About Us
For our bodies, for our planet, for the love of all animals.
Our Mission
We aim to inspire animal joy & welfare advocacy, to share the optimizing health benefits of plant-based cuisine, and to ensure you know what yummies to seek when making the transition.
We also partner with Convenience Stores & Gas Stations (such as Tanforan Shell Hangry Mart) to help transform the junk food milieu into nourishing on-the-go meals and snacks.
If you’re a C-store retailer seeking to transition, please contact Bobak.
Our Beginnings
Operation Animal Joy was born from the heart awakening of gas station owner, Bobak Bakhtiari in San Bruno, California.
An Open Letter From Our Founder
It came to me as I was transitioning a gas station food mart (previously run by my ardent steak enthusiast father) to be the first plant-based food mart in the US.
In studying nutrition and factory farming, I learned how disconnected we are from the source of our food, and how we sponsor the radical grief and misery of millions of animals annually, in the cruel methods dictated by corporate viability, everywhere, regardless of the organic label.
But on a more joyous note, I learned how plant-based diets are far more vital, healthier, have abundant disease mitigating powers, are more environmentally friendly, while honoring the freedom of the animals we share this planet with.
As a Sufi friend once said, “From every heart a door opens to God.”
At the on-the-go, petroleum fueling site, I realized an opportunity to leverage a compulsive junk food milieu as a source of nourishment and optimal health-driven vitality.
As I dove further into the research, some of it compiled on this site, and as the transition in the mart took place to healthier compassion-based foods, more and more people would reach out for guidance on meal planning and plant-based cuisine.
This site is for all those that wish to live more wholly from a place of greater self-love, a place of true love for all animals, and true love for our planet.
I know it can be very difficult to change the foods we eat and are habitually used to, but with some research, tiny steps, and the intention to bloom health and compassion, you’ll see the positive results with your energy level and in your life.
May all bloom love and the sweet joy of excavating the ever prolific compassion that the heart yearns to celebrate,
Bobak Bakhtiari
