Heather Mills Wins Woman of The Year 2024 At The Vegan Women Summit Los Angeles, CA
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Los Angeles, CA – The Vegan Women Summit (VWS) has announced the recipients of its 2024 annual awards, established to recognize global leaders, innovators, and organisations that accelerate women’s leadership by positively impacting the people, planet, and animals.
Heather Mills: A Voice for Veganism and Health
After presenting one of the main keynote speeches at The Vegan Women’s Summit 2024 Heather was awarded the prestigious title of Woman of The Year.
Heather has been a pioneering figure in the vegan movement worldwide with her company VBites having created one of the first vegan burgers over three decades ago.
Despite facing significant health challenges, including a period when she relied on liquid food due to Lyme Disease, Heather remains a vocal advocate for the benefits of a plant-based diet. She emphasises the importance of understanding nutrition and health and encourages scepticism toward misleading claims about processed foods by the meat and dairy industries.
Heather shares her thoughts on the importance of informed dietary choices and addressing misconceptions in the public perception of veganism.
"Spending time at VWS with so many like-minded people was inspiring. Though my team at VBites travelled thousands of miles to get there and set up for the exhibition, the response to our vegan food was immense, so it was worth it.
On top of that, it gave us the opportunity to showcase our next stage of food, our new gut-healthy range 'No Bloat.'
There will always be a demand for stage one vegan fast food, to replace the unhealthy fast food, the next stage isback to vegetable burgers with real veg, and stage three is gut healthy.
You cannot take a fast-food addict to broccoli overnight, however having fed people vegan food for over 30 years and taking them from hormone and antibiotic-filled meat — the most processed food you can eat — we eventually got them to quinoa and kale by weaning them on vegan fast food and slowly taking them over the bridge to the other side becoming a healthy vegan.
No matter what anyone tells you, vegan fast food is less processed from start to finish than any meat or dairy you could ever eat.
Thank you, Vegan Women Summit, for bringing us all together to remind us we have to stand united in our voice and our messaging if we are going to make any difference."
Jennifer Stojkovic, founder of VWS, reflected on the summit's impact, stating,
"With nearly 1,000 attendees live in Hollywood, this year's event was our first-ever red carpet and live after-party performance -- and by far, our most ambitious event yet, spanning across 100+ speakers and brands, two stages, two events, one pitch slam, one top chef competition, and one totally wild after-party.
Our attendees, speakers, and brands came from an incredible six continents and our audience was our most diverse yet, with a majority women of colour attendees and a significant increase in male attendees.
It truly was the most incredible community of changemakers, leaders, and industry professionals that we have ever seen.”
2024 VWS Award Winners:
- Woman of the Year: VBites CEO Heather Mills
- Creator of the Year: Erin Ireland, Founder of To Live For bakery
- Ally of the Year: California Assemblymember Ash Kalra
- Nonprofit of the Year: Plant Futures
- Best Place to Work: Impossible Foods
- Company of the Year: MIKUNA
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Notes to the editor
For more information, images and VBites products to review please contact Karin Ridgers info@mad-promotions.com
https://www.facebook.com/vbitesfoods
https://twitter.com/VBitesFoods
https://www.instagram.com/vbites_foods/
https://www.facebook.com/heather.mills.official
https://www.instagram.com/heathermillsofficial
About Heather Mills:
In 1993 Heather lost her lower leg in a traffic accident. Fighting infection, she put herself on a vegan diet. So successful was this new lifestyle in restoring and maintaining her health, she went on to found V-bites, an international, multi-award-winning, plant-based, vegan, ethical food company. Heather also champions numerous charities, campaigns and good causes, and is the fastest disabled female on the planet – a record she achieved on skis.
About Vegan Women Summit:
Vegan Women Summit® (VWS) is a global events and media organization created to empower women to build a kinder, more sustainable world. VWS events foster a community of strong, ambitious rising leaders working to bring compassion to their careers in the plant-based and animal-free industries. For more information, please visit www.veganwomensummit.com.
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Editors notes
Heather Mills is an entrepreneur, philanthropist, activist and world-record holding athlete.
Her main mission in life has been (and continues to be) the creation and supply of healthier, sustainable, plant based alternative consumer products across the food, nutrition and cosmetics industries. This is coupled with tireless charity campaigning that embodies her vehement passion to support those negatively impacted by war and other forms of oppression or physical debilitation in 'overcoming adversity'.
Heather has manifested these goals through the creation of market-leading plant based businesses and numerous charities across the globe.
Having suffered the amputation of her left leg following a collision with a motorcycle in 1993, Heather adopted veganism to aid her recovery which subsequently gave birth to the VBites Food business. VBites is now one of the world's largest manufacturers of meat-free, fish-free, and dairy-free plant based alternatives, currently servicing 24 countries and growing in both the B2B and B2C consumer segments.
Expanding on her plant based mission, Heather has also created a vegan algal oil business, V-Omega3, vegan makeup business, Be@One, as well as investing in numerous other plant based start-ups as part of her 'VBites Ventures' portfolio.
Despite these successes, Heather is most proud of her work in the charitable sector which has included the founding and patronage of 'Adopt A Minefield' which was responsible for clearing 21 million square metres of landmines in war-torn areas around the world.
Heather is also the originator and patron of many amputee clinics around the world, has raised hundreds of millions of dollars in the face of atrocities such as the Twin Tower attacks and the Gujarat earthquake in India, and was responsible for driving through the EU ban on dog and cat fur procurement.
Heather has also found time to pursue her sporting passion of ski-racing and at the age of 47 became the only disabled skier ever to achieve x3 world records in downhill, skeleton and ski-jumping disciplines. Heather also holds x4 gold medals for downhill and slalom skiing at the skiing world championships.
