Three years ago this month I went vegan. That transition was unplanned and unscripted. I had no idea that three years later I would:

My vegetarian journey began with a goat – a goat whom I met before he was slaughtered and later consumed by me, and many others, at a celebration in Africa. I went vegetarian the next day. But the eventual shift to veganism was really about personal health, and about plant-based food. That’s when I started cooking like never before, and decided to chronicle my journey.

Three years ago, after eight years as a vegetarian, I went on a 16-day nutritional cleanse. At the conclusion of those 16 days, I had a realization: I had consumed no dairy and only one hard-boiled egg. An egg away from being vegan? I leaped.

About a year later, my friend Gena Hamshaw, of Choosing Raw, wrote a blog post about her visit to a farm animal sanctuary in the Washington, DC area. Intrigued, I felt compelled to look into sanctuaries near me, and quickly landed on the Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary website. Browsing the “animals” section of the site, I flipped through pictures of goats. It clicked. I had gone vegetarian for a goat, but my veganism had been about my health – about me. That’s all fine and good (at least I went vegan), but staring into the faces of the rescued goats at this sanctuary – a place that was about to become such a huge part of my life – I felt that perhaps my veganism was about goats, too. Maybe this desire to give up consumption of meat, dairy and eggs was more about the animals than I had realized – more political and less personal. I followed a donate link and became a sponsor of Clover, a goat I fell in love with via video.

And so, my ethical vegan journey began. It was a tough beginning. The more you know, well, the more you know. As I espoused the virtues of veganism to my coworkers, I began to feel embarrassed by my leather boots. I was a little lost. How much was enough? Then, I started listening to the Our Hen House podcast. My worldview felt less hard as I became educated on all aspects of veganism – ethics, environment, health, and food. I was growing as a vegan, and – wouldn’t you know it – I was growing into an activist. As a result, all those things I listed above, things I simply could not have imagined years ago, began to happen.

I am indebted to Our Hen House for making my veganism less about me and mostly about the animals (hey, good health is an awesome side effect). For that reason, I am inviting you to join me in making Our Hen House our vegan valentine. I have been vegan for 1,095 days and I want to raise $1,095 for this organization that has become such a deeply ingrained part of so many of our lives. I want Our Hen House to have the resources necessary to motivate and inspire even more vegan activists.

I am the vegan I am today – the activist I am today – because of Our Hen House. I learned to be indefatigably positive on my bumpy journey.

I learned that food can be activism.

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Would you like to engage in some food activism? Make this fun, easy, pink Valentine’s Day dessert to wow your non-vegan sweetheart, friends or co-workers. I first read about banana soft serve “ice cream” on Choosing Raw, where Gena shared the simple method of tossing frozen bananas into a food processor (seriously, that’s it!) to turn them into an easy vegan ice cream. It was a game-changer (sort of like Our Hen House).