The Vegan Buffet, opened in Altınkum this season by Didim Municipality to promote vegan foods and enable citizens to consume healthy foods, has closed the season.

Didim Mayor Deniz Atabay, who took steps to ensure that the public can access vegan foods, added new ones to the progressive steps he took for animals, climate and health in 2023, after becoming a signatory of PBT (Planet Based Treaty) in 2022.

Didim’s first Vegan Buffet was placed on Yalı Street in Altınkum District and served citizens throughout the summer. Vegan Chef Mehmet Kılıç, who manages the Vegan Buffet, stated that citizens showed great interest in the buffet, which opened in June, until the end of the season.

Kılıç, a 31-year-old graduate of Adnan Menderes University Gastronomy department, who stated that he has been vegan for 6 years, introduced vegan menus to the guests who came to Didim during the summer season, together with Zeynep Tuğba Gülcan (31), who has also been vegan for 8 months.

Stating that the people of Didim have been waiting for the vegan buffet for years, Kılıç said, “I worked in vegan kitchens in Istanbul and Ankara. We opened the vegan buffet in mid-June. Didim Municipality gave me the business.

“This is the first vegan buffet opened as a municipality business in Turkey. During the holiday, customers came from all over Turkey. I also had many foreign customers from many parts of the world.”

Kılıç expressed his happiness that they achieved a first in the 2023 summer season and said, “The Vegan Buffet, which opened on June 15, 2023, continued to operate until October 2, 2023. I would like to share with you the news that it will reopen next year during the vegan festival and will operate until the end of the season.

“We are very happy to have achieved a first in Turkey by participating in the Vegan Buffet. It has been a very important and valuable initiative.”

Explaining the thoughts, curiosity and interest of the guests who came to Didim about the vegan buffet, Kılıç said: “There was more interest in our buffet than we expected throughout the season. Our buffet, which is frequented by thousands of local and foreign tourists as well as our citizens from Didim, told everyone that a different life is possible.

“We shared vegan life practices, answered questions about animal rights as best we could, explained the effects of the livestock industry on the environment, water, soil, global warming and human health and called people to become vegan. People living vegan were very pleased and happy with the existence of the buffet.”