The Vegan Cafe, at Seomra Spraoi.

2010 Interview.

The Vegan Cafe is held every wednesday evening, from 7pm at Seomra Spraoi, in Dublin city centre.
Seomra Spraoi is run by a non-hierarchical, anti-capitalist collective on a not-for-profit basis.

Vegan Ireland: For those who dont know the Vegan Cafe, can you tell us what the Vegan Cafe is about?

Vegan Cafe: The vegan cafe is a voluntarily staffed and organized operation in the Seomra Spraoi social centre, Dublin. It runs cafe nights every Wednesday evening.
Each week, a team of 3 - 4 people cook a meal for around 60 people. Served at 7.30pm, the meals are of 2 or 3 courses. It's all whole food, sourced either through an organic wholesaler, a local veg box delivery scheme or local green grocers. We try to be as inclusive as possible so keep it gluten and wheat free.

Vegan Ireland: What would someone expect if they visit the Vegan cafe?

Vegan Cafe: First timers can expect to be welcomed to Seomra Spraoi and shown around the building by whoever is on the rota that evening. The cafe tends to be a relaxed and jovial event in the centre - great vegan food, a laid-back atmosphere in a non-commercial public space. It's a great opportunity to meet new people, exchange ideas, and connect with people over food.

Vegan Ireland: How long has the Vegan Cafe been running?

Vegan Cafe: I am not completely sure, but I know that there was a similar cafe in Seomra's last home at Mary's Abbey. The cafe has been consistently held once or twice a week in our current building since we opened in February 2009.

Vegan Ireland: What are the aims of the Vegan Cafe?

Vegan Cafe: The kitchen aims to provide a nutritious wholefood vegan meal to the community at a reasonable and affordable cost. As with everything in Seomra Spraoi, we suggest a donation for the meal,usually 5 euros,and ask for more or less as one can afford. We also aim to raise awareness of the ethics and politics of food production.

Vegan Ireland: What was the motivation behind starting the Vegan Cafe?

Vegan Cafe: While I wasn't around when the cafe started up, I can share my views on what motivates the cafe now.

While not everyone involved with running the cafe is vegan, our cafe actively promotes veganism because it prioritises non-violence towards animals and humans in food production, promotes environmental health and the well-being of humans as well as the elimination of cruelty to animals. A plant-based diet contributes less to worsening global hunger than one based on the consumption of animal products, today over one billion people are without sufficient food. The kitchen's ethics and policies draw much from the notion of food sovereignty. Seomra Spraoi is politically conscious of the exhaustion of finite resources perpetuated by the advanced-capitalist lifestyles of the West. If we are trying to encourage the limitation of the resources we use, we must also scrutinize one of the most significant dynamics affecting our ecological footprint; our food. We must consider how the food we purchase and eat is produced, and where it comes from. Vegan food includes everyone, it is delicious, ethical and planet friendly.

Though not common in Ireland, social centres exist all over the world. Many social centres feature vegetarian or vegan cafes, check out the Treehouse Cafe in Bradford, the cafe collective at the 1in12 social centre also in Bradford, the Cowley Club in Brighton, and the worker's co-operative Pogo Cafe in London, for some examples in the UK.

Vegan Ireland: How many people are involved?

Vegan Cafe: It's hard to say, as there have been many people involved over the years, and people seem to ebb and flow. At the moment there's a core group of about ten people making regular commitments to organisation and coordination of the cafe, and a pool of about twenty in total outside of that.

Vegan Ireland: How do you organize the Vegan Cafe?

Vegan Cafe: It's hard to say, as there have been many people involved over the years, and people seem to ebb and flow. At the moment there's a core group of about ten people making regular commitments to organisation and coordination of the cafe, and a pool of about twenty in total outside of that.

Vegan Ireland: How do you organize the Vegan Cafe?

Vegan Cafe: A non-hierarchical Kitchen Working Group is responsible for running the cafe. The kitchen group meets once a month and uses this time to plan and make decisions. At any given time, there is a designated kitchen co-ordinator. That person organizes teams for each service; comprising of a chef, three helpers and a cleaning co-ordinator. Anybody interested in helping to organise the cafe can help by attending the kitchen group meetings, which are held on the first Tuesday of each month at 6pm, or email seomrakitchen@gmail.com.

Vegan Ireland: Where do you source the ingredients?

Vegan Cafe: We use ethically sourced ingredients as much as possible. We source our dry goods wholesale, at the moment we use Irish Independent Health Foods. All of our dry food is organic. We strive to use organic produce where possible but 100% isn't easy to achieve. For fresh produce we receive a bulk from a local vegetable box delivery, Home Organics. Outside of this we use local vegetable grocers Tops and Pops on Gardiner Street is a local haunt, and when we absolutely have to, we venture into a supermarket.

Vegan Ireland: What are the prices for the meals?

Vegan Cafe: There is no allocated price for food (or anything) in Seomra Spraoi; instead we suggest donations. Each person is asked to pay more or less than a suggested amount depending on what they can afford. The suggested donation for a full meal is typically 5 euro (that's 3 euro for the starter/ main course and 2 for dessert).
In this way, no person is excluded from the meal because of his or her financial situation. Also, we would hope that people who are in a position to donate more to the project would be forthcoming with their support.

Vegan Ireland: How did you get involved?

Started helping out on the Wednesday Rota about twelve months ago, and was very quickly drawn into the kitchen through a love for food. It is easy to get excited by food in Seomra Cafe. Being involved has inspired me to seriously examine my own patterns as an eater and as a consumer. I also feel that people don't come together enough to prepare food and eat communally, and Seomra Cafe provides a vital connection for the community in this respect. Everyone should be doing it! You'd be surprised at the many ways that you can, take a look at Street Feast, for example, www.streetfeast.ie.

Vegan Ireland: What kind of response has the Vegan Cafe had?

Vegan Cafe: There now seems to be a very solid and reliable high number of people coming to each cafe - around 60 - 70 at each one. People come for a variety of reasons, the quality of the food at such a low cost, the fact that the food is vegan, restrictive diets (we provide as much gluten free/ wheat free/ and sugar free food as we can), the atmosphere in Seomra Spraoi when the cafe is on, the fact that they can come to a bike workshop and get a quality meal (the bike workshop is open on Wednesdays from 6pm to 8pm), because their friends told them to come.

Vegan Ireland: What kind of people are visiting the Vegan Cafe?

Vegan Cafe: Any and every kind of person. Many are just people who have heard about the quality, affordable food and just want to eat. Quite a few have found the cafe through couchsurfing. There's a lot going on in Seomra Spraoi on a Wednesday evening. There's the bike workshop, language classes, political talks, discussions or meetings, and from time to time we host gigs or poetry readings at the cafes. All these elements combined attract a fantastic mix of people, which is part of the beauty of Seomra Spraoi!

Vegan Ireland: What challenges is the Vegan Cafe facing?

Vegan Cafe: On a day-to-day basis, our biggest challenge is finding enough people to do the cheffing and chopping for each cafe, as well as the co-ordination and looking after the operational side of things. Everyone is welcome! In terms of our long-term challenges, we are focused on continually elevating our standards of ethics, quality of food and promoting awareness. We strive to discover new sources of ethically produced non-violent foods and investigate product traceability. In my opinion, the cafe maintains a high standard of food, so the next logical step is to up the ante on food politics; raising awareness around the ethics of food, our dependence on imports, and negating the illusion of "choice" in supermarket culture.

Vegan Ireland: How can somebody get involved with the Vegan Cafe?

Vegan Cafe: Volunteer yourself by emailing seomrakitchen@gmail.com, just come to one of the cafes and talk to a Seomra/kitchen representative there.

The Vegan pioners.