waffle irons ready for waffle party

I don’t know what an eager waffle iron looks like, but ours are freshly cleaned and seem ready to go. Luckily, I was able to repair one that lost two screws during a very busy day of waffle baking and photo taking a few months ago.

Belgium, Canada, England, Japan, and the U.S. will be having vegan waffle parties going on this weekend, as part of Global Vegan Waffle Party IV. I’m looking very forward to hearing about them, getting some highlights and photos to share, and so on! Lots of fun.

We’re excited to have some newcomers adding to the energy as well as returning hosts from one or more prior years, as can be seen on the finally-updated “past years hosts” page. One of them (other than us) has even participated all four years. In some cases, individuals within the same city or Meetup group have rotated hosting so their area continues to have an event. And some hosts have kindly contributed over multiple years in other ways, e.g., mentioning the event on their blog.

It’s almost that time of year! On Saturday, May 23, 2009 we’ll again be spreading the word about compassionate and sustainable eating in a fun way, through vegan waffle parties. We’re hosting Waffle Party 11 in Pittsburgh, and welcome hosts in other cities around the world to throw parties on or near this date (May or June).

Please tell us about your party plans via the brief registration form, so I can email you the Vegan Waffle Party Host Primer. (It has several vegan waffle tips and recipes not found on this site.) If the budget is tight and your event adheres to their guidelines, VegFund may even be able to help you cover many of your party costs! The first multi-city vegan waffle party was a lot of fun!

Vegan Waffle Party Host Primer

Waffle parties consist of serving vegan waffles for anywhere from 2 to 100 people. You can have each guest bring a creative vegan topping, or you can provide your own. A number of free recipes and topping ideas are on this site – you might even create a special theme for your party, like all Indian or Mexican toppings, or chocolate. You can throw one for breakfast, lunch, brunch or dinner; and you can invite guests with a range of dietary/lifestyle preferences if you wish – as long as all the food is vegan.

You can throw a free party, or you can suggest contributions at the door as a fundraiser for the charity of your choice.  For example, we plan to raise some funds for Pittsburgh’s new Three Rivers Vegan Society with our party. If you wish to stretch the boundaries a bit, you could even host a vegan waffle bake sale, and also register your event with the cool folks who are catalyzing the first worldwide vegan bake sale this year. (If you throw a waffle-related event during the June 20-28 timeline on their site, we’d still love to post a link to your site here!)

If you wish to host a vegan waffle party, please let us know via the brief registration form.

Last year Waffle Party began to grow, with hosts in several cities serving up delicious vegan waffles. Thanks to sites including Godairyfree, PETA, Soystache, Veganhacker, Vegan Recipes at Blogspot, Vegan World Network, and the Vegan Society for helping to get out the word last year. This year, we hope to shift it toward “above underground” status, with several dozen adventurous hosts spreading the joy of vegan food – will this include you?

Our event is on Memorial Day Weekend in the U.S., which we again feel is fitting given the likely connection between different types of violence. Memorial Day is a time of reflection regarding the myriad people who have suffered and lost their lives in human conflict, along with the families who have sacrificed alongside them. Waffle parties are partially about removing some of the unnecessary violence from the human lifestyle, i.e., our current means of relating to other sentient beings. Because suppressing our recognition of one type of violence may make it easier to suppress others, adjusting the way in which we relate to non-human animals may be a key step toward establishing more harmonious human relations. Waffle parties help us to celebrate the possibilities for a more sustainable, healthy and peaceful future, while also generating awareness.

Have fun, and please help to spread the word!