I could just research and make a website and make it easier for anybody," said Whittaker, who added that St. Catharines, Ont., had many more options.

With the help of her vegan technology-inclined husband Kyle Whittaker, the "Vegan Truro” website launched in July. Living by the saying, “friends don’t let vegan friends dine alone,” it highlights businesses in Truro that have vegan or plant-based options available. Whittaker, who became vegan two years ago, also included some blog posts sharing her vegan journey and some recipes.

So far, 28 businesses are listed, varying from ethnic foods, fast food joints and holistic health products to beverages.

No fully-vegan restaurants exist in Truro – a point of envy when looking at urban places such as Halifax – but Whittaker is especially excited about a new fully-vegan bakery, Room for Dessert, which currently sells from the Truro Farmers’ Market on Saturdays.

Another resource plantbased eaters commonly use is the Happycow app and website, which compiles pinpoint locations on a map and relies on people to crowdsource information about different places. Whittaker, however, wanted a hub for the Truro community.

“For me, it's like, if I don't know something, I want to talk about it and learn about it,” said Whittaker. “And that's the best way to learn, is to maybe teach people about it.”

A Facebook group was recently created as well. She is looking for people to submit suggestions and is open to any corrections.

Figuring out plant-based options

Plant-based foods are for everyone – they are not exclusive to vegans.

“It's like, one of my neighbors, she said, ‘Look, like, I'm not vegan, but I'd like to know what it is, so then if I have someone coming over for dinner, I know what to make, you know?’” said Whittaker.

Chelsey Debay, a local vegan vanlifer who would love to open a vegan restaurant in Truro someday, said there are some good restaurant options and they are starting to grow in Truro.

“For the most part, yeah, I would say everyone's kind of learning (that) you need at least one thing for that one person in the family or whatever," said Debay.

Checking for ingredients is an important component and a necessity in establishments that are not fully vegan. For example, a “veggie” burger cannot be assumed to be vegan – some use egg as a binder, the bun or toppings could have dairy and it might be contaminated being on the same grill as meat. Doughs such as that of pizza or naan might have egg.

“You never want to go and assume something is vegan, and then you get it, and it has secretly in the sauce, or something, it has eggs or dairy, because that always sucks,” said Debay, who adds some menus have green “V” emblems by the dishes.

The website saves some of that legwork for others by listing what is vegan on the menu, including special notes about the options, such as “vegan if you ask for no cheese or mayonnaise” or “ask for no egg.”

Foraying into veganism often means asking servers lots of questions, which can seem intimidating. There can be a hesitancy to label plant-based foods as vegan for risk of liability in case of cross-contamination, and some plant-based-labelled items might just be vegetarian.

Whittaker takes a direct approach and sometimes lets them know about her project.

“I'm just putting information on the website, because it's going to give them more business,” said Whittaker. “Because there are a lot of vegans out there, or plant-based eaters out there – they want to eat too.”

Debay prefers to check menus and research establishments ahead of time to save disappointment.

“I know a lot of places you can go and even if they don't have a vegan option on the menu, you can kind of ask: ‘Hey, could you kind of make me something vegan?’ but sometimes that'll end up being kind of a lame option and I don't want people to have like a bad experience with that,” said Debay.