Million Dollar Vegan hopes to not only help the ones in need through donations but also spread awareness on the reasons pandemics plague the human world.

Last week, Million Dollar Vegan (MDV) kicked off its ‘Plants ON: Pandemics OFF – Global Prevent & Feed Initiative’ by donating $100,000 of vegan meals to care workers, hospitals and the most vulnerable in our communities.

The group announced on Instagram that it “would deliver  more than 100,000 plant-based meals to hospitals in Italy and France, to homeless veterans in the US, to frontline care workers in Spain, and to underprivileged communities in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, the UK and India.”

“We will also be funding meals for 250 primary school children in Ethiopia for the next four months.”

While the group said it wanted to actively help those who are most in need during the COVID-19 pandemic, it also wanted to raise awareness of what needs to be done to prevent another catastrophic zoonotic outbreak like covid-19 in the future.

“We want to do all we can to support the most vulnerable, and to provide them with great tasting, immunity-boosting healthy foods. But also, because the world must hear that this is a pandemic of our own making, and the very best way to make sure we do not have to go through this again is to #TakePandemicsOffTheMenu by switching to a vegan diet,” wrote the group on Instagram.

The initiative has been backed by experts, including DR Michael Greger, MD, DR Neal Barnard, MD, Dr T. Colin Campbell, PhD, and Dr Aysha Akhtar, MD.

Naomi Hallum, director of the organisation, said: “We hope that the $100,000 of food we are giving will help relieve some of the suffering caused by Covid-19.

“But the real value of our work lies in education, in telling people how and why these pandemics emerge, in showing the destruction caused to our planet and our bodies when we eat animal products.

“The coronavirus pandemic, like many others before it, is creating tragedies for families all over the world. None of us wants this to happen ever again but to prevent future outbreaks, there are some difficult lessons we must learn.”

 Zoonotic diseases

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 3 out of 4 emerging infectious diseases have been traced back to animals.

According to Dr. Michael Greger: “We can take steps to prevent the next pandemic and, to do so, we need look no further than our own plates. There are no prions in plants; you can’t get coronaviruses from cauliflower, and there’s no flu in falafel production.”

Dr. Neal Barnard adds: “Getting animals off our collective plate would go a long way toward preventing future pandemics, and would improve our health and our environment at the same time.”

According to the Director of MDV the current situation “is a stark reminder that all life on Earth is connected and that if we wish to preserve our own lives, we must also strive to preserve the lives of others.”

The organization believes it is high-time people re-evaluate their relationship with animals and switch to a plant-based diet.

• Read: Beyond Meat shares soar as coronavirus stalls meat plant production

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Mohsina Dodhiya

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