It’s my 19 YEAR VEGANNIVERSARY!

I have been vegan for 19 years now, and the landscape for us as consumers has changed so dramatically over the years. When I first went veg, we didn’t have a plethora of plant milks and meat alternatives for every appetite, and we certainly did not have access to vegan burgers at fast food joints or dairy-free cheese that could actually melt. In fact, we had “veggie cheese” on the market that still contained dairy (confusing AF), and companies had not yet started to lean into the term “plant-based” which keeps consumers from addressing the morality of veganism. But in my vegan lifetime, I have witnessed many vegan brands and products emerge that I thought only existed in my dreams. Today, labs are creating dairy dupes and chefs are making runny and hard-boiled eggs without animal involvement. What a time to be vegan! Every day, the sentiment rings more true.

This journey has and continues to be so exciting. I look forward to continuing to share all that is new and innovative in the vegan space, as well as locally. 19 years ago I wished I had a blog to follow that shared relevant and local vegan insights. I truly would have never thought I’d be creating it, let alone that anyone but myself would read it. I truly am so thankful for all of you. I have finally found my people!

To celebrate this milestone, I found vegan candy hearts from My Custom Candy. The hearts are actually peppermints but look like traditional candy hearts. I ordered white and pink hearts, and customized them with my logo and the words “VEGAN” and “19 YEARS”. They are so cute and SO FUN! (see below for candy heart ingredients)

This past year has been eventful for myself and my blog “Your Neighborhood Vegan”. I attended my first Expo West– the largest natural products exposition where I tried new vegan food and products, toured a plant-based chocolate factory, was an ambassador for Vegan Street Fair‘s first visit to the East Bay, was an influencer at VKX– the world’s first plant-based immersive experience, and am now featured on Wunder Eggs packaging in stores showcasing my Eggless Sando! I hope you stick around for more as we approach my second decade as a vegan, it can only go up from here!

Custom Candy Hearts Ingredients (excluding the purple hearts*): Dextrose, Dextrose with maltodextrin, Stearic acid (plant-based),   Natural and artificial flavors, Magnesium stearate (plant-based),  Natural & Artificial colors. *The purple hearts are noted as not vegan on the website’s FAQ.

Location: Modesto, CA

MyCustomCandy.com