Notes from Vegan Outreach

Sponsor Vegan Power!

Always wearing a "vegan" shirt while racing, vegan ultra-marathoner and Ohio activist extraordinaire Dan Kuzma has given information to many interested runners (as well as through the Adopt a College Program). Now, he says:

"I am always interested in finding creative ways to help raise awareness of the plight of the animals on factory farms. So I'm going to complete my first 100-mile race on June 16-17, 2007 in Ohio -- The Mohican Trail 100 Mile Race.

"For this occasion, I will dedicate each mile that I run to ending animal suffering. I need sponsors to help me achieve this goal!

"You can help by donating a quarter, fifty cents, or dollar per mile that I run to print more Vegan Outreach booklets.

"Throughout my years of leafleting, Vegan Outreach has always supplied me with enough pamphlets to distribute, even when I didn’t have much money in my pocket to offer for the booklets. This was all made possible by the generous donations of individuals like YOU! Let’s keep the ball rolling. I want to raise $7,500 towards the next printing of Why Vegan.

"I will go to the wall for the animals; please promote the cause by going to this link.

"Thanks so very much!"

Leafleting Job Opening with Vegan Outreach

Vegan Outreach has been given a grant to hire another leafleter, starting as soon as feasible. We are looking for someone who lives in or can move to the San Francisco Bay Area, Atlanta, or Dallas, in order to leaflet colleges in the local area, as well as do leafletting tours in the region. This person would also leaflet concerts, especially over the summer, and organize others to leaflet concerts over the summer. Prior leafleting experience for Vegan Outreach is, of course, a plus!

For more information, see this longer description. Please do not forward this to other lists.

Jenna Calabrese Discusses AAC on Erik's Diner

From Erik's introduction: "Vegan Outreach is probably doing more than any animal protection group out there to systematically make sure that college students find out about the realities of factory farming. Vegan Outreach needs your help. It needs your financial support -- any dollars you send them goes directly to printing this literature which farmed animals desperately need to be circulated. And as much as they need your money, Vegan Outreach needs your time. Because frankly, a person’s commitment to animals is not measured by what happened to be the fourteenth ingredient in their bagel; to me, the most important metric is whether you are taking the time to make sure that college students find it impossible to get all the way through college and graduate without being exposed to the realities of factory farming."

You can listen to Jenna's interview in the January 16 show at Vegan.com; interview starts at about minute 21.

Calling All Filmmakers, Editors, and Producers!

Compassionate Action for Animals is teaming up with Vegan Outreach to produce a new video promoting the effectiveness of leafleting. CAA and VO are currently looking for qualified camerapersons, filmmakers, editors, and producers who would like to take part in this exciting project. This will become a powerful video that will inspire countless individuals nationwide to become active for farm animals! If you are interested or would like more details, please email info@ExploreVeg.org.

Products of the Week

Marisa Miller: I want to let any other hazelnut lovers out there know about the chocolate hazelnut flavor of Whole Soy & Co frozen yogurt. In Europe, hazelnuts are as popular as peanuts are here. Finally, fans of "Haselnuss Eis" and "nocciola gelato" can now get their fix!

Also, The Washington Post finds the Real Faux Burger.

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

Feedback from Our Members

Leafleting in Philadelphia today, one man, after a long discussion with a leafletter, decided to stop eating meat and has kept in touch with the leafletter to let her know. Another highlight of the afternoon was when a family approached one of the leafletters to let him know that four or five months ago they had received a Why Vegan from us and none of them have eaten meat since!
-Nick Cooney, 1/14/07

Since you sent me the booklets, two people for sure have gone vegetarian because of the brochures, and many people have said they will greatly reduce how much meat they eat.
-Brandon, 1/18/07

At the University of South Carolina today, a nice young student named Amy took a booklet, realized what it was about, and introduced herself to me. She was very excited to see me there, already received VO's e-newsletter, etc. She joined me during her break and made her leafleting debut. She was a bit nervous at first, but felt very comfortable with leafleting by the time she had to call it quits.
-Jon Camp, 1/19/07

I have spent much of the past few years on the road doing vegan outreach with various bands and tours. One of the most effective methods of dealing with people I've found came from a tip in an old Vegan Outreach eNewsletter.
     I always get the "I could never give up chicken," (or "I could never give up ice cream") response. I reply: "Well, why not give up everything but that then?" 99% of the time, they say, "I could do that," or "I will try that." In a matter of seconds you have been able to help someone reconsider their whole diet simply by not being dogmatic, re-enforcing that it's not about being perfect, it's just about doing our best to reduce our contributions to suffering and working with them to see it's not impossible to be compassionate consumers.
     The other popular favorite reply is "Sorry, I like meat." Having an Even if you like Meat ready is perfect. I say, "I have something just for you." They generally laugh 9 out or 10 times, but still take the booklet.
     So thanks again for all the hard work and for constantly updating and adapting outreach to help others be effective catalysts for change.
-TaRa, 1/17/07

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Vegan Outreach
P.O. Box 38492
Pittsburgh, PA 15238

VO is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization; all donations are tax-deductible.