The World's Best RAW Food Potluck with Dr. Sailesh Rao in Gilbert!

Join us and our special guest speaker, the world famous Dr Sailesh Rao, on Saturday, May 16, starting at 5:30pm for the World's Best RAW Food Potluck in Gilbert! Sailesh Rao, best known as the founder of Climate Healers and the executive film producer of many of those great Vegan-related documentaries you've seen on Netflix (and elsewhere), will speak on the topic of "Why We Must Have a Vegan World!"

Come to experience the grandeur, the spectacle, the wonder of the world's most succulent and tantalizing foods. You'll discover new and creative dishes, consisting of savory and satisfying flavors, from foodstuffs found only in Nature. Get Real. Have Fun. Enjoy Life. And Living Foods! Hosted by MaryAnn. (NOTE: This is a potluck, so please bring a RAW Vegan dish [to feed 8-10 people] and bring your own plate, utensils, and drinking cup [and take them with you afterwards].)

Dr. Sailesh Rao has four decades of professional experience and is the Founder and Executive Director of Climate Healers, a non-profit dedicated to healing the Earth’s climate. In 2006, he switched careers and became deeply immersed, full time, in solving the environmental crises affecting humanity. Dr. Rao is the author of four books, Carbon Dharma: The Occupation of Butterflies, Carbon Yoga: The Vegan Metamorphosis, Animal Agriculture is Immoral and The Pinky Promise, and an Executive Producer of several documentaries, The Human Experiment (2013), Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret (2014), What The Health (2017), A Prayer for Compassion (2019), They’re Trying to Kill Us (2021), The End of Medicine (2022), The Land of Ahimsa (2022), Animals – A Parallel History (est. 2024), Milked (2022), Christspiracy (2024) and I Could Never Go Vegan (2024).

Socializing begins around 5:30pm, and food at about 5:45pm. Please bring a vegan raw food dish (veggies/nuts, herbs/spices, salt, olive oil are generally acceptable ingredients for dishes), or a salad (fruits, veggies, nuts, spices), or a fruit/veggie platter for six (or more) people. Don't know what to bring? There are literally 4.63 gazillion recipes on the Internet. Type in the words: "Raw Food Recipes" with a search and see what happens!

Here are photos from some past RAW potlucks to get an idea what to expect: https://www.meetup.com/VEGphx/photos/30455697
https://www.meetup.com/VEGphx/photos/30617781/
https://www.meetup.com/VEGphx/photos/29908480/

Also, be advised that this is a RAW-Vegan potluck. For those not familiar with "raw," that generally means no foodstuffs that have been heavily processed/heated/cooked. In other words, "raw" typically entails foodstuffs as Nature intended (e.g., fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts/seeds, sprouts) which have all their nutrients intact, and not cooked out of existence, nor processed into oblivion. Most manufactured/canned/bottled/packaged foods, such as popcorn, chips, Veganaise, etc. are typically not "raw"; though, cold-pressed olive oil, raw coconut aminos, raw agave, spices, and salt are generally-acceptable exceptions to the non-packaging precept. For those not familiar with the term "vegan," that generally means free from animal products and their derivatives. This includes all dairy products, honey, and whey.

If, on the off chance that someone new attends this event, and is unfamiliar with the RAW-Vegan parameter of the event, please be in keeping with the longstanding tradition of the leadership and members of VEGphx to be accepting/understanding (in the moment) of all people, their current level of awareness, and their own individual paths in life. This means that if there is a particular potluck item that is not entirely "raw" and not entirely "vegan," do your part (in a calm and loving way) to help make sure that this item is clearly labeled as such, and let the participants at the event decide for themselves whether or not to indulge in it.

Conversely, there is never an occasion at any VEGphx Food-sponsored event for emotional outbursts or hostilities shown toward any of the participants at any event on the part of our members. Please leave all emotional baggage at the entrance of this event, and do your part to not embarrass yourself or VEGphx (as group) with any childish behavior. Love is the most important ingredient in any type of recipe.