Whole Foods Market presented a Vegan Valentine’s Store Tour on Feb. 5 to share vegan products and talk about veganism.
The tour at the store, located on 1817 Thomasville road, included samples of food such as vegan spinach and mushroom pizza, pad Thai, kale salad and Kite Hill almond milk cheese.
The store supplied participants with a healthy eating handbook with time-saving tips for cooking, recipes and techniques. The store also included handouts with vegan Valentine’s Day meal ideas such as avocado alfredo, tofurkey roast and warm butternut salad.
Dory Osborne, a Tallahassee resident and tour participant, said her favorite part of the tour was “Finding out in the store where all the vegan products are.”
“That was really informative,” Osborne said.
The store has previously hosted Ways to Save Store Tours and Gluten-Free Store Tours. Laura Osborne, a Whole Food Markets Salud team member, was the tour guide for the store’s first Vegan Valentine’s Tour. She said new diets promoted the beginnings of the tour.
“The need for information on alternative diets such as veganism is in high demand, so when we came to that realization, it only seemed natural to start a tour,” Osborne said.
Osborne was vegan until she began to listen to what her body was telling her, she said.
“It’s all about listening to your body,” Osborne said. “Once my body started telling that it was enough, I cycled in meat products.”
The tour made stops in different departments of the store not only for sampling foods, but talking to employees as well.
Henry Skelton, a Whole Foods Market grocery team member, was vegan for three years for the betterment of his health.
“Both sides of my family have diabetes and hearts problems, and it’s proven that being a vegan can help reduce the risk factors, even reverse the effects of diabetes and heart disease so that’s why I did it for a long time,” Skelton said.
The tour was open to the public and was limited to 12 people.
Whole Food Market will have a Happy Hour with Allegro FLXBUS on Feb. 6 and a Valentine’s Storewide Sampling on Feb. 8.