The Vegan Museum

The Vegan Museum was founded by Kay Stepkin, president of Go Veggie®. Kay opened and ran Chicago’s first modern-day vegetarian business, The Bread Shop, from 1971-1996.

Through Go Veggie!®, she hosted Dine Outs, Turkey-Free Thanksgiving dinners, potlucks, cooking classes and an 8-segment televised cooking show: Go Veggie!® with Kay. She then wrote The Veggie Cook, a syndicated biweekly vegan column, for the Chicago Tribune for over 4 years.

Kay founded The Vegan Museum in 2016 and it first opened its doors in 2017. The exhibit has been displayed at over 24 different locations around Chicagoland and attracts top speakers to its events. The museum has hosted over 20 speakers, several documentary screenings, food demos and even a children’s book reading by international author Hélène Defossez. Formerly known as the National Vegetarian Museum, in 2020 the Board of Directors voted to change to The Vegan Museum in order to better reflect the museum’s values.

The Vegan Museum is building its own community and growing in support month by month. We also receive support from grants and other organizations including VegFund.

Although our movement’s history is vegetarian, we promote veganism today!