Enewsletter

News from Vegan Outreach

Another Adopt a College Milestone!

AAC has blown past 100,000 booklets handed to students, saving more than 4,500,000 birds and mammals (and unknown aquatic animals) from horrible suffering.

We want to thank everyone who has joined up with this program, and those who support AAC with their donations. Every school day, the Adopt a College program is reaching hundreds of new people! The animals need us out there every day, not just once or twice a year. Please consider helping expand this program!

At right, Ellen Green leaflets a disembodied arm at Duquesne University as another student reads Try Vegetarian. On Sept. 16, Ellen distributed over 600 booklets at Duquesne and Carnegie Mellon.

Link of the Week: Selecting Information for Advocacy

Plea of the Week: Please Plan Ahead

Many people contact Vegan Outreach needing booklets for an imminent event. However, it can take more than three weeks for booklets to be delivered after you order; sending booklets via Priority Mail can more than triple the shipping costs. Please review your possible events for the rest of the year ASAP.

New Jersey Invaded!

Vegan Outreach's Jon Camp has arrived in New Jersey and will be leafleting colleges in the area during this fall semester. If you live in New Jersey and would like to join him, please email jon@veganoutreach.org

World Vegetarian Day Event in San Francisco: Sunday, September 26.

Jack Norris will have a Vegan Outreach table -- please stop by and say hi!

Notes from All Over

Vegetarian Sales Get Meaty

"Vegetarian food sales doubled since 1998, hitting $1.6 billion in 2003. The market is forecast to grow another 61% by 2008, according to Mintel, a global market research firm. That growth is giving an extra kick to the expanding business of organic produce and natural foods companies, and forcing mainstream food producers to scramble for a way to love veggies."

From Our Members

Taste Test at U. Minnesota:
All together, CAA distributed about 750 Why Vegans, and had at least 1,000 students and faculty try samples of vegan food. It was a beautiful day, great food, and good times. We also had about 115 pledge to be vegetarian or vegan for our 'Veg Week' coming up. I was surprised how many people checked 'currently not vegetarian,' and still pledged to be vegan for the week.
     One man came by the table and was completely amazed that the vegan food was so good. He was a great spokesperson -- an overweight middle aged guy who kept showing people his belly and saying things like 'I obviously eat my share of hamburgers, but you gotta try this food! It's unbelievable!' He was better at drawing some folks in than we were. Another person we spoke with told us he went vegetarian a week after reading a Why Vegan? that he received from us.
     Finally, the school newspaper wrote this story and published this letter.
-Gil Schwartz and Dallas Rising, Minneapolis, MN, 9/20/04

I leafleted today at the University of Arizona. I handed out 150 leaflets (all I could fit in my purse) in about 40 minutes. Next time I'll have to bring a bigger bag. Excellent, stereotype-breaking moment of the day: A rough-looking, burly U.S. Marine (in uniform) came back after receiving a Why Vegan to ask for a second one for his friend. He told me that he was a vegetarian already, so I gave him a copy of COK's Easy Vegan Recipes. He was quite happy! I also had a very positive conversation with a girl staffing the campus Republicans table. She was a vegetarian already.
-Suzanne Haws, Tucson, AZ, 9/17/04

I recently agonized over the acquisition of a new car. The price was right (they were trying to get rid of it before the end of the month), it fit our needs, it was exactly what we were looking for. But it has a leather covered steering wheel. The alternative was $2,000 more. After consulting the Vegan Outreach site and rereading some of your articles, I finally decided that the money we saved could be donated and would do more good than avoiding a leather steering wheel.
-JS, 9/17/04

Hi, I was outraged to read your Why Vegan? Boycott Cruelty! pamphlet. I honestly wish I had never picked it up. Maybe I'm OK with being ignorant of the processes that animals go through before they get to my plate. As much as that may be true, unfortunately, I can't unread it, or erase the pictures I've just seen. You've opened my eyes. It's one of those problems that we'd love to ignore, but now that I'm aware, it's pretty much impossible to disregard. I have always been very critical of the vegan lifestyle; only now do I understand that there is a lot more to it than I previously thought. I have a huge respect for your organization, and I am definitely going to get involved in any way I can.
-AP, 9/16/04

I am 13 years old, and I got your Why Vegan? Pamphlet at the Vans Warped Tour. When I read “Not Your Childhood Image” by Lauren Ornelas, I cried. Somehow, I pulled myself together and finished the pamphlet. Please send me more information – I would love to try being vegetarian. I can barely live with myself now because of this extreme cruelty.
-ML, Jacksonville, FL, 9/14/04

Vegan Outreach is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to reducing the suffering of farmed animals by promoting informed, ethical eating. All donations are tax-deductible. Vegan Outreach POB 30865, Tucson, AZ 85751-0865