Chicago’s Veg Café

Vegan Café offers Georgia-peach smoothies, zucchini wraps, pecan pie, and more to diners in Lockport, Ill., a suburb of Chicago. The vegan restaurant, owned by Linda Merkle and Laurie Sloan, is the first in Will County and serves as a part of Solan’s Thanks Jordan Foundation, a nonprofit that helps families of children fighting cancer. Solan, a cancer survivor, has been a vegan for about six years and has been volunteering for 12. All workers at Vegan Café are volunteers for the organization, and proceeds from the café go to families in need at the Hope Children’s Hospital.