Want to help bring new vegan dishes to restaurants and increase interest in vegan dining? We need YOU to make the next Twin Cities Vegan Chef Challenge a roaring success!
What is the challenge?
The Twin Cities Vegan Chef Challenge (TCVCC) brings new vegan foods to Twin Cities restaurant menus each year during the month of August. Diners visit the restaurants and rate the dishes, and chefs vie to become the champion. It’s a win-win!
Most importantly, animals are spared through the addition and promotion of vegan options, and more people learn about and enjoy delicious vegan food.
How can I get involved?
Join the committee! Committee members will meet together for one hour every week starting in mid-May. Most meetings are hybrid. The only requirements are reliability and teamwork, and the willingness to share a few hours of your time each week! Responsibilities include:
Restaurant outreach — All committee members pitch in for this role, recruiting restaurants to compete! Together, we email and mail challenge information to local restaurants, and follow up as needed. We also sometimes visit restaurants near us to deliver publicity materials.
After we’re done with restaurant outreach, we split up into different roles:
Restaurant follow-up volunteers — These volunteers make sure restaurants have submitted necessary materials (names of dishes, food photos, etc.), track what materials have been submitted, and organize the materials in Google Drive.
Influencer coordinator — reach out to social media channels and influencers about getting a free meal in exchange for posting about the challenge on social media. Then, connect the interested influencers via group chat with restaurants to schedule their visit. After their visit, share the link to the influencer’s post!
Ratings volunteer — Track and dedupe votes, and use Google Sheets to calculate results and determine the TCVCC Champion. They also help determine the awards for all participating restaurants.
Social media admins — These volunteers put posts on social media pages (Instagram, Facebook), and help plan social media strategy.
While most meetings are hybrid, a few meetings are in-person (like a meeting where we organize all our voting materials together). If you can only volunteer remotely, that’s totally ok!
Please fill out a volunteer interest form or email Abbey at abbey.feola@exploreveg.org to let us know you’d like to volunteer!