Motivated by Better Health, Columbus’ Black Community Embraces Veganism

Ivory Levert never felt that veganism was for her. She thought it was a “white thing,” marked by bland dishes and marketing that didn’t reflect her experience as a Black woman. Then a flavorful chickpea curry, made by her sister for Thanksgiving in 2017, changed her perspective.

Soon after that meal, the 31-year-old Whitehall resident dove into research on veganism, eventually reading “Sistah Vegan,” a 2009 anthology of Black women’s writing on health and diet. She ate animal products for the last time that Christmas.

“Since I’ve been vegan, I feel more energized by the food that I’m eating,” she says. “I feel like my digestive system just works and flows a lot better. And just from physical numbers—going to the doctor—all those things are really good.”

Levert is among the millions of Black Americans embracing plant-based diets. According to the Vegetarian Resource Group’s 2022 adult survey, 13 percent of Black Americans always or usually ate vegan in comparison to 9 percent of Americans overall.

In Central Ohio, better health seems to be motivating Black vegans, a phenomenon that Clayton Freeman has witnessed at his plant-based eatery, Can’t Believe It’s Vegan, in Westerville. Since opening the physical location last July, the 60-year-old Black chef says that, while he and his wife see more young Black diners expressing an interest in the lifestyle, “we also see a good amount of folks our age coming in and saying, ‘Hey, I want to try to eat better. I want to try to get off all these pills and feel better, and at least try to have [good] quality of life for however long I have here.”

His patrons’ concerns speak to a larger issue of poor health outcomes for Black people in the U.S. Columbus’ population mirrors the national disparity, according to a 2017 Columbus Public Health report: Black people were 1.2 times more likely to be diagnosed with diabetes, asthma or high blood pressure and 1.4 times more likely to be obese than white people. Social determinants of health like poverty, food insecurity and racism, which Columbus City Council declared a public health crisis in 2020, play a large role in these disparities.

In 2019, Levert founded Plant the Power 614, a culture- and community-focused organization dedicated to making plant-based living more accessible to Black, brown and working-class people. Through community conversations, service work and an annual VegFest, she strives to empower Black people in Columbus to better care for themselves and shed light on the connection between their health outcomes and the environmental crisis.

She and Freeman both see plant-based living as benefiting individual and community health, the well-being of animals and the stewardship of the land. “You can eat great-tasting food that is also great for your body and that is also great for the planet,” Freeman says. “That’s the ‘triple play.’ You can have all three.”

This story is from the May 2023 issue of Columbus Monthly.