K
ay Stepkin’s path to opening the National Vegetarian Museum, the first
vegetarian museum in the country, began with James Bond.
Stepkin brought her vegetarianism back to Chicago. In 1971—the year the
Union Stockyards closed, she points out—she opened up a bakery, the Bread
Shop, in Lakeview, near the corner of Halsted and Roscoe. She used only
organic whole-grain flour, which she purchased from a health food store on
the far south side. At the time she believed—mistakenly, it turns out—it
was the first vegetarian establishment in the history of Chicago. And for
several years, it remained one of the few. But in the late 1970s, the
animal rights movement began to grow, and in 1987, John Robbins’s book Diet for a New America brought together the strands of human health, animal suffering, and environmental impact into a powerful argument for vegetarianism not just as a personal choice but as a social movement. “It pepped everything right up again,” says Stepkin. “Up until a few years ago, [the vegetarian] movement seemed steady. And now I feel we’re in the middle of an enormous explosion. There was one business in ’71, and now there are over 50 today.”
At the moment the National Vegetarian Museum consists of one exhibit, “What
Does It Mean to Be Vegetarian?,” on 12 seven-by-three-foot panels. Since
February 2017 it’s been traveling around the city, finding temporary homes
in various city and suburban libraries and sponsoring guest lectures. (In
March, it’s at the main branch of the Evanston Public Library.) When
Stepkin started the project, she thought she’d have a permanent location by
now, but she’s not entirely displeased by the traveling. “I’m not sure how
many people would come across the city to go to a museum,” she says, “so we
go to them.” The libraries also set aside books so visitors can read more,
the way Stepkin did.
Through 4/2: Mon-Thu 9 AM-9 PM, Fri-Sat 9 AM-6 PM, Sun noon-6 PM, Evanston Public Library, 1703 Orrington Ave., Evanston, vegmuse.org. F
