Meet the Creator of the Biggest Vegan Tailgate Ever
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FROM VeggieHappy.com
January 2019

[FYI: Super Bowl 2019 Vegan Outreach Week]

The number of RSVPs that we’ve gotten for #veganatthegame is incredible. We’re talking about hundreds of RSVPs that I'm getting every single day.

Introducing Kimberly B, producer of the mega vegan Super Bowl event taking place in downtown Atlanta on Friday Feb.1 & Saturday Feb.2 from 11am-9pm. There will be celebrity guests, vegan food, comedians, music, and more! Read our interview with host Kimberly B.

This post is from a conversation between VeggieHappy’s co-founder Johanna McCloy and the host of the event, Kimberly B. of Might Be Vegan.

Veggie Happy: First of all, congratulations! I think what you’re doing is fabulous.

Kimberly B: Thank you! Yeah, it’s exciting, and scary, and busy, and overwhelming, and awesome, at the same time.

Veggie Happy:I’d like to introduce people to who you are, and how this came to be. How did you get started with Might Be Vegan?

Kimberly: I started it in April, 2018 as a test and an Instagram page. I had been in marketing for sixteen years, and I was coming from the backside of closing down my marketing agency, and I wasn’t sure what was next. I always loved cooking, ever since I was little, and I knew that I’d end up in the foodservice industry. I was newly vegan and I was creating recipes, so I created the Instagram page and it just started to take off. I can’t really tell you why except it was just me being myself . . . knowing what it takes to begin an Instagram page and to get people interested, and taking all those techniques that I had picked up over the years. People started to pay attention.

What makes me happy is recipe creation, and story telling, and food advocacy, and justice, and activism. All of those things make me happy. So the business now focuses primarily on content creation, whether that means video, or TV, or web shows, or podcasts . . . and also creating recipes and having a subscription program.

Veggie Happy: How or why did you transition to being plant-based?

Kimberly B: I’ve always been health conscious and I knew that it was a good idea to review the things that you’re eating. When I hit around 30 or 34, I had put on weight and I couldn’t get it off. I had a trainer at one point, and that was nice as far as sculpting, but the weight would come back if I stopped training.

People had introduced me to plant-based foods, but at the time I thought it was kind of extreme and I wasn’t ready to jump in. Then, when I started hearing from my mom and my cousin and people that were close to me that they were having a lot of diet-related illnesses, I had to take a second look at meat and dairy. That was the catalyst for me.

Fast forward, and much bigger issues than just my individual health have allowed me to continue in this way. That means ethical treatment of animals, the impact that the industry is having on the planet, and also the impact that meat and dairy and other unhealthy foods are having specifically on communities of color.

Veggie Happy: How did your Super Bowl event #veganatthegame come about?

Kimberly B: I had someone approach me who said, I have an opportunity to do some stuff at the Super Bowl, do you want to participate? The investment needed to make that happen was well outside of my budget, but I decided that I would commit to doing something. Well, that something has actually grown into what I believe will be the largest vegan tailgate that this country has seen, period.

I don’t think I’ve ever gotten this many people excited about one thing at the same time. The number of RSVPs that we’ve gotten for #veganatthegame is incredible . . . we’re talking about hundreds of RSVPs that I’m getting every single day, without fail. Not to mention the foot traffic that will be out there because of the event that the Super Bowl and the media is hosting.

Veggie Happy: Where is it going to be exactly?

Kimberly B: Downtown Atlanta is being sectioned off for all things Super Bowl. So one corner would be the dome, another corner would be State Farm Arena, another major pocket is Centennial Park, and in-between all of those is our venue, which is outdoors, at 350 West Marriotta.

Veggie Happy: That is so cool. Tell us what people can expect. What will be happening?

Kimberly B: Yes! I’ll be cooking my favorite dishes and everything is vegan obviously. One is a chili with chorizo, and then a spin-off of shrimp and grits, which is very common in the south, especially South Carolina and New Orleans. We also have games, and two comedians who will manage the entertainment for each day, doing contests and getting people involved. We’ll have lots of music. We have a playlist being created by a group called Spread Love of Music.

We’ll also have four live episodes of my podcast called “Do Fries Come with that Convo?” What we focus on in the podcast is bringing to light vegans from the intersectional position, making sure that we are aware of the issues that are unique to different groups of people, specifically for us, as people of color, and what it’s like to be vegan in America, and your family loves fried chicken and you have to have these conversations. The podcast is very humorous and informative, and we’ll have celebrity guests coming for interviews and to meet with us.

Another thing I’m really excited about is that we’ll have new chefs coming in every few hours, instead of one person feeding everybody for an entire day. This means we’ll have a new menu every couple of hours, which will entice people to come back, and also to stick around.

There’s no entry free. We’ll have sponsors that will be there, including Cinnaholic which makes the vegan cinnamon buns, and Purple Soul, which will actually provide the spices for some of the things I’ll be making, and they’ll also be giving way spices at the event, so people can take them home and make dishes of their own.

Veggie Happy: So do you go to games? Are you a sports fan?

Kimberly B: I would say that I used to be a football fan. I would watch games and keep track of what was going on, but I took a silent political stance not to participate really, and I haven’t watched football in maybe two years because of it. But I do love communities. And I think that’s what the majority of people who are coming to the event are actually looking for. So many people on my page comment and say, ‘wow, this really gives me a reason to show up and do something!” I have a friend who’s an athlete and he even said, “I don’t really care about the Super Bowl; this event is the highlight of my weekend!” That’s awesome.

Veggie Happy: Who are some of the celebrities attending the event?

Kimberly B: Derrick Morgan, a football player with the Tennessee Titans will be there. And his wife Chef Charity Morgan, who also contributed to your blog, she might be there. Also, former Minnesota Vikings player Leger Douzadle will be there. He is transitioning to being vegan. And the winner of season one of Grand Hustle on BET will be there: Kristal Garner.

Veggie Happy: That is fantastic. Congratulations again!

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