Animal Rights/Vegan Activists' Strategies Articles

The Happy Cart: Food in Support of People, Animals and the Earth

From The Happy Cart
December 2022

The Happy Cart brings FREE VEGAN FOOD and empowering educational resources to communities. The Happy Cart project marks an historic first-time collaboration of regional organizations that support both human and non-humans to produce a program that is strongly in support of both constituencies.

Everyone has a right to options and information that can make them active participants in bettering their own lives, as well the lives of all: humans, non-humans and the planet.

The Happy Cart works to provide accessible, free-of-charge vegan food options to the community weekly - and additionally, to evolve a program of health, nutrition and food education in the form of in-person teachings and printed resources - via a centrally located food cart and table display outside of People’s Place.

The Happy Cart is a collaborative program managed and run by three non-profits: the Institute for Animal Happiness, People’s Place and NY Farm Animal Save.

The Happy Cart project marks an historic first-time collaboration of regional organizations that support both human and non-humans to produce a program that is strongly in support of both constituencies. In doing so, we acknowledge the interconnectedness of our well-being and collective futures, and we set out to forge bold new pathways rooted in compassion, wellness and support for everyone.

The mission of THE HAPPY CART is based on the following core beliefs and principles:

• ACCESS: All people/beings should have access to the full array of healthy food options that exist, for their peak well-being and empowerment. Barriers should be removed that make it hard for people to access healthy, clean, non-animal based foods.
• EMPOWER ALL ABOUT THEIR HEALTH: 60-75% of people in the U.S. are lactose intolerant and may not even know it. Higher rates of chronic ailments and things like diabetes and heart disease are found in communities who have been denied equal access to healthy foods and nutritional education (and greater issues of land access and food sovereignty). Too many in our community suffer from an array of debilitating conditions that can be well-addressed by eating vegan, plant-based foods. The journey to greater health awareness can begin when access is grown from directly within community.
• ENVIRONMENTAL PARTICIPATION: All people/beings are entitled to be active participants, fully informed, in making the world we all live in and share a more sustainable and healthy environment to thrive in. This means creating access to educational offerings and teachings about how the availability of fresh whole fruits, grains, nuts, seeds, legumes and vegetables can positively affect our personal health, the health of those around us, and the health of the planet itself, including all the animals and insects that share our biosphere. Information about how growing and harvesting different foods can affect the resources we need to survive, and all attendant land-use issues, should be accessible and understood by all.
• RECOGNIZING ALL FAMILY MEMBERS: People facing food and housing inequity often have non-human family members, and they also deserve support, access and to be participants as outlined above. We wish to provide support to all living beings who need it so that families can stay together.
• CHOOSING NON-VIOLENCE: Not just physical health, but more and more people are recognizing the benefits to their emotional and mental well-being that comes from choosing a diet that is rooted in an ethos of peace to all beings and the intention to consciously choose to cause the least amount of harm possible. The Happy Cart was co-founded by an animal rescue - and as such we teach respect for all living beings and how to live a joyful, healthy, vegan life.

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