Resilient Palisades to Host Third Vegan Food Truck Event

By LILY TINOCO | Reporter

The Resilient Palisades Plant Based Solutions team will host its third iteration of Pali Veg Fest on Saturday, November 13, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Palisades Recreation Center—with organizers sharing they expect it will be the “biggest” and “best” yet.

The vegan food truck event has previously taken place on Swarthmore Avenue and along Alma Real Drive, in front of Palisades Branch Library. In order to accommodate the ever-growing crowd, organizer and leader of the Plant Based Solutions team Aleksandar Pavlović said they needed to find a new location. Attendees can find the festival on the upper-field of the rec center as they enter the parking lot.

In July, Pavlović said it became clear to the team that the demand for vegan food in Pacific Palisades is “pretty high” and hinted at events in the future. Now, he shared that the major success of the two previous events has driven the team to expand the festival even further, and they aim to make this the biggest Veg Fest to date.

“We want to have a special event in the community that will bring neighbors and visitors from all over [Los Angeles] together to try delicious, environmentally friendly, plant-based foods,” he said to the Palisadian-Post. “We want to raise a positive message at our Pali Veg Fest—that we can eat our way to a better future.”

He explained that at the start of the year, the United Nations reported meat-eating diets and agricultural production are so carbon-intensive, and worsening climate change is essentially guaranteed for the next 30 years.

“Any significant attempts in this decade to curb climate change may only show stabilizing results after 30 years, and even then, our window of opportunity is short,” he said. “We … want to show everyone that going vegan or cutting down on animal products is easier than many might believe because there are so many yummy foods that can fulfill our nutritional needs without having to exploit animals and harm our environment.”

Pavlović said everything at the vegan food truck event will be 100% plant based, with offerings ranging from burgers and fried “chicken” sandwiches to sushi and desserts.

A number of trucks will be returning, including Compton Vegan, Word of Mouth, Original Herbivore and Plant Lab. The newest additions to the lineup will be Wild Gelato, cowhugger and Misha’s Kind Foods. And for the first time, vegan clothes and accessories will be sold as well.

“Having a bigger event means having a bit more variety of what you can find,” Pavlović said.

He suggested guests bring a picnic blanket or chairs, and if possible, reusable flatware, napkins and water bottles.

Locally based environmental nonprofit Resilient Palisades, which was launched in 2020, has four teams, including Zero Waste, Clean Air and Water: Green Gardens and Clean Energy Resilience.

The Plant Based Solutions team was created to “effectively communicate the power of a plant-based diet and lifestyle to help stop and reverse climate change while supporting [the] local community in becoming more vegan-friendly,” according to the organization’s website.

For more information, including upcoming events, visit resilientpalisades.org.