Notes from Vegan Outreach

College Outreach Hits Japan

Juan Carlos Ulribe (seen here leafleting at Chiba University) has created a Japanese equivalent of Why Vegan. For starters, he printed 1,000 booklets and created a website: www.veganjp.org.

Amazing Pace Continues

From the Nov. 3 update of the Adopt a College website:

Pamphlets handed out this semester: 231,890
Last fall at this time: 128,038

We are now 100,000+ pamphlets above last year's pace!
607 different schools have been leafleted since AAC started.

New Leafleting Opportunity

Marisa Miller: "I saw a special preview of Fast Food Nation and was so excited to see a mainstream movie about the issue we're all devoted to. It was refreshing to hear *stars* such as Greg Kinnear and Avril Lavigne talking about poop in meat, line speeds in slaughterhouses, and activists being classified as terrorists thanks to the Patriot Act. And to show live slaughter in a commercial movie theater -- I thought it would never happen. I brought a few Try Vegetarians, which audience members around me gladly took. Then in the ladies room I overheard people talking about how disgusted they were and bragging about how little meat they eat. I'm thinking of standing outside of theaters after showings and passing out Try Vegetarians."

Product Source of the Week

HQ: VegieWorld is a great source of frozen vegetarian meats, even though their website is somewhat confusing. The foods we've ordered shipped quickly and arrived still frozen. The drumsticks were too spooky for one of us, and would be great for any gathering of meat-eaters. A friend reports that the shrimp is also incredible.

Send your nominees for Product of the Week to product (at) veganoutreach (dot) org; previous products can be found here.

Notes from All Over

Food for Thought Podcast

Colleen Patrick-Godreau, of Compassionate Cooks, has a series of podcasts entitled Vegetarian Food for Thought. You can listen via iTunes, or through this feedburner feed.

Notes from Our Members

At Cal State Los Angeles Wednesday, I was noticing that acceptance rates and general friendliness tends to go up the more we leaflet a college. I started to realize that much of this is because the students' entire impression of what an animal activist is changes as a result of us being there, dressing nicely, being polite, and appearing intelligent.
     Today at Cal State Fullerteon, a student told me she was "deeply moved" by the booklet she had received from me last week. She had always eaten meat and never gave it any thought and had no idea what was going on. I gave her a GCFE.
-Stewart Solomon, 11/3/06

A pair of advocates visited Cortland 2 weeks ago. I, like many it seems, was reluctant to accept a flier from them. I read it thoroughly, was moved by it, then copied it, shared it, talked about it, etc. The Even if You Like Meat pamphlet put me on the path that does not involve the consumption of products resulting from animal cruelty. I would like to thank you for fueling this initiative to end suffering, and all who carry its message.
-Professor Z, 11/2/06

Body of Animal Rights Campaigners (BARC, at the University of Central Florida) set up a haunted house on campus that people walked through as we told them everything about factory farming (the slogan: "America's REAL Haunted House"). We also made little "trick or treat" bags filled with vegan candy and an Even If pamphlet inside each one that we gave to everyone who left the haunted house, and to a bunch of people walking by. After we ran out of the nearly 280 goodie bags, we just started passing out more Even Ifs and Why Vegans. I personally had many lengthy and thoughtful conversations with people about veganism and factory farming. I know we got through to a number of them.
-Sara Beniamino, 11/1/06

For World Vegan Day, our University of Victoria Vegan Association tabled while I stood elsewhere on campus and leafleted for a few hours. The booklets I've been distributing at UVic over the past years are having a measurable impact on many students' choices. Each time I hand out booklets at UVic, I learn that more and more students who have received a booklet in the past now choose foods that embody little or no suffering. Today these replies ranged from "I'm vegetarian", "I'm vegan", "I'm not vegan, but I would like to be," and "I got a booklet from you before and now I don't eat pigs."
-John Bowers, 11/1/06

Today, I leafleted Sam Houston U, Montgomery College, and North Harris Montgomery College. As I was ready to leave the latter, a student ran over and asked me to give a speech for a psychology class. I gave an impromtu speech hitting on the major issues and answered some questions. It went really well, got some great feedback and mature questions and provided good answers.
-Casey Constable, 10/31/06

At Wentworth Institute of Technology today, I had this exchange with two students:
     Me: Brochure on animal cruelty?
     Student A: Why should I care about that?
     Student B: (Jumps in before I can even respond) Because it's important! This is what we are eating, and it's gross. You should know about this. (Grabs two brochures, one for herself and one for the other student, and the two walk away discussing the information.)
     At MIT on Halloween, I encountered two students who had received an EI back in September and had consequently gone vegetarian (high-five, Jason!) and two more students who received an EI today and had consequently had an all-vegan lunch. At one point, a group of middle school kids came by with their parents, and I leafleted some of them; I felt a little bad about potentially offending them with the graphic images in the EI until they came running back to me later, saying that they were all vegetarian and wanted ''some of the recipe books'' I was giving out.
-Jenna Calabrese, 11/2/06

I, myself, know of 5 people who became vegan after reading your Why Vegan booklet.
-via MySpace, 10/28/06

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