Biomedical engineering professor Krishnendu Roy and his team of researchers will use funding from the National Institutes of Health to evaluate specific molecules that may help the development of a COVID-19 vaccine.
Click here to learn how the research from Roy’s team may lead to a possible coronavirus vaccine.
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms announced on May 21 a five-phase plan for reopening the city after imposing shelter in place orders that have closed many restaurant, stores, and other public places.
Click here to learn more about the mayor’s plan and when the five phases might be implemented.
Skateboarding legend Tony Hawk sent a special shout out and a new skateboard to a metro Atlanta boy thanks to assistance from a FedEx driver.
Click here to read the incredible story.
Atlanta police took a big step to stop illegal street racing in Atlanta over the weekend.
Click here to learn more about how Atlanta police with help from law enforcement around the state put a crackdown on dangerous driving in the streets of Atlanta.
Microsoft is opening a new facility next year that will create 1,500 new high-tech jobs in Atlanta.
Click here to learn more about the new facility’s economic impact in Georgia.
Colleges across Georgia are offering classes online, and Atlanta is trying to keep its people indoors. Now, Georgia State senior Ben Abrams and his two roommates are adjusting to a life of social distancing. The journalism student shares how their lives are changing during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Abrams still plans to work an internship remotely with Georgia Public Broadcasting while taking classes online this summer. To learn more about Ben Abrams and see more of his stories, you can follow on Twitter, Facebook, & Instagram.
After his playing days in the N.F.L. were behind him. Sports was the last place Reggie Ball wanted to turn to write the next chapter of his life. But once he decided to embrace his athletic background, Ball became a fitness trainer. Now, as one of the founders of E.F.F.E.C.T. Fitness, he’s teaching his clients to live healthier & happier lives.
Ball is currently doing personal and group sessions of his “Ball Effect” training program. To learn more about Reggie Ball and his fitness program, you can visit the E.F.F.E.C.T. fitness website and the “Ball Effect’s” Instagram page.
After more than three years of hard work, Candice Hawk’s effort is paying off. The health activist opened Spreading the Health last year to provide South Atlanta with a healthy alternative to the abundance of fast food restaurants that flood the area.
Hawk and her team have opened two locations of Spreading the Health within their first year of business. To find out more about them you can visit their website or find them on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
Plant-based cuisines have become a staple in Atlanta’s restaurant scene. A survey by WalletHub in September 2019 placed Atlanta as the 6th best city for vegans and vegetarians, even beating out cities like New York and San Francisco. Here are five ways that Atlanta is embracing the vegan and vegetarian dishes into its menus.
The demand for plant-based food has been on the rise not only in Atlanta but also in America. According to a report by Food Business News, sales for plant-based meat have gone up by 10 % in the past year, and the trends for plant-based cheese and eggs have similar results. Atlanta is sending a clear message to its communities and the rest of the U.S. that these new food trends are here to stay.
Inside the crowded We Suki Suki food market stall in East Atlanta, Greg Anthony stands near the front window waiting for his order from his new favorite barbecue joint, Grass VBQ. Anthony sees this small, modern restaurant as a welcoming sight for a man of his taste because this is one of the first barbecue joints in Atlanta that is entirely plant-based.
“The first time I came, I got the oyster mushroom sandwich. As I read more about it, I read about it and saw how it was smoked and cooked like how people would cook regular meat. I saw that the flavor is there,” said Anthony.
Anthony, who has been a vegetarian for the last three years and has a vegan son, is one of the thousands of people in Atlanta who have been looking for restaurants that offer plant-based alternatives for the food that they love. Until recently, the need for a meatless option for barbecue had not been met but changed when Chef Terry Sargent introduced Grass VBQ in East Atlanta Village in September 2019.
Sargent, who made an appearance on Food Network’s “Beat Bobby Flay” brings 19 years of culinary experience with him to Grass VBQ. The last six of those years have been spent focusing on introducing plant-based cuisines to Atlanta after he decided to start living a plant-based lifestyle.
“It was definitely for health reasons I owned a catering company about six or seven years ago. It was very taxing on my body, so I needed to make a change,” said Sargent.
“I started to develop certain ailments like tendentious and things like that. After a while, I started to watch a few documentaries and decided to make that change in my life. After I did that, everything changed,” he said.
After finding the joy and benefits of a vegan diet, Sargent wanted to share what he saw with his customers and decided that another change was needed, and soon the inspiration for Grass VBQ followed.
“Still working in restaurants and cooking meats and dairy, still working with those items. I didn’t want to do that anymore,” says Sargent.
“I thought that if I’m going to live this lifestyle, then I’m going to live it 100 percent. So, I quit my job and open this place up after I did a Fourth of July event with some barbecue, and it was a huge success,” he says.
Sargent is not alone in his need to share a plant-based cuisine with the outside world. Akeem Bumpass has been a vegetarian and then a vegan for a combined seven years. Before Grass VBQ, he would do vegan pop-ups with his roommate that gave him a creative outlook to share the joys of a plant-based diet with his friend and family.
“I get excitement from cooking for people. Cooking for people makes me happy. Especially if somebody eats meat and I can introduce them to an alternative that is healthier, and they can enjoy that fulfills me,” says Bumpass.
Grass VBQ is only in its third month of business, and Sargent is already thinking ahead for the next step for himself and his new company.
“We are looking for a second location. Not looking to franchise anything but honestly, stay local and not take this thing beyond what it is,” says Sargent.
“Open up a vegan fine-dining spot because there’s nothing like that here. Also, a vegan breakfast spot because there’s no vegan breakfast around here except for like one place. It’s just more so filling a need,” he says.
Ben Abrams 