August 26, 2026
To do good every day, eat plant-based food
By Joy Rojas
If Betty Dizon’s goal is to get more people to eat plant-based food, she appears to be on the right track. At Tzu Chi Philippines’s vegan food bazaar on August 22 and 23 at the Buddhist Tzu Chi Campus in Sta. Mesa, Manila, her food stall Yeemi (pronounced “ee-mee”) was bustling with customers at all hours, drawing everyone from the hungry lunchtime crowd to families and friends looking for a satisfying mid-afternoon snack.
Yeemi sells Hapi Chicky, plant-based chicken inspired by Taiwan’s crunchy, deep-fried chicken cutlets. Dizon’s animal-free version achieves its chicken taste and texture through a combination of soy protein, rice paper, oats, breadcrumbs, vegan mushroom flavor, vegan chicken flavor, and your choice of Taipei salt and pepper, Seoul spicy, or cheesy truffle seasoning. Complement your order of Hapi Chiki with cooling kimchi or a cold glass of plum, watermelon, or mango lemonade.
Yeemi, which also has a food spot in Benavidez Street, Binondo, Manila, is one of several youth innovation startups from the Asia-Pacific chosen as a finalist in the 9th Vision Future Incubator in Taiwan.
As Taiwan's first philanthropy and public welfare incubator, funded and initiated by the Tzu Chi Foundation in collaboration with partners like Impact Hub Taipei, Vision Future Incubator offers finalists valuable mentorship, specialized training, network resources, and a grant to support their projects with social impact aligned with the United Nations’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals.
Besides encouraging plant-based eating, Dizon is coming up with a special menu to promote “Double the Goodness,” a campaign that will allow eaters to save, share, and donate. For “save,” she wants to make plant-based food more affordable to the masses. For “share,” she invites diners to try plant-based eating with a friend, “so more people can do goodness together,” she said.
For “donate,” she plans to distribute 1,000 plant-based meals to underprivileged youth. “We will also do a mini sharing or workshop for them to understand why we’re giving them plant-based meals instead of the usual food,” she said.
Dizon was exposed to the benefits of vegetarianism when she joined a camp for Tzu Chi Youth in 2014. “Other than compassion, love for animals, and love for the planet, it’s about creating good karma and having good affinity,” she explained. She became a vegetarian in 2017 and vegan two years later.
“For me, it’s the easiest way to do something good every day,” explained Dizon of her passion for vegetarianism. “We consume food every day, and unconsciously, just by eating [plant-based], we are already doing something good for the environment, for animals, and for ourselves.”
A desire to build her own social enterprise led to Yeemi, whose name is based on “Yi” meaning virtuous (the Dharma name she received when she was certified a Tzu Chi commissioner) and “Mi” for Myanmar, a reference to the poor farmers who each day saved handfuls of rice donated by Tzu Chi so they could share them with others affected by a devastating storm.
“A little goodness can create good impact,” she said. “With Yeemi’s products, people who like them will realize that they’re plant-based, and maybe one day, they will be inspired to become vegetarian.”
As the person behind Yeemi, Tzu Chi volunteer Betty Dizon is hands-on in the preparation of Hapi Chicky, her crunchy, plant-based, deep-fried chicken cutlets.
A refreshing glass of iced plum lemonade is the perfect complement to Yeemi’s savory plant-based chicken cutlets.
Yeemi’s goal is to get more people to eat plant-based food, which Betty Dizon considers an easy and simple way to do a good deed / Courtesy of Yeemi Facebook page.
Good weather prevailed over the weekend event, allowing visitors to enjoy freshly cooked vegan meals in a canopy-covered dining area at the Plaza.