— Shauna Dyson

aha, so a part-time business as an educator and So I you know part of this of course is going to depend upon. What's going on in your neck of the woods and your locality and you know ways to start, you know would would include for example, you know, if you can find some sort of a local venue for some people it's a church or other, you know place of worship that has some open space, you know often during the week or you know on those some days of the week when when the properties available to you and then you know, sometimes folks might have a clubhouse in the neighborhood or sometimes a grocery store might have a meeting place in the back somewhere. I see that in a couple of places here, you know in in my town and those places are often available for rent and they often have a regular schedule of events that take place and this Is where you might start out by talking and presenting could be a recipes. It could be very simple, you know assembly and finishing of dishes to get people, you know, thinking about adding more plants to their diet. You know, I will sometimes get out to to do cooking demonstrations around town. I'm in in the Portland Oregon area and you know places that I have affiliated with in the past include Bob's Red Mill. They have a you know, what they call the Bob Red Mill Bob's Red Mill cooking school on their campus and a very nice setting and so I've used that a number of times also, you know consider participating in seasonal agricultural events, like Harvest festivals and locally here. There's a an apple and pair Harvest Festival and you know, they will take Chef instructors and and you know other other folks locally here that want to provide some sort of cooking demonstration. There are also cultural festivals that you know, you might inquire about for example in October Fest takes place here locally and and you know, I've been part of that in one way or another in the past. There are certainly, you know, many other possible, you know cultural populations or communities that you might reach out to and ask if you know, they would appreciate some live entertainment with an educational twist to it. And in this way you get your name out there and start practicing, you know, and then you'll see what kind of opportunities open up, you know, whether that is maybe some commercial kitchen space that's available by the hour that you can rent in order to have a Up sort of an event, you know around plant-based cooking and education. and then, you know also, you know, keep in mind that in order to cast a wide net, you know, think about the the I'll say the words that you choose right as you appeal to a broad audience and you know, so for example um while I certainly Embrace plant-based, you know cooking and eating and and you know that that bigger picture right in terms of effects on the environment and Farm Workers and and there's often a social justice piece in there and and so on and so forth, but you know rarely do I try to push a 100% plant-based approach necessarily especially if I'm trying to convert people so to speak right to to this way of eating And you know the goal for me is to encourage people to Simply eat more plants. And for some people that does mean 100% all in sort of plant-based goodness for other people. It just means Trying it out once a week and then twice a week and then eliminating something and and then you know allow your audience members to sort of find their own entry points because there are so many right, you know, whether it's once personal health or public health or animal rights. Farm worker health and and so many other possible entry points. So, you know, maybe mention those things provide suggestions as to where a person might enter this broader discourse around plant-based food and and the bigger picture. Okay. And so those are a couple of ideas that that come to mind and hope you'll give those a try but again a lot of this comes down to investigating what's available in your own locality. Okay, think about secondary and post-secondary educational institutes as well as possible venues for you to you know, spread the gospel so to speak. All right. Thank you.