How Eat Drink Disrupt Summit Supports Wellness in BIPOC Communities
The movement bringing vegucation and flavor to South Carolina
This is a Festivals & Fairs Grants grant story
Learn more about this grant
Overview
The Eat Drink Disrupt (EDD) Summit in Greenville, South Carolina, packs a lot of education and flavor into a single day! Everyone is welcome at this family-friendly gathering, which focuses on introducing BIPOC to the delicious health benefits of a plant-based/vegan lifestyle. The third annual EDD Summit took place on April 30, 2022. This year, the summit was a hybrid (in-person and virtual) event, and the theme was “Prescription for Community Health–Wealth.”
The founder of Eat Drink Disrupt
Dawn Hilton-Williams is founder and “vegucator-in-chief” of Herban Eats, as well as the co-founder and board member of the nonprofit Power is Giving. The Eat Drink Disrupt Summit (EDD) raises funds that support the year-round programs at Power is Giving, and Dawn carefully curates the summit’s immersive experience herself. In fact, she reviews all vendors’ offerings to ensure high-quality, whole-food, plant-based ingredients. She requires offerings to be unique to each vendor, thereby eliminating competition among them and fostering supportive attitudes.
Dawn’s Certificate in Plant-Based Nutrition from T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies (eCornell) pairs with her two decades of culinary experience to make her the kind of expert who can share both the why and the how of going vegan, empowering and motivating others to take control of their health.
It’s one thing to tell people to adopt a more plant-based diet. But helping individuals to understand the why from a clinical perspective and the how from a culinary perspective is both motivating and empowering. Dawn gives individuals the knowledge and skills to take ownership of their health!
Beth Motley, MD
In fact, Dawn’s husband experienced a health scare that inspired her to change her family’s lifestyle and her culinary business to align with vegan values. Beyond that, she wanted to empower BIPOC communities, which statistically experience more chronic illness and inequitable access to healthy food than other populations.
Switching the focus of her business initially cost her 98% of her clients. She took a significant personal risk to focus on educating herself and her community and eventually prevailed. Dawn has spent nearly a decade in the food justice space, offering free vegan cooking demos and plant-based how-to seminars year-round.
I believe in the Herban Eats movement because education is key to making informed decisions that will support better wellness and health outcomes.
South Carolina State House Representative Chandra Dillard
South Carolina State House Representative Chandra Dillard, speaking at the Eat Drink Disrupt Summit in Greenville, South Carolina
Expert guests at Eat Drink Disrupt
Speakers at the EDD Summit included renowned African-American medical doctors Baxter Montgomery, MD, FACC and Milton Mills, MD, who spoke about the prevention and reversal of heart disease and type 2 diabetes through a plant-based vegan lifestyle, as well as Miyoko Schinner (founder and CEO of Miyoko’s Creamery), who joined virtually to talk about the positive animal welfare and environmental benefits of vegan companies/brands.
Summit topics and activities
The summit hosted a panel discussion on the topic of Socioeconomics and Food Apartheid, featuring subject experts Shakir Robinson (executive director of Center for Educational Equity), Michael Brown (executive director of Sustaining Way), and Chef GW Chew (founder of Something Better Foods and Better Chew).
[left to right] Shakir Robinson (executive director of Center for Educational Equity), Michael Brown (executive director of Sustaining Way), Dawn Hilton-Williams (founder of Herban Eats and cookbook author), and Chef GW Chew (founder of Something Better Foods and Better Chew).
Vegan chefs provided cooking demos and recipe cards (as well as food samples for in-person attendees). Chef Julia Simon and Shonda Caines showed their audience how to make smoked oyster mushrooms with sweet potato and pineapple-jalapeño salsa.
Cooking demo at Eat Drink Disrupt featuring Chef Julia Simon with assistance from Shonda Caines, wellness coach, fitness chef, speaker, and author
A bookstore featured vegan cookbooks written by participating presenters and chefs as well as free handouts/resources provided by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) and Farm Sanctuary (African American Vegan Starter Guide by Tracye McQuirter). Nadia Hilton, co-founder and director of Power is Giving, ran the bookstore and is seen here with Brenda Montgomery and Kelly Williams.
Nadia Hilton, co-founder and director of Power is Giving, at Eat Drink Disrupt with Brenda Montgomery and Kelly Williams
BIPOC-owned, small or micro vegan businesses participated in a vegan marketplace at no cost (to support their vegan businesses). The event also offered blood pressure check stations to attendees.
Shonda Caines (wellness coach, fitness chef, speaker, and author) shares food samples by Chef Artina Lindsey, founder and CEO of Pink Salt Chef and author of Pink Salt: An Eclectic Journey Alkaline Veganism
Goals
- Introduce non-vegans to the health benefits of a plant-based vegan lifestyle through clinical education alongside a “healthy” vegan food experience.
- Introduce vegan attendees to non-vegan attendees with the hope of creating opportunities for support.
- Raise money from ticket sales to continue to provide 100% vegan Community Roots program, Get Fit programs, Vegucation 101 programs, teen culinary boot camps, and more to BIPOC communities at no charge.
- Share the benefits of veganism for health, the animals, and the planet.
- Long-term goals: Aid in the abatement of inequitable health and food access while providing healthy vegan cooking classes and year-round healthy vegan education (vegucation) to communities that need it most.
750
people attended
250
food samples given
225
BIPOC vendors participated
The event weaves food, health education, farming, and a discussion about effectively dismantling food and health disparities in the U.S.
Lillia Callum-Penso, Greenville News
Approach
Eat Drink Disrupt was promoted on social media and local outlets, such as the Greenville News.
A VegFund grant covered marketing for the event (such as content creation and social media advertising), food costs for vegan samples, equipment (including plates, napkins, and COVID safety equipment such as masks and sanitizer), and a videographer to livestream for virtual attendees. Other community partners also lent support to the event, as did a suggested donation of 20 USD for tickets to attend.
Food samples included plant-based vegan meats from Better Chew and vegan cheese and butter products from Miyoko’s Creamery.
Speakers included Milton Mills, MD; Miyoko Schinner; Baxter Montgomery, MD, FACC; Michael Brown, ESQ; Coach Shakir Robinson; Dawn Hilton-Williams; Chef GW Chew; Exec. Chef Artina Lindsey; Chef Julia Simon; and Roberta Schiff.
Sign-up stations for free programs such as Get Fit Boot Camps, Vegucation 101, and Community Roots Program were set up throughout the event space.
The EDD Heath Summits have been two of the most informative and well-planned plant-based educational health conferences targeted to the Black community I've had the honor and privilege of participating in. I have always come away from the events having learned from the other expert presenters and also with an expanded network of colleagues and contacts. Dawn's EDD Summits are "must attend" events, and I hope they will expand to cover a full weekend in the future!
Milton Mills, MD
Milton Mills, MD with Mills Village volunteer Beverly Satchfield at Eat Drink Disrupt
Challenges
The team organizing the EDD Summit encountered a few challenges but persevered. For example, the event was originally scheduled for November 2021 but was postponed due to a COVID variant surge. By rescheduling to April, the event inadvertently conflicted with another community event. Furthermore, flight and ground travel costs increased due to recent price hikes on fuel.
We reached and exceeded the outcomes outlined in our original goals because we planned early, incorporated volunteer and vendor coordinators, worked collaboratively with other community-based organizations such as the United Way and Mill Village, incorporated a strong social media and email marketing campaign, worked closely with Black churches, and selected BIPOC vendors for participation.
Dawn Hilton-Williams
Dawn Hilton-Williams (right) with Patrice Johns (left), board member of Power is Giving, at Eat Drink Disrupt
Results
The EDD Summit attracted hundreds of people and Black-owned businesses to great success. The experience made a positive impact on the lives of the attendees, most of whom weren’t vegan. Volunteers were instructed to ask questions about whether they enjoyed the event, would come again, and would recommend EDD to others.
The event was beautiful and inspiring. I learned a lot from the cooking demos, presentations, and small business owners' vending booths.
Ciera Ikein, Greenville, South Carolina
A videographer captured highlights throughout the summit.
Dawn advises other vegan activists to follow their vision, not the trends. Even within the vegan community, there are so many diverse needs that it really is OK to be different and choose a niche. “You’re not excluding,” she offers, “just focusing.”
Furthermore, she suggests not ignoring community organizations that you can collaborate with, including non-vegan ones.
Top Tip
Collaboration with other organizations is essential. Dawn says, “Those that have a community goal, bring them in! So many of them will taste the food, want to learn more, and, the next thing you know, become vegan!”
Recommended reading:
How Surveys Make Us Stronger Vegan Advocates
Children’s Educator Gathers Families Around Vegan Story Time
What’s Next?
In addition to future EDD events, including an EDD Talks series, Dawn is working on her Flava My Plate series of cookbooks. The first one, Flava My Plate: Your Tasty Vegan Guide to Health-Wealth, is out now and includes a foundational vegan guide as well as delicious recipes. The second in the series, Flava My Tailgate, which helps sports fans veganize their favorite foods, will be available soon, and a third cookbook is in the works.