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Kaptah Xi-Amaru at Rochester VegFest 2025

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Owner of B+Healthy Fresh Food Market

Kaptah Xi-Amaru, B+Healthy Fresh Food Market

Minister Kaptah Xi-Amaru is the visionary founder of B+Healthy Fresh Food Market, a thriving vegan juice bar and community health food store that has served the Rochester area for over 8 years. With three locations, his mission is to make plant-based nutrition and holistic wellness accessible to underserved communities. Minister Kaptah’s impactful work has earned numerous accolades and his leadership continues to inspire a movement toward healthier, more conscious living in Rochester and beyond.

For more information, visit Kaptah’s Facebook page.

Catch Kaptah Xi-Amaru at Rochester VegFest 2025

🎤 3:30–4:30 PM – Rochester Vegan Entrepreneurs Panel
📍 Speaker Tent, Parcel 5 – Downtown Rochester

Rob Nipe at Rochester VegFest 2025

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Co-Founder & Vegan Butcher at Grass Fed

Rob Nipe, Grass Fed Vegan Butcher

Rob Nipe is the co-founder and head vegan butcher at Grass Fed, a vegan butcher shop and deli located in Rochester, New York. Originally from New Jersey, Rob transitioned from his previous role as an analyst at the American Red Cross to pursue his passion for creating plant-based alternatives to traditional meats.

His culinary journey began with experimenting to replicate the flavors of his favorite comfort foods—like Philly cheesesteaks and breakfast sandwiches—which led to the development of a diverse range of vegan meats, including pastrami, bacon, and brisket.

Together with his wife, Nora Rubel—a Jewish studies professor at the University of Rochester—Rob established Grass Fed to offer delicious, cruelty-free versions of classic deli favorites. Their commitment to quality and authenticity has made Grass Fed a staple in Rochester’s culinary scene, appealing to both vegan and non-vegan customers alike.

Catch Rob Nipe at Rochester VegFest 2025

🎤 3:30–4:30 PM – Rochester Vegan Entrepreneurs Panel
📍 Speaker Tent, Parcel 5 – Downtown Rochester

For more information and to explore the menu, visit grassfedrochester.com, or follow @grass_fed_rochester on Instagram and Grass Fed on Facebook.

Natasha Siplin at Rochester VegFest 2025

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Founder of Soulistic Sweets

Natasha Siplin is the founder of Soulistic Sweets, a vegan bakery rooted in love, community, and a deep commitment to plant-based living. Her journey began over eight years ago alongside her family, and during the pandemic, she turned her growing passion for vegan baking into a full-time business.

Now celebrating five years in business, Soulistic Sweets offers delicious, nourishing, and cruelty-free desserts that prove indulgence can be kind. Every treat is crafted with love from the soul.

Catch Natasha Siplin at Rochester VegFest 2025

🎤 3:30–4:30 PM – Rochester Vegan Entrepreneurs Panel
📍 Speaker Tent, Parcel 5 – Downtown Rochester

For more information and to view her latest creations, visit soulisticsweets.com or follow @soulisticsweets on Instagram.

2025 Guest Speaker: Adam Durand

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Adam Durand is a filmmaker, web developer, and graphic designer who has spent the past two decades channeling his creativity into animal rights advocacy. He first gained national attention through his work with Compassionate Consumers, a grassroots group he helped found to expose cruelty in animal agriculture. Their 2004 investigation of a Wegmans egg farm sparked national controversy and was covered by The New York Times, ABC News, and City Magazine (formerly City Newspaper), bringing mainstream visibility to the realities of factory farming and the fight for transparency.

Since then, Adam has remained a steadfast presence in the movement, taking part in open rescues, organizing strategic campaigns, and challenging laws that punish people for acting with compassion. His efforts have been highlighted in National Geographic, Vox, and cited in legal scholarship such as Cornell Law Review.

Passionate and principled, Adam invites audiences to rethink what’s possible when we act with courage, strategy, and heart.

Catch Adam Durand at Rochester VegFest 2025

🕛 10:30–11:15 AM, August 24th
📍 Speaker Tent, Parcel 5 – Downtown Rochester

The Doc & Chef at Rochester VegFest 2025

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Dr. Jim Loomis & Chef Caryn Dugan
Where Science Meets the Skillet: Your Prescription for Plant-Based Health

The Doc & Chef is a dynamic wellness duo featuring Dr. Jim Loomis, a board-certified physician specializing in internal medicine, and Chef Caryn Dugan, a nationally recognized plant-based culinary educator. Together, they are transforming how people think about food and health through their engaging video series, live events, and educational outreach.

Meet Dr. Jim Loomis

Dr. Jim Loomis

Dr. Jim Loomis is the Medical Director of the Barnard Medical Center in Washington, D.C., and has served as team physician for the St. Louis Rams and St. Louis Cardinals. He is featured in the documentaries Forks Over Knives and The Game Changers and is an expert in lifestyle medicine, using evidence-based nutrition to prevent and reverse chronic disease.

At Rochester VegFest 2025, Dr. Loomis will speak about the power of plant-based nutrition to transform personal and public health—sharing clinical insights, practical guidance, and stories of healing through food.

🕛 1:50–2:35 PM, August 24th
📍 Speaker Tent, Parcel 5 – Downtown Rochester

Meet Chef Caryn Dugan

Chef Caryn Dugan

Chef Caryn Dugan, also known as “STL Veg Girl,” is the founder of the Center for Plant-Based Living in St. Louis—the first plant-based culinary and nutrition education center in the U.S. After losing her father to cancer and battling her own health crisis, Caryn dedicated her life to teaching others how to thrive through plant-based food.

Join Chef Caryn for a live cooking demo at RVF 2025, where she’ll share a flavorful, approachable plant-based recipe that’s perfect for both seasoned vegans and newcomers alike—proving that eating for health can be delicious and doable.

🕛 11:20 AM–12:05 PM, August 24th
📍 Food Demo Tent, Parcel 5 – Downtown Rochester

Together, The Doc & Chef blend cutting-edge medical research with approachable, delicious recipes to help people take control of their health—one meal at a time. Their mission is simple: to make healthy living practical, evidence-based, and irresistibly tasty.

For more information and to explore their offerings, visit The Doc & Chef YouTube Channel or follow them on Instagram at @thedocandchef.

Rochester VegFest is Back!

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Rochester’s all-vegan festival returns this summer for a day of fun with local vendors, guest speakers, cooking demos, raffle prizes, and more.

When?

Saturday, August 24, 2024

10am – 4pm

Where?

Parcel 5 285 E Main St.

Rochester, NY 14604

Admission

Free entry!

Get a raffle ticket with a $3+ donation.

2024 Sponsors and Donors

  • Sweet Pea Plant-Based Kitchen
  • Happy Earth Tea
  • People for Animal Rights of Central New York
  • Hollycake House Cafe & Bakery
  • Yeah! Pierogi
  • Wegmans
  • Abundance Food Coop
  • Rise Brewing Co.
  • Marilla’s Mindful Supplies
  • Trader Joe’s
  • Mocking Bird Farm Sanctuary
  • MetroPops
  • StackFLX

Click Here to Learn More About the Roc VegFest 2024 Sponsors

2024 Exhibitors

  • Abundance Food Coop
  • ACES Energy
  • Animal Rights Rochester
  • Big Brothers Big Sisters of Rochester
  • Black, Brown, and Diverse Plant-Based People for Equity Inc.
  • Burning Books
  • Chickpea Magazine
  • Christian Animal Rights Association
  • Cleo + Kin
  • Climate Solutions Accelerator
  • Compassion & Cucumbers Vegan Podcast
  • Dear Kimberly
  • Design Slush (Julia Jones)
  • Envision Positive
  • F. Olivers
  • Fatcat Baking
  • FoodNerd
  • Grass Fed Vegan Butcher
  • Happy Earth Tea
  • Hollycake House Cafe & Bakery
  • Long Weekend Bake Shop
  • Mocking Bird Farm Sanctuary
  • Once Again Nut Butter
  • People for Animal Rights of Central New York
  • Pet Adoption Network
  • PharmFlint
  • Recycle Right in Monro County
  • Rochester Area Vegan Society
  • Rochester Lifestyle Medicine Institute
  • Rochester Kettle Corn
  • Save Rochester Inc.
  • Simply Love Bakery
  • Spirit & Abundance
  • StudioLyn
  • Sunshine Vegan Eats
  • Sweet Farm
  • Sweet Imaldas
  • Sweet Pea Plant-Based Kitchen
  • The Herbivore Nextdoor
  • Vinegars ETC
  • Vuture Food
  • Wild Hill Farm CSA

Click Here to Learn More About the Roc VegFest 2024 Exhibitors

2024 Guest Speakers

  • 11:30 AM — Dr. Kerry Graff, Medical Director at the Rochester Lifestyle Medicine Institute
  • 1:00 PM — Sarina Farb, Holistic Vegan Educator
  • 2:30 PM — Jim Hicks, Planetary Health Advocate

Click Here to Learn More About the Roc VegFest 2024 Guest Speakers

2024 Cooking Demos

  • 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM — Fermentation 101 with Ali of Spirit and Abundance
  • 12:00 PM – 12:45 PM — Cooking Whole Food Plant-Based with Chef Ryan of Sweet Pea Plant Based Kitchen
  • 1:30 PM – 3:00 PM — Mushroom Risotto with Pearl of Le Twisted Spoon
  • 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM — Easy Meals with Bruce of Rochester Lifestyle Medicine Institute

Click Here to Learn More About the Roc VegFest 2024 Cooking Demos

Event Parking

Parking is available at Midtown Garage with entrances on Clinton Avenue and Broad Street, costing $2 per hour or $10 per day. Free street parking is also nearby, though it may require a longer walk. For loading and unloading, use the area around Parcel 5.

Click Here to Learn More About Event Parking

Dr. Milton Mills

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Dr. Milton Mills

A past speaker at Rochester VegFest, Milton Mills, MD will be returning to Rochester—via Zoom—to give the ground-breaking lecture he premiered at Vegan Summerfest 2019, a talk which has become even more urgent in the light of current events.

WHAT: Milton Mills, MD will speak on The Impact of Historical Racial Bias on the Health Profiles of Communities of Color

  • WHEN: Thursday, October 1, 2020 at 7:00 PM
  • WHERE: By Zoom
  • COST: Free, with suggested donation.  Sign up here

Milton Mills, MD is a Black physician who has worked with the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine to redress racial inequities in dietary recommendations. Dr. Mills is an intensivist (critical care/ICU) physician, actively practicing in the Washington, DC area. He speaks on a wide variety of topics, including the microbiome, the connection between diet and cancer, human anatomy and plant-based diet, and what the Bible has to say about diet, as well as connections between the civil rights movement and veganism. Dr. Mills’s discussion of the legacy of racism and its impact on the health of communities of color is not to be missed!

This event is co-sponsored by Rochester Lifestyle Medicine Institute and the Rochester Area Vegan Society.

Jonell Belcher-Chudyk

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SPEAKING SEPTEMBER 14th, 12:30 pm AT ROCHESTER VEGFEST!

 

Jonell Belcher-Chudyk, LCSW, AASW is the founder and executive director of Mockingbird Farm, a 501(c)3 farm animal sanctuary in Byron, NY (35 minutes west of Rochester). Jonell is also a therapist in private practice, primarily working with children, veterans (she is also a veteran herself) and their families who have experienced trauma or struggle with depression, anxiety, grief and loss. Jonell has found the unique bond between humans and non-humans to be incredibly powerful and healing when mutually respected and nurtured. Jonell became a published author in the field of human-animal interaction in 2010, and received scholarship to attend the University of Denver’s Master’s program at the Institute of Human Animal Interaction through DU’s Graduate School of Social Work.

In addition to operating the farm sanctuary and her private practice, she has given lectures on animal behavior, human- animal interaction, the field of animal assisted therapy and ethical considerations of animals in our lives. She also provides pro-bono counseling to individuals struggling with the loss of their animal companions, and evaluating comfort in the final stages of animal’s lives. Jonell has also developed workshops for veterinary clinics regarding compassion fatigue, burn out and self-care for veterinarian’s, residents, clinical fellows and support staff.

Jonell spends her days in gratitude physically and emotionally caring for the most vulnerable and oppressed sentient beings of our society. She and her husband Joe are currently raising their 3 year-old daughter Audrey at Mockingbird Farm, where Audrey has joyfully grown up with many baby goats and chickens being rehabilitated in the farmhouse!

Mockingbird Farm is a vegan oriented sanctuary and forever home to 23 animals who have been rescued from a life of neglect, abandonment, surrender or abuse. In a perfect world, sanctuaries wouldn’t need to exist, but because they do, Mockingbird Farm sets out to compassionately integrate humans into the lives of rescued animals in order to heal their physical and emotional trauma.

Animal Rights as Transformation

Jonell will be speaking about compassion fatigue and vicarious trauma for animal rights activists and advocates, how to care for yourself in a world that doesn’t [always] understand veganism, the most recently published literature in the field of human-animal interaction, real stories of mental health transformation (both human and non-human) through our relationships within species, and how you can make an impact.