Central Park Is Now Home To NYC’s First Vegan Night Market
The weekly event will showcase plant-based cuisine from some of the city’s top vendors.
New York City now has its first-ever vegan night market, which launched today in the city’s iconic Central Park.
The Vegan Night Market is a weekly event that aims to showcase the best plant-based cuisine from the city’s top vegan vendors. Free to attend and with food and drink items ranging from $5 to $15, the market hopes to attract both longtime vegan foodies and those curious to try more plant-based foods.
“Our goal is to create a space where people can explore and enjoy plant-based cuisine from some of the city’s top vendors while promoting sustainable and ethical food choices,” said Marco Shalma, the founder of MHG Events, who is behind the new vegan market.
The open-air event features a wide variety of food stalls that reflect the city’s diverse culinary offering, with food including Caribbean, Mexican, Chinese, American, Columbian, and more.
Kefta Platter, from Vegan On The Fly. Credit: Vegan On The Fly
In fact, roughly 70 percent of the vendors are owned by people of color and 50 percent are women-owned businesses, MHG Events confirmed in a statement.
NYC foodies can expect the likes of Vegan On The Fly’s vegan gyros, Afghan comfort food by Nansense, Cuzin’s Duzin’s hot fresh donuts, baked treats by Bunny’s Vegan Bakery, and Culiraw’s guilt-free desserts. There’s many more vendors, too, including Mao’s Bao, Pinche Vegana NYC, Nadas Columbian Rainbow Empanadas, and Healthy As A Motha.
Credit: Mao’s Bao
The Vegan Night Market is now open every Tuesday from 4 pm to 9 pm up until October. Find it at Central Park’s Wollman Rink - 830 5th Ave, New York, NY 10065.
New Yorkers Are Eating More Plants
The Vegan Night Market is the latest initiative that’s bringing more healthy and sustainable meat-free food to New Yorkers. Just last month, the city’s mayor Eric Adams announced a new campaign with the Health Department that aims to encourage residents to eat more plant-based foods for their health.
“A plant-based lifestyle transformed my life, and helped put my type 2 diabetes into remission”, Adams explained in a statement for the campaign’s launch. “By embracing the power of plants, and ensuring every neighborhood across our city has both the knowledge and the access to healthy foods, we can cultivate a healthier future, one plant-based meal at a time.”
The city is providing free plant-based recipes, nutrition tips, and food assistance via nyc.gov/nutrition, and will showcase food hacks for easy and healthy plant-based food choices via advertisements on television, radio, subways and more.
Adams, who eats a primarily plant-based diet himself, has led several other city-wide efforts to help improve public health and combat climate change through our food choices.
Adams at a recent event promoting the health benefits of plant-based food in NYC. Credit: Eric Adams
Last year, public schools in New York introduced an entirely vegan menu every Friday as part of the Plant-Power Fridays initiative. Aimed at tackling healthcare crises like childhood obesity, childhood diabetes, and asthma, the scheme results in around 1.1 million school children eating plant-based meals at school at least once a week.
Another recent health-focused initiative saw hospital menus receive a plant-based makeover, with New York City public hospitals now serving plant-based meals as the default option. While patients are still welcome to request meat options, the program has proven an effective way to encourage healthier choices, with more than half of all patients choosing the plant-based meals despite only 1 percent of patients actively following a vegan or vegetarian diet.
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