Vegetarian valentine: Potluck explores options

SANDPOINT — Next Sunday, more than 100 local diners will celebrate Valentine’s Day a week late and in unique fashion. That’s when the Sandpoint Vegetarians gather for their monthly potluck dinner at Community Hall with a theme of “compassion for animals.”

The loose-knit, but quickly growing, group of friends got started in the fall of 2008, when two couples — Eric Ridgeway and Cindy Aase and Stephen Augustine and Tricia Sullivan — met for brunch. The fare was vegetarian and even before the plates had been cleared, the foursome had planned its first community potluck.

The dinner, which was meant to be a one-time event, attracted about 60 people — triple the expected turnout. The most recent gathering, held last month, brought in approximately 110 diners.

“We have a friendly group of people and there’s a strong sense of community, so it doesn’t surprise me that it’s growing this quickly,” said Ridgeway.

“It’s a little intimidating, but it’s also exciting, because it’s turning into something,” Aase said.

One big factor in the potluck’s popularity has been the number of carnivorous tire-kickers who show up each month. About 40 percent of the participants are non-vegetarian who come to “try new things and learn new recipes,” Ridgeway said.

And recipes abound at the dinner — more than 50 of them a month — as families, couples, and individuals bring along take-home copies that describe how to prepare the dish they placed on the banquet table.

The diners’ ages range from newborn to nearly 80, with Annette Orton proudly claiming the title of elder vegetarian (see sidebar).

Eric and Cindy credit their potluck co-founders, Stephen and Tricia, as the inspiration for combining interests in personal health, environmental awareness and compassion for animals as themes for the get-togethers. Along with recipes and a rotating information table staffed by a different community organization each month, the dinners conclude with a brief presentation by one of the co-founders. This month, the topic will tie Valentine’s Day into a broader view that carries love for fellow humans over to an open heart for living things.

The talks, according to Aase, are not heavy handed and the audience is in just the right mood to absorb the message.

“You give people good food and get them sedate and comfortable and they’ll listen to you,” she said.

Not that the Sandpoint Vegetarians are out to convert meat-eaters. The real intent, Ridgeway noted, is to offer up as many tasty alternatives as possible each month and let people make their own decisions about how to eat. In his case, adopting a vegetarian regimen was more philosophical than physical.

“I’m not a vegetarian because I don’t like the taste of meat — it’s delicious,” said Ridgeway, who added that, as founder of the Long Bridge Swim and an avid athlete, he originally worried that he’d be eating nothing but salads for the rest of his days and was delighted to find out otherwise.

“For me, it was more because I’ve said that I’m an animal lover since I was a kid, but I never even questioned eating them,” he added. “I thought, ‘My behavior is not in line with my values.’”

Aase, who grew up locally, had parents and grandparents who raised livestock for food.

“I had a difficult time with that as a kid, so when I left home I became a vegetarian,” she said. “It was compassion, initially, for me. But it also has to do with sustainability. If you love the environment, you have to look at what we’re doing to it with things like factory farm runoff.”

The Sandpoint Vegetarians usually gather at Sandpoint Community Hall on the second Sunday of each month from 5:30-7:30 p.m., but have changed this month’s potluck to Feb. 21 due to a scheduling conflict.

Mayor Gretchen Hellar will give a short talk on the universal meaning of “True Love” and live music will be on tap. The event is free, but all participants are asked to bring a meatless dish and several copies of the recipe, as well as their own plates and silverware. Those who would like to help set up tables and chairs are invited to arrive at 5 p.m.