Three years ago, when I was 12, I went vegan. I stopped eating pizzas, ice cream, etc. Vegan alternatives are not available in the place I live. I was missing the yummy food I used to eat but I was very careful in what I ate. I never consumed anything that was not vegan. Going vegan is not even half as hard as most people think, and it is the need of the hour that we go vegan.
I have always been an animal lover. I used to be a vegetarian. I had no clue about the cruelty in the dairy industry. My sister decided to go vegan after she watched Gary Yourofsky's The best speech ever. Though I was a little hesitant about the idea of veganism initially, once I got to know the facts and the truth, there was no turning back. A few minutes of taste certainly does not justify subjecting individuals to torture or death. It is shocking how we are breeding and mercilessly killing billions of animals every year. Animals are members of our ecosystem and by killing them, we are also killing our planet and ourselves. After understanding these, it was clear that going vegan is the right thing to do.
Today, I have learned how to make vegan alternatives for pizza, ice cream, donuts, and cakes. Not just that, I sell them too through our venture Cloud Nine.
Cloud Nine is a small venture that my sister and I started ten months ago. Through Cloud Nine, we sell vegan cupcakes, birthday cakes, ice cream, cookies, donuts, and pizzas to the people of Trichy with the idea of promoting veganism and helping transitioning vegans make their transition. We began with just cupcakes on our menu, but have added many more foods along the way. Though not many people know about veganism here in Trichy, the response to our venture has been great. It is heartwarming that many people order from us, over and over again.
We have made and sold about 500 cupcakes since we began. My sister and I work together. I take care of the baking and delivery, while my sister does the packaging and poster designing. Together, we connect with customers and manage our social media page. Through our food, we tell people that vegan food is just like non-vegan food- minus the cruelty. There are so many lessons that we learned, and we are hoping to grow our business.
Apart from Cloud Nine, I write poems and articles on veganism to express my views on why veganism is important. You can check them here @manish_the_little_poet
