Meet Sarah Feoli of Arizona Vegetarian Food Festival in Scottsdale

Today we’d like to introduce you to Sarah Feoli.

Sarah, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I’ve been a vegetarian since middle school and a vegan for 20 years. It’s really helpful to learn about new plant-based foods and products so that one’s cuisine can be exciting and varied. For that reason, I have enjoyed going to vegetarian food festivals around the country. My favorite was the long-running one held in Boston every year. When I moved to New York, I was astonished to realize that the city did not have its large-scale festival dedicated to the plant-based lifestyle. So, not knowing how big of a project it would be, my business partner, Nira Paliwoda, and I decided to stage one ourselves. We started with a one-day event. But that quickly grew to 2 days. After a few years of success in Manhattan, and after hearing from our vendors and speakers that they wanted to work with us in other markets, we branched out to Arizona, and also to California. Our AZ Vegetarian Food Festival began in Scottsdale in 2015.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
One good problem we had early on was that we ran out of space! We didn’t know what a great turn-out we would have, so people were lined up around the block trying to get in (and some of them unfortunately never did). Another (ultimately good) challenge was competing with other groups that came along and saw how successful our vegan events were. They tried to commandeer our speakers and vendors. Fortunately, by now, we’ve built up a good reputation, and our attendees know the quality they are getting when they come through our doors. It is a never-ending task to keep on top of the latest trends in the plant-based world and to snag the most cutting-edge speakers and chefs for our festivals. But that is what we aim to do, and for the most part, we are successful.

We’d love to hear more about your organization.
U.S. Veg Corp stages the three large-scale festivals around the country. We also put on smaller scale events in the New York City area, such as vegan food competitions and vegan parenting workshops. Our mission is to impart as much information to as many people as possible about the benefits of a vegan lifestyle but to do so in a fun and engaging way. I came to the vegan lifestyle for the animals, my partner is more interested in it for health and environmental reasons. So in addition to the keynote lectures, at our festivals, you will find celebrity chef’s doing cooking demos, a children’s activity area called Kumquat Kids, all kinds of musical entertainers, fitness classes ranging from yoga to karate, a charity raffle benefiting a non-profit organization, and much more. The vibe is always very upbeat and energetic. Someone once asked if we were piping oxygen into our NYC festival, the crowd was so content! We are proud of the fact that over the years we have gotten the word out about how vegans are doing it right for their health, for the lives of the animals, and our planet’s sustainability.

What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
Any time we hear that our festival or smaller events encouraged someone to make a change to their diet towards veganism.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.azvegfoodfest.com
• Email: hello@azvegfoodfest.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/azvegfoodfest
• Facebook: facebook.com/azvegfoodfest
• Twitter: twitter.com/azvegfoodfest
• Other: www.usvegcorp.com

Image Credit:
Jacob Tyler Dunn

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