Community food event gaining popularity

Published 1:30 am Saturday, June 27, 2026

CHIMACUM — On the first day of the 15-day Together Around Food event, 100 people showed up for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

By Thursday night, Day 6, 100 people showed up for dinner alone, said organizer Mike Sanabria, a cuisine representative for Loving Hut Vegan Cuisine, an international vegan restaurant franchise.

Together Around Food — hosted from 7:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. June 20 through July 4 at the Tri-Area Community Center, 10 West Valley Road in Chimacum — is a free community event which provides free, plant-based meals for three daily meals.

“It’s been great,” said organizer Sailesh Krishna Rao, executive director of partner organization Climate Healers.

After dinner each day, there have been presentations about the medical perspective of a plant-based diet as well as the environmental impact, nutrition and the spiritual side of it.

“Most people stay after dinner; we don’t require that they do,” Sanabria said. “We just offer it to learn more about the program and benefits.”

A documentary team is filming the meals being prepared and served in addition to the information sessions for a film the group plans to show at United Nations conferences in Mongolia in August and Turkey in November.

“We’re showing how we can create a keystone program anyone can replicate and showing the U.N. the community wants this,” Rao said.

During the U.N. conferences, Together Around Food organizers will have a booth at which they can show the documentary, and there also will be press conferences during which they can discuss the program.

“We’ll offer the delegates food to get them to talk to us,” Sanabria joked. “The food there usually isn’t great, so people are starving.”

The event head chef, Marlene Watson Tara, has been preparing all of the meals with the help of a full staff in the kitchen. She doesn’t use oil, salt or sugar in any of her meals.

Many meals feature various types of beans, Watson Tara said, adding that she has been called the “Queen of Beans.”

“Most people don’t even understand what you can do with beans,” she said. “The humble bean doesn’t get the promotion it deserves.”

Events like Together Around Food are important because the world has lost the art of cooking, Watson Tara said.

“We try to encourage people to get back in the kitchen,” she said. “The more you cook, the faster you become.”

Another issue with the way people eat is that they are not chewing their food properly, Watson Tara said.

“They’re expecting the stomach to pop up with teeth to digest the food, and there’s no teeth in there,” she said.

What people are doing is taking bites of food and then chewing just enough to be able to swallow, she said. That is causing their bodies to not produce the enzyme amylase, which helps to break down carbohydrates such as beans, grains, nuts and fruits.

“A few people have said, ‘I don’t feel like I’m digesting this food,’” Watson Tara said. “It’s because they’re not chewing their food.”

The meals being provided include a millet sesame-crusted tempeh veggie bowl with sweet peanut sauce Watson Tara and the kitchen crew were preparing Friday morning for the noon lunch. The recipe came from Watson Tara’s cookbook, “Go Vegan.”

Veganism isn’t a diet, it’s a moral framework for life, she said. Rao added that he likes to look at the word as an acronym where VEGAN stands for “vitally engaged guarding of animals and nature.”

Bob Triggs of Marrowstone Island has had each meal served at the event since it started June 20.

The food has been “extraordinary,” Triggs said, adding that he didn’t plan on coming back for each meal, but that’s what’s happened.

“I think I’m going to have a lot more plant-based meals, have it play a larger role in my life,” he said. “I’m learning how to prepare a lot of these things and getting an introduction to the lifestyle.”

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Reporter Emily Hanson can be reached by email at emily.hanson@peninsuladailynews.com.