College Vegans Enter Celebrity Chili Cook-Off with Vegan Chili

Martin Jones, math professor and vegan club advisor

A few years ago, math professor Martin Jones received an invitation to a celebrity chili cook-off and oyster roast hosted by the Charleston Animal Society. The cook-off is the society’s largest fundraiser, and the money raised enables the society to operate a no-kill animal shelter.

WEBSITE: Attend the event.

Jones wanted to help, but he had one big issue: He’s a vegan. So he wrote to the society’s leader explaining his dilemma.

“I’m trying to wrap my head around the idea of cooking animals to save animals,” said Jones.

After a polite back and forth, a plan was hatched: Jones and friends would enter a vegan chili. They did so, and made it past the first cut of the competition. It was a great start, but now Jones is hungry for even more success. This year, on November 22, 2014, Jones and the College of Charleston Vegan Club will combine forces with the Lowcountry Vegan Society to enter two chili recipes into the Charleston Animal Society’s celebrity cook-off. Their recipes are slated to include the textured vegetable meat substitute Gimme Lean (that’s a pun on sausage maker Jimmy Dean, if you didn’t catch it).

RECIPE: Check out the CofC Vegan Club chili recipe.

Last year, says Jones, both vegans and meat-eaters alike enjoyed the vegan chili. He’s hoping that the cook-off will continue to embrace vegan recipes, and, perhaps one day, feature only vegan dishes.

“I would like the event to open the circle of compassion a little wider,” says Jones, who serves as faculty advisor to the College’s Vegan Club.
He helped arrange an October 2012 visit to the College by Jonathan Safran Foer. The renowned author spoke about his book Eating Animals, which was the official selection of the The College Reads! campus-wide common reading program for 2012.

VIDEO: Watch highlights of Foer’s campus lecture.

“I was really wanting to have this discussion,” Jones said on the occasion of Foer’s visit. “I think we’re on the verge of a paradigm shift. We need that critical mass, and as people begin to change the way they eat and the way they think about food, I think we’ll get there.”

VIDEO: In 2012, Martin Jones was named one of the top 300 professors in the U.S.

The Charleston Animal Society’s 15th Annual Chili Cook-Off and Oyster Roast will start at 1 p.m. on Nov. 22, 2014 at The Citadel’s football stadium.