Philly Students Dig Into PETA’s Vegan Kitchen Competition

For Immediate Release:
November 11, 2026

Contact:
Sara Groves 202-483-7382

Parfaits were piled high and friendly rivalries heated up yesterday as 30 Philadelphia students went head-to-head in a vegan dessert showdown at Excel Academy Central. Hosted by the school’s 2026 Teacher of the Year, Mike Tori, and TeachKind, PETA’s humane education division, the competition challenged six teams of five to create the tastiest parfait using vegan puddings, cakes, brownies, granola, fruit, and more. Students and staff sampled the finished creations and crowned a winning team, whose members scored PETA prizes and bragging rights, while everyone discovered just how sweet choosing vegan can be for animals. Photos and video of Tuesday’s event are available here.   

“The competition was fierce, the parfaits were sweet, and no cow or chicken had to pay the price,” says PETA Senior Vice President Colleen O’Brien. “PETA’s TeachKind is delighted to show students that choosing vegan is a piece of cake and a sweet deal for everyone, including animals.”

Tori currently teaches special education at Excel Academy Central and regularly brings humane education into his classroom—for example, in math classes, using exponents to explore the growth of unsterilized cat populations, and in geometry, to show how elephants’ large ears help their bodies stay cool. When he taught a TeachKind lesson using Kind Frog—an ethically dissectible silicone-based frog—students were so engaged that some wanted to skip other classes to participate, and for months afterward they discussed why animals shouldn’t be harmed or dissected. And in this week’s parfait challenge, students learned that, unlike dairy-based foods, vegan varieties let calves stay with their mothers and are free of cholesterol and saturated animal fat. Dairy-free options can also make treats more accessible to students who are lactose intolerant or have dairy allergies.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information about PETA’s humane education resources, please visit TeachKind.org or follow TeachKind on Facebook and Instagram.