Vegan with a cause

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This summer I noticed the vegan food truck sign beside the local mini-golf course, and brought a West Coast guest with me to give it a try. The transformed parking lot behind Cove Mini Golf created a joyful oasis for yummy food and community. While there, a number of regulars picked up orders. I got to talking with the chef, Mufyn, who goes by a first name only. I was intrigued to learn that after renting the kitchen at Grace Church in Vineyard Haven to prepare vegan food for sale at the West Tisbury Farmers Market, she now serves as the church’s parish administrator. She mentioned that You Enjoy My Vegan (YEMV) food truck will host a Vegan Community Potluck and Fundraiser for the M.V. Vegan Community Fridge, and I wanted to learn more.

Mufyn grew up eating meat on her family farm in Iowa. In fact, she says, her family ate meat three times a day, and traded pigs for cattle with their neighbor for some variety. She noticed about 25 years ago she didn’t feel so good. Mufyn says, “I always thought I became a vegan for health reasons; veganism was not on my radar. Then I sat down at the Thanksgiving table and saw it for what it was — what was actually on the table — and I said, ‘Wow, I’m done.’ I saw the animals for what they were, and I quit hot turkey. I didn’t know anything about eating vegetables, and didn’t like them.” Mufyn says she had no idea about how to feed herself, so she “went to the library and started with the Moosewood [Restaurant] Cookbooks, and they saved [her] life.” After moving to Colorado, Mufyn began working in Aspen health food stores, and helping in the kitchen. Eating all the good food, she kept cooking and collecting more Moosewood cookbooks and other cookbooks, and learned to love vegetables.

About 22 years ago, Mufyn moved to Florida and deepened her love of cooking, making meals-to-go, cooking for hire, working at restaurants, helping open a juice bar in Aventura before moving on to cooking at music festivals like Ultra Music Festival, including V.I.P. and backstage food. Mufyn, it turns out, was also a working artist and art/theater teacher at a private Miami elementary school. She cooked on the side, and devoted summers to cooking at more music festivals — a rhythm she kept up for 10 years. I wondered how Mufyn got to the Vineyard, and she laughed, replying, “I just found my way.” That was in 2019, and she’d never been on the Island.

I was curious how the vegan food truck happened. “I started cooking out of Grace [Church] kitchen, meals ordered online for delivery, then I got into the farmers market last year and did a bunch of events,” Mufyn explained. “We were just sitting at home getting ready for another farmers market season, and I was working on gluten-free baked goods when a friend messaged and said there was a food truck [for sale]. She messaged again to say the [owner] wants to talk. I called him as a courtesy to say I wasn’t interested. We’d just been sitting at home talking about how to make the booth better; maybe we’d get a trailer in a few years, or fix our van up. We wanted to make it easier to set up, since we were doing the Chilmark Flea at the same time. We were doing four events [each] Saturday, setting up, taking down, setting up … absolutely exhausting.” Two days later she went to take a look at the food truck, and wondered how she could make it happen. Mufyn was thinking, “It’s got a door I can shut. It’s got refrigeration. I could just be driving to different places and not having to set up.”

She and her life partner Jeremiah got the food truck not even a month before they opened behind the mini-golf in June 2024. I asked when she got the idea about a Vegan Community Fridge. Mufyn says, “There are so many families going to the Food Pantry” (which she delivers for on Thursdays). “I know they’re taxed, and what they can get does not necessarily support vegans.” There is a Martha’s Vineyard Vegan Society (started in 2020), which has offered bags of food for the Food Pantry. Mufyn says, “There are a lot of vegans here, but it’s hard to be vegan because the food is so expensive.” Mufyn showed me the fridge, a new one ready to be moved to the porch once an enclosure is built, so anyone can access it outside the church building. There will even be a heater enclosure during the winter months.” She explains, “The fundraiser will get money together to supply the refrigerator, and it will be a ‘give what you can, take what you need’ philosophy. The fridge cannot accept prepared food except from commercial kitchens. If a restaurant wanted to partner and offer meals on a certain day, that would be amazing. I’m going to cook and offer meals.” Mufyn hopes people will bring extra produce from their gardens, or make donations, and mentions grants they have received from United Way and Cape Cod Five.

Mufyn got a fridge donated a year ago, but it didn’t work. The Vegan Fridge program will run fall, winter, and spring, because there’s too much going on at the church during the summer. I wondered if she’d modeled the fridge after an existing one. It turned out she’d found that New York City’s Overthrow Boxing Gym had opened a vegan fridge, and she went and visited. I knew it, since it was across the street from our former Bleecker Street home.

All (vegan or not) are welcome to the Vegan Community Potluck and Fundraiser on Sunday, Sept. 29, from 4:30 to 7 pm at 386 State Road, Vineyard Haven (behind the Cove). The vegan food truck will stay open until Nov. 1, with fall hours of Wednesday and Thursday, from 5 to 8 pm, Fridays and Saturday from 5 to 9 pm, and Sunday brunch from 10:30 am to 3 pm. Online pickup and delivery are also available. They will continue to be at the Saturday Farmers Market through October.

If you are interested in donating or partnering with Vegan Fridge, you can text/call Mufyn at 774-563-0055, email her at youenjoymyvegan@gmail.com, check the website mvveganfridge.org, and for tax-deductible donations, checks can be sent to Grace Episcopal Church of Martha’s Vineyard, with Vegan Fridge on the memo line, and mailed to P.O. Box 1197, Vineyard Haven, MA 02568. Donations also accepted through Venmo @youenjoymyvegan with “Vegan Fridge” in the memo.