{"id":204756,"date":"2026-04-21T14:55:38","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T14:55:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/204756\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T14:55:38","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T14:55:38","slug":"bronx-vegan-bazaar-at-center-of-growing-vegan-and-healthy-food-movement-in-the-bronx-bronx-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/204756\/","title":{"rendered":"Bronx Vegan Bazaar at center of growing vegan and healthy food movement in the Bronx \u2013 Bronx Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t Search our comprehensive guide to things to do in the Bronx<\/a> for more local events \u2014 or submit your own<\/a>!<\/p>\n

The Bronx Vegan Bazaar hosted their vegan food expo on April 15 at Andrew Freedman home on 1125 Grand Concourse.\n<\/p>\n

Billed as \u201cthe first vegan food expo in the Bronx,\u201d the bazaar had a variety of holistic food options, apparel, jewelry and vegan-related books.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have anything like this in the Bronx, and we don\u2019t have access [to vegan food] in the Bronx,\u201d said Raidirys McCray, founder of the Bronx Vegan Bazaar.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cNow we\u2019re starting to get there, and I think that it has a lot to do with us pushing. And I just wanted to show how powerful we are in numbers [\u2026] And so I wanted to create a hub where it was multifaceted, where you can provide access, get education, create an opportunity for Latinos and black and brown people and everybody, to come invent and create money, or financial opportunities for themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Gracey Acheampong (left) of Gracey\u2019s Culinary Specialties sells food to guests. Photo by Alice Moreno<\/p>\n

The Bronx Vegan Bazaar was founded in 2020 by McCray. Through this experience, McCray has learned that the bazaar is like a form of resistance. Figuring out how to fight back the system, she realized that food is a battlefield \u2013 to be empowered and make better choices, one must nourish the body with organic nutrients.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe energy is so beautiful. It\u2019s just like meeting a tribe member [\u2026] everybody\u2019s super intentional and conscious and wants the same thing. They just want to uplift up the borough and uplift each person that they interact with,\u201d McCray said.<\/p>\n

One of the vendors, Optimum Health Essentials, sells raw vegan food as well as cold-pressed juices made from locally grown produce. Ran by Latresa Baker, the business has been open for a year and a half, but she has been making vegan food and juices for herself for four years.<\/p>\n

It began during her healing journey \u2013 she wanted to heal naturally from fibroids without the use of medication or surgery. She said she was able to expel two fibroids just from changing her diet, particularly using green foods in an interview with the Bronx Times.<\/p>\n

\"\"Latresa Baker of Optimum Health Essentials sells raw vegan food and products. Photo by Alice Moreno<\/p>\n

Apart from vegan food, Baker also sells vegan-made products, such as natural toothpaste and chemical-free laundry powder and hair and body butter.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I started my business, I was like, \u2018why don\u2019t I continue to get these fresh produce and just use them in my business to assist other people in their healing journey and just share my story,\u2019\u201d said Baker said.<\/p>\n

Across from Baker was a table filled with a plethora of vegan themed books. Vegan Village Books, run by Amanda Erekson, sells children\u2019s books that are \u201cvegan friendly\u201d \u2013 in other words, they do not depict the use of animals for food, labor, or entertainment.<\/p>\n

Erekson has been vegan for over 21 years and was vegetarian for 12 years before that. As a child, she always felt bad about animals being hurt or killed for food. When she grew up, she began learning about the food industry, specifically how animals are treated to obtain eggs or milk.<\/p>\n

\"\"The Bronx Vegan Bazaar is held every month at the Andrew Freedman Home in Grand Concourse. Photo by Alice Moreno<\/p>\n

\u201cAs an example, when my child was a baby, I ordered some picture books about New York City. And before you receive them \u2013 when you order them online \u2013 you can\u2019t see all the content,\u201d Erekson said. \u201cWhen it came, one of the books showed horse drawn carriages in Central Park, and I didn\u2019t want my vegan baby to see that at that age. And so then I thought, \u2018okay, how can I find books about New York City or about any other topic that are vegan friendly?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Towards the end of the hall sat Gracey\u2019s Culinary Specialities. Ran by Gracey Acheampong, her business is based in the Bronx Terminal Market. Her business began grew from a hobby to her full-time job in 2016.<\/p>\n

She calls herself a \u201ccurious vegan\u201d \u2013 through her African heritage, she learned that African foods are the most vegan. At her table, she sold jollof rice, tofu, chickpea salad, and Akara, a famous West African fritter.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just want to show [that] as much as I\u2019m not fully vegan, I love vegan food, and I want to show [this] part of Africa. Let everybody know we have a lot of vegan food from Africa,\u201d Acheampong said.<\/p>\n

For more information on the Bronx Vegan Bazaar and future dates, visit https:\/\/www.thebronxveganbazaar.com\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Search our comprehensive guide to things to do in the Bronx for more local events \u2014 or submit…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":204757,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[17475,128,37809,35225,81066,21961,81067,81068,9,24,63,81069,129,131,130,11897],"class_list":{"0":"post-204756","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-the-bronx","8":"tag-andrew-freedman-home","9":"tag-bronx","10":"tag-bronx-food","11":"tag-bronx-food-insecurity","12":"tag-bronx-vegan-bazaar","13":"tag-grand-concourse","14":"tag-healthy-food","15":"tag-healthy-food-in-the-bronx","16":"tag-new-york","17":"tag-new-york-city","18":"tag-nyc","19":"tag-raidirys-mccray","20":"tag-the-bronx","21":"tag-the-bronx-headlines","22":"tag-the-bronx-news","23":"tag-vegan"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204756"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204756\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}