It was a good, old-fashioned barbecue — without the meat.

Local vegetarians and a few omnivores feasted Saturday on grilled Boca Burgers and soy dogs, potato chips and vegan cheesecake during the Great American Meatout.

A few hundred people gathered in South Park to enjoy the weather and make a statement on the annual day, which is nationally sponsored by the Farm Animal Reform Movement and locally organized by Animal Outreach of Kansas.

Now in its 19th year, the meatout is the world’s largest and oldest annual grassroots diet education campaign.

The hope in Lawrence is to raise awareness about the lifestyle, said Megan Fobes, a local organizer.

She said she believed eating meat led to health problems, cruelty to animals and ecological damage.

Plus, she said, “vegan food is very yummy.”

Animal Outreach played host to a smaller meatout last year at the library, Fobes said, but the group’s membership has increased, and it hoped to raise money at the free event through donations.

The outdoor venue seemed to draw a bigger crowd. A line stretched across the park as a woman in a cow costume beckoned passing cars to stop.

Skylar Denooyer, 2, left, his brother, Morey, 3 1/2, and his mother, Heather, eat vegetarian food in South Park. The Denooyers picnicked Saturday in the park among others gathered to eat food provided by Animal Outreach of Kansas. The event celebrated the Great American Meatout, which encourages a meat-free diet.

Shanon and Jeff Fouquet drove from Topeka to attend the meatout.

Vegetarians for three years, Shanon Fouquet said she hoped the event got “some people thinking.”

“Just educate yourself,” she said. “If you learn all about it and you still want to eat meat, at least you know what’s going on.”

A lot of people assume vegetarians only eat lettuce and carrots, but that’s not the case, her husband said.

Still, the couple who recently moved to Topeka from Hays, said they had never had barbecued tofu, something of a specialty at the meatout.

But Jeff Fouquet laughed.

“Being out in western Kansas, we’re kind of out of the loop,” he said.