About

The Downriver Vegan was born when a friend and I were at the Trenton fair.  My friend decided he wanted to have Del’s.  He ordered a pizza with cheese and pepperoni.  I ordered the one and only vegan option they had…French fries.

He leaned over the table and said, “I think the table behind us are the owners of the new vegan Coney that’s coming to Detroit soon.”

“No, really?”

“Yeah, I overheard them saying something about vegan hot dogs.”  He turned to them, then back to me.  “Should I ask them?”

“Sure!”

Turns out they were not the owners of the upcoming vegan restaurant, but one gentleman was the owner of a downriver restaurant…known specifically for their meat dishes.  He explained to us that his discussion with his friends was about all the vegans coming into his restaurant requesting vegan options.

Wait, what?  Vegans Downriver?  Enough to make a restaurant owner take notice and have discussion about it?  That was amazing news to me.  I did take a moment to discuss some options with him and explained that many vegans really do not enjoy just salad, which was his current vegan selection.

I immediately created The Downriver Vegan Facebook group, because…VEGANS DOWNRIVER!  I would love nothing more than to go to the grocery store and bump into fellow vegans.  So The Downriver Vegan was initially formed for local vegan friendships, but then I thought… why stop there?  The restaurant owner was actually not opposed to hearing me out.  So I also decided that as our numbers grow, the Downriver Vegan could start reaching out to the local restaurants and encourage them to offer vegan foods so that the growing number of us could patronage their restaurants.

So, this is how The Downriver Vegan was born.  I cannot wait to watch it blossom to the day that we put Downriver on the Vegan Map!

About the Founder…

Hello, my name is Sherry.  I have been vegan since February 2015.  I transitioned into veganism to heal a medical illness that I was told would only get worse and become debilitating.  I am doing well and getting better every day.  I originally transitioned to a 90/95% whole plant food diet and then transitioned to 100% vegan once I watched Earthlings and learned about the cruelty that our “food” endures before making it to our plates. 

On my journey I have learned that eating meat is not even necessary.  I quite often ask the question “why does anyone eat meat?”.  Yes, it tastes good.  And, yes, it was something we grew up on.  I understand all of that; I lived all of that.  But the question is not “why does anyone eat meat?” it is “why do we continue to eat meat when it is the leading cause of heart disease, diabetes, and cancer; animal agriculture is destroying our planet; and living beings are tortured and killed?  Why have we, as a culture, turned our heads away from all of these atrocities, just because it tastes good?” 

I have watched the vegan movement grow rapidly in just the past two years.  Not only do I want to witness the awakening of this truth, I want to be a part of making it happen.