Animal Rights/Vegan Activists' Strategies Articles

Vegan Waffle Party Host: Mimi Torres

From VeganWaffleParty.com
May 2022

After learning a bit about Mimi, perhaps you’ll be inspired to throw your own waffle party. She loves hosting vegan waffle parties so much that, as she’ll explain, neither the pandemic nor a blown fuse can stop her from getting her waffle on.

Today, I’m excited to introduce to you vegan waffle party host Mimi Torres.

Mimi is passionate about vegan waffles, spreading joy and veganism, the environment, and my own favorite way of getting around: bicycling. Furthermore, she has an extremely cool and unique piece of waffle party gear that unites two of these themes, pictured near the end of the post. Wait until you see it!

After learning a bit about Mimi, perhaps you’ll be inspired to throw your own waffle party. She loves hosting vegan waffle parties so much that, as she’ll explain, neither the pandemic nor a blown fuse can stop her from getting her waffle on.

Your city:

Berkeley, CA, US

When did you host your first waffle party, and how many have you hosted?

I’ve hosted a waffle party every year since 2010. In 2020 waffle party went online and I created a waffle recipe doc. Folks made their own waffles and we socialized on Zoom for a few hours. And like an in-person party, people could pop in and out.

How does hosting waffle parties fit in with your personal mission?

I love spreading joy and veganism. Waffle party allows me to do that in such a fun way. My waffle parties are always very open invite. “Invite your friends and your friend’s friends.”

What’s the coolest thing you’ve experienced or witnessed at a waffle party you’ve hosted?

I just love bringing lots of people together and seeing different groups of my friends interact. The most random thing to happen at a waffle party was when we blew a fuse at our 2019 waffle party. I’d been in my apartment for 8 years, and had never blown a fuse. That’s when we discovered that my apartment has actual glass style fuses. I had never seen that before.

I sent someone to the hardware store to buy a new fuse and we carried on making waffles with a station in the hallway using the plug in the bathroom and a station in my housemate’s room. We still had a fun waffle party even though the fuse replacement didn’t work and we had to call the landlord. The landlord’s son that came by to fix the issue looked quite shocked when he walked into an apartment (and outside steps) filled with people.

What causes and activities are you most passionate about? (Includes both serious and fun.)

The environment in all that that means. I’ve never owned a car and travel by bike first and public transit second. I’ve done five Climate Rides and other similar events and all of them have benefitted Bike East Bay, which is our local bicycle coalition. Up until recently, I also served as a board member of Bike East Bay.

Tell me a bit about your favorite social cause or organization. It may or may not be at all related to your waffle party involvement. How are you involved, and what are the one or two biggest things you wish more people understood about it? Where can people go to get more information?

I’ve already mentioned Climate Ride, but here is more info. They are a nonprofit that puts on cycling and other events to raise money for environmental organizations. To date they have granted over $7 million to support conservation, climate, sustainability, and active transportation.

This year they have received a matching grant that will match all dollars raised up to $2.5 million which is amazing! And for their Green Fondo events all dollars raised are going directly to beneficiary organizations instead of Climate Ride taking their event cost cut thanks to another donor or donors.

I’m doing the East Coast Green Fondo this fall and donated the $500 fundraising minimum to myself when I signed up because I couldn’t personally justify fundraising for a climate event that I’m flying to take part in. Now that there is a true 100% match on all donations I’ve started fundraising and I’m really excited to bring in big dollars for Bike East Bay. My fundraising link is tinyurl.com/mimirides2022.

You can check out all of Climate Ride’s upcoming events at climateride.org/events.

Anything else you’d like people to know about you, that I haven’t asked about here?

I’ve cycled most of the California coast. I’m only missing the section from the Oregon border down to Fortuna (near Eureka). I hope to cycle that section in 2023.

Another fun fact is that I own a bike and waffle themed apron that a friend made for me years ago. (Pictured, but very wrinkly and needs a wash.)

Mimi’s super-groovy waffle party apron with waffles & bicycles, close-up

Mimi stylishly sports her unique waffle party apron

Thanks for all that you do to improve the world, and best wishes with your upcoming vegan waffling and bicycling adventures. Keep rocking that groovy apron. Also, thank you for letting me know I’m not alone in having blown a fuse during a waffle party.

Notes: If you’re curious about how vegan waffles relate to environmental issues, discover what inspired the cover of the revised and expanded Global Vegan Waffle Cookbook.

Part of WaffleParty.com’s purpose is to inspire awareness of complex social issues. As such, different opinions and approaches are sometimes represented. A given host’s specific opinions and endorsements may or may not reflect the viewpoints of the site’s author, or those of other hosts represented here.

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