The vegan chili with pita chips is spicy and filling.

People who work in the food services industry are uniquely poised to help spread veganism. I was reminded of this fact a few weeks ago when I ran into my friend Anthony after shopping at our local Whole Foods. Adjacent and connected to our Whole Foods is a small restaurant. Years ago, when it was called Osteria, Michael and I would eat there as it had non-vegan items for Michael (as he wasn’t yet vegan at that point) and vegan options for me. A few years ago, a different management took it over, entirely changed the menu and rebranded it Corner Table. Unfortunately the new menu had no vegan options. Gone were the delicious tofu cacciatore and pasta with vegan sausages, and in came the chicken wings, burgers, chili and a plethora of other corpse-containing items.

One day while shopping at Whole Foods I ran into my friend Anthony. Because he is an ethical vegan, I was surprised when he told me he had been working at Corner Table for a while. I imagined how difficult it must be to serve dead animals to people when what you’d really want to do is educate them and introduce them to vegan food. I told him that we used to eat there before the management and menu change, and that at this point it had been well over a year since we last dined there. I added that we would even periodically check the menu to see if there were any changes, but there never were any. However, Anthony was optimistic and said he would try to influence them to make some changes to make the menu more vegan friendly.

The falafel wrap with fries

Thankfully, Anthony neither wrote it off nor gave up.  Instead, he worked slowly and steadily to get management to understand that there is a sizable vegan community with lots of plant-based eaters in the area and that by having vegan options available for them,  they could increase business. When I ran into Anthony the other night, I was utterly flabbergasted to see how much progress he’s made on that menu in less than one year.  Whereas there were no vegan options a year ago, the menu now includes many:

• GrilledVegan Flatbread. With mushrooms and roasted onions drizzled with extra virgin olive oil.

• Vegetarian Chili (that is 100% vegan); Lentils, beans and quinoa stewed with chillies and tomatoes topped with vegan sour cream and vegan cheese.

• Mixed green Salad Baby lettuces, tomato, red onion and cucumber with malt vinaigrette.

• Arugula Salad. Baby Arugula, artichoke hearts, red onion with extra-virgin olive oil and fresh lemon juice.

• Chili Cheese Fries. Regular or Sweet Potato, with the vegan chili and vegan cheese.

• Veggie Burger (all vegan) with vegan roasted garlic aioli. This is also available as a “Mini Veggie Burger” on the Kids Menu.

• Falafel Wrap. With Hummus, cucumber, red onion, tomato and lettuce.

• Farmer’s Pie. Hearth-baked vegetable stew with garbanzo beans topped with vegan garlic roasted potatoes.

What Anthony has done here shows just how much influence one person can have when he speaks up and advocates for what he believes in. As vegans, many of us will often shy away from speaking up and insisting on more vegan food options, trying to be flexible, accommodating and not wanting to rub people the wrong way. But the animals are suffering and dying by the billions. They cannot wait for us. Our silence betrays them. We all need to summon the courage and strength to speak up and advocate for animal-free, plant-based, vegan options everywhere and all of the time. Just like Anthony has.

Well done, my friend.

GrilledVegan Flatbread with mushrooms and roasted onions drizzled with extra virgin olive oil