With her bubbly personality and strong commitment to her community, Kristina Carrillo-Bucaram is a leader in the raw vegan movement and an inspiration to thousands of people.
At the age of 20, Bucaram founded the non-profit organization Rawfully Organic. Based in Houston, Rawfully Organic is now the nation’s largest raw organic farmer’s market co-operative, and it may soon be expanding to Dallas.
“Rawfully Organic is basically a hub for all of the farmers to come and bring their food, and I purchase from them and then we figure out a way to evenly distribute it amongst everyone in the co-op,” Bucaram said.
The co-op is entirely volunteer-run, and feeds 700 families a week in Houston and has 15,000 registered members.
“We get lower prices on the best quality produce and we’re still coming together as a community to share it which is really important because then people get to know one another.”
Bucaram said she is hoping to bring Rawfully Organic to Dallas by this December or in January of next year. She said that she wants to put it in an area where many people could access it. Bringing the co-op to Dallas will also help support local farmers.
Bucaram became a raw vegan as she was entering college and has been eating a diet made up of raw fruits, vegetables and minimal nuts and seeds for the past
eight years.
“Believe it or not, but I went cold turkey in one night, and I never went back,” she said.
It takes a lot of guts to live an alternative lifestyle in college. But Bucaram said she was never concerned about “standing in.”
“Just being in a dorm room with a little blender and a little fridge was probably more powerful of a life changing experience for me than anything else,”
Bucaram said.
However, Bucaram said that it was financially difficult to eat fully raw while in college.
“I lived off of bananas, pears and lettuce for like a year because I had like 80 bucks a week. And yes it was awesome and it was possible and it was really great,” she said.
For students who are just trying to eat healthier in general, Bucaram recommends having a smoothie or juice drink for breakfast, fruit at lunch and a big salad with dinner.
For people interested in learning more about a raw vegan diet, Bucaram also created a YouTube channel called Fully Raw. The YouTube channel now has a website and has expanded to Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.
