I am co-organizing the Columbus Chapter of Chilis on Wheels, a 100% volunteer-run nonprofit (501c3) whose purpose is providing free nutritious vegan food to communities in need. Chilis on Wheels started in New York City and has expanded along coastal cities throughout the US. We are one of the first chapters in the Midwest. We are kicking off our first event 1/19/19. The organization's main web address is chilisonwheels.org, our local chapter's social media accounts can be located at: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chilisonwheelscolumbus/ and Instagram: @chilisonwheelscolumbus.

The purpose of Chilis on Wheels is making veganism accessible to communities in need. Through regularly scheduled meal shares we provide free nutritious vegan food to anyone in need of a warm meal. We have partnered with Blackburn Community Recreation Center in the Olde Towne East neighborhood, we will be setting up here monthly for our meal shares. Our meal shares will be held on the third Saturday of each month from 12-2pm. We expect to distribute 70 meals at our first event and 100 at our second event. We expect these numbers to increase as time goes on and the community learns of the project. Our target audience are families that frequent the community center that can't afford to provide meals to their children completely on their own, homeless in the area, and anyone else in need of a warm meal that can't afford it. This project is important because we are helping fight hunger in the community while also advocating for veganism. We believe in treating all living beings with kindness, empathy, and respect regardless of age, race, gender, sexual orientation, language, religion, ability, ethnicity, class, circumstance, environment, level of education, or species. We build community around free vegan food, this is a unique program in Columbus.