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History

ChicagoVeg was founded on June 23, 2009 through the merger of two Meetup groups: Chicago Vegans and Chicago Vegetarians (the both groups were established in 2006). The idea was to bring together all activists, enthusiasts and supporters of plant based diet whether they are vegetarians, vegans, raw foodists or just veg-curious regardless of their reasons (ethical, environmental, health, spiritual, etc.).

We are truly an all-inclusive and non-judgmental group that happily reaches to all allies to fulfill its mission.

In 2011 alone the group offered 44 events to support local vegans/vegetarians and promote veganism/vegetarianism in the Chicago area.

ChicagoVeg rapidly grew from just a few hundred members' group to the largest Chicagoland Vegan & Vegetarian group with over 3,000 members (check www.ChicagoVeg.org for the current number) and over 4,000 Facebook fans (www.Facebook.com/ChicagoVeg). ChicagoVeg became the largest Vegan & Vegetarian meetup group in the Midwest and the third largest group in the world (vegetarian.meetup.com)!

In addition to having more members, www.ChicagoVeg.org continually offers significantly more events than any of its peer groups. During 2012, www.ChicagoVeg.org offered 34 events (not counting events of our satellite groups: ChicagoVeg Cooking , ChicagoVeg Kids, and ChicagoVeg Outreach)!

We also made history by organizing the very first Chicago Veggie Pride Parade (CVPP) . Visit the official CVPP website at chicago.veggiepride.com and consider joining the Team to help with organizing the annual CVPP (www.Meetup.com/ChicagoVeggiePride). It's both a lot of fun and work that translates to promoting veg*n lifestyle.

2012 was a landmark year as ChicagoVeg finally broke off from being just a Meetup group by taking the giant leap and becoming an official not-for-profit organization in order to more effectively carry out its mission to support the local veg community and promote a plant-based diet.

ChicagoVeg is an official 501c3 non-profit organization. ChicagoVeg EIN: 46-1670886.