VegCurious Course
Sundays, May 4–June 15, 2025. Tasty samples included!
Are you VegCurious? Would you, or someone you know, like to discover what being vegan is all about? Are you a former or current vegan or vegetarian who would like some additional information and support? Would you like to be at a healthy weight and did you hear that going plant-based is one way to achieve that? Or are you just in the mood for some delicious samples and want to try some new recipes?
Northwest VEG is offering a VegCurious course on six Sunday afternoons from 3pm to roughly 5pm starting May 4 for anyone wanting to learn more about a plant-based diet. Presenters will discuss what a vegan diet can do for our health, the environment, and the animals, and cooks will demonstrate a variety of plant-based dishes including 7-Layer Dip, Soy Curl Salad, Chili, and Chocolate Pudding with plenty of samples. If you can’t commit to the whole series of classes, please consider the variety of volunteer positions available now or on class day (which includes free samples)! (email Reynolds@nwveg.org to volunteer)
Time: Sunday afternoon, 3:00-5:00 pm
Location: Tabernacle Seventh-day Adventist Church, 26 SW Condor Way, Portland, OR 97239
Cost: $60 total for all six classes with additional discounts available (see below)
So come satisfy your vegan curiosity with this VegCurious Course and find out what a plant-based diet can do for you!
Course Schedule:
May 4
Lecture: Intro: Kitchen Essentials, Media Recommendations - Team
Cooking Demo: 7 Layer Dip, Chuck Underwood, Author and Founder of Brand New Vegan
May 11
Lecture: The Huge Environmental Impact of Food Choices - Peter Spendelow, Ph.D., Zoology/Ecology
Cooking Demo: Meat Substitutes, Linda Tyler, Cookbook author and cooking instructor - The Gracious Vegan
May 18
Lecture: Nutrition - Dr. Daniel Redwood, D.C., Director of Human Nutrition and Functional Medicine at the University of Western States
Cooking Demo: Chickpea Salad, Chuck Underwood, Author and Founder of Brand New Vegan
May 25 NO CLASS, Memorial Day Weekend.
June 1
Lecture: Animals - Donna Reynolds, 25-year vegetarian>vegan, VegCurious Course Organizer
Cooking Demo: Desserts, Linda Tyler, Cookbook author and cooking instructor - The Gracious Vegan
June 8
Lecture: Health and Wellness - Iris Schrijver, M.D., certified Lifestyle Medicine physician, international speaker, and wellness author
Cooking Demo: Soy Curl Salad and Banana Mash, Linda Hendrickson, Whole Food Plant-Based cook and enthusiast
June 15
Lecture: Wrap up: Travel, Restaurants/Fast Food, Family, Gardening - Team
Cooking Demo: Tastings: Milks, Cheeses, Burgers, Team
Registration is required. Class is limited to 30 people, so register soon!
Course Registration
$60 - Standard
$50 - Current Northwest VEG member
$75 - Registration and Northwest VEG membership ($50 + $25 membership)
$30 - Member of the Tabernacle Seventh Day Adventist Church
$30 - Low Income
PLEASE REGISTER USING THE FORM BELOW
After you have filled out the form, you will be taken to the payment page, where you can pay by either credit card, PayPal, Venmo, or check.
Meet The Presenters:
Chuck Underwood, Author and Instructor
Chuck Underwood is a plant-based influencer and an avid vegan cook, blogger, author, and YouTuber. Chuck began experimenting with plant-based cooking in 2008 and is a graduate of T. Colin Campbell’s Plant-Based Nutrition Course. His Comfort Food Classics Cookbook is unique in that it focuses on helping people make the transition easier by providing comfort-food recipes they already know and love. Chuck currently lives in the suburbs of Portland, OR and his website is brandnewvegan.com
Linda Tyler, Author and Instructor
Linda Tyler is a Portland-based cooking instructor, cookbook author, and food photographer. Her Plant-Based Anti-Inflammatory Cookbook focuses on superstar foods that can help calm chronic inflammation. Linda teaches cooking classes for Portland Community College, including one-on-one plant-based lifestyle sessions, and is on the video review team for nutritionfacts.org. Her website is graciousvegan.com.
Peter Spendelow, Ph.D., Natural Resource Specialist
Peter has worked for the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality as a Natural Resource Specialist in the Materials Management Program for 40 years. He holds a Ph.D. in Zoology, specializing in evolutionary ecology, from the University of Washington. Peter was also the President of Northwest VEG for more than a decade
Daniel Redwood, DC
Dr. Redwood is currently the Director of Human Nutrition and Functional Medicine at the University of Western States. He practiced chiropractic with an emphasis on nutrition for 25 years in Virginia before becoming a professor at Cleveland Chiropractic College - Kansas City, where he was named Educator of the Year by the Missouri State Chiropractic Association.
Donna Reynolds
Donna Reynolds became a vegetarian after seeing the movie Babe and became vegan after seeing Forks Over Knives. She learned more about the vegan lifestyle through T. Colin Campbell’s eCornell Nutrition Studies program and completed the Vegan Lifestyle Coach & Educator Course at Victoria Moran’s Mainstreet Vegan Academy. Donna loves the fact that going vegan doesn’t just save animals, but improves people’s health and the health of the planet, and she looks forward to sharing more information like this to curious attendees of this course.
Iris Schrijver, MD
IRIS SCHRIJVER, MD, is a certified Lifestyle Medicine physician, author, and international speaker. Her passion for healthy living, science, education, and the possibility of wellbeing for everyone sparked her latest work, On the Path to Health, Wellbeing, and Fulfilment: To Your Health. This book explores the factors that support or undermine health, wellbeing, and fulfillment. It reviews what we actually know about health and wellness and reveals the influences on the use and understanding of health information.
Linda Hendrickson
Linda Hendrickson is a Portland fiber artist, teacher, and author, who is passionately committed to a whole-food plant-based & climate-friendly diet. She does a lot of batch cooking in the Instant Pot, and enjoys simple, easy recipes for salads, soups and casseroles, all with no added oil, sugar, or salt. In 2018, she completed the Forks Over Knives plant-based, no-oil cooking course offered through the Rouxbe Online Cooking School. You can see some of her favorite recipes on her website at http://lindahendrickson.com/recipes.htm, and occasional posts on Instagram showing what she's been doing in the kitchen @lindahendricksonpdx.