I find
it difficult to
feel responsible for the suffering
of others. That’s why I find war
so hard to bear. It's the same
with animals: I feel the less
harm I do, the lighter my heart.
I love a light heart. And when
I know I’m causing suffering,
I feel the heaviness of it. It’s
a physical pain. So it’s self-interest
that I don’t want to cause harm.
-Alice Walker, Vegetarian
Times, Jan/Feb
2008
Notes from Vegan
Outreach
 Adopt
a College Starts Hot in the Cold
Even though not all schools are
yet in session, Adopt
a College activists
across North America have already
handed out 58,365 booklets at 78
schools in 2008!
High School student Matt Ramir
leaflets in Chicago; photo by Leslie
Patterson.
You, too, can get
involved! With your
help, Vegan Outreach can reach a
million students in 2008!
Product of the Week
Adriana: Organic Light Sodium Creamy
Butternut Squash Soup made by Pacific
Natural Foods is wonderful
poured right out of the box and
heated in a microwave. Perfect for
a cold winter day when you don't
feel like cooking. Made with soy
milk and only 280 mg sodium per
cup.
Send your nominees for Product
of the Week to product
(at) veganoutreach (dot) org;
previous products can be found here.
Notes from All
Over
From The New York Times:
Last Friday, in front of 4 million
television viewers and a studio
audience, the chef Jamie Oliver
killed a chicken. Having recently
obtained a United Kingdom slaughterman’s
license, Mr. Oliver staged a "gala
dinner," in fact a kind of
avian snuff film, to awaken British
consumers to the high costs of
cheap chicken.
"A chicken is a living thing,
an animal with a life cycle, and
we shouldn't expect it will cost
less than a pint of beer in a
pub," he said Monday in an
interview. Full
story.
From The Guardian:
Which living person do you most
admire, and why?
Brigitte Bardot for defending
animals and not caring what people
say. Full
story.
Notes from Our
Members
I have found all your
information to be
truly devastating, and have made
a drastic lifestyle change.
-AA, Scranton, PA, 1/20/08
 At
the African-American universities
Clark Atlanta, Spelman,
and Morehouse, I had my best leafleting
day ever. It was absolutely amazing
-- dozens of students were visibly
moved by the lit and many said they
were going to consider going veg.
The best school I've ever leafleted
in my history of leafleting is Spelman
-- the women were so excited to
receive leaflets and thanked me
for being there. The students were
not only genuinely interested (those
who were not already veg), but among
the warmest group of folks I've
ever met. I can say with confidence
that dozens of these students will
dramatically alter their eating
habits. And this is especially great
since this is such a good university
and many of these women will be
the leaders of tomorrow. The men
at Morehouse College were hands
down the nicest men I have ever
met while leafleting. Many thanked
me for being out there and several
expressed an interest in vegetarianism.
Like Spelman and Clark Atlanta,
there were too many positive interactions
to report.
-Dawn Ratcliffe, 1/19/08
I am very appreciative
of your focus on the
overall alleviation of the suffering
of our nonhuman companions, rather
than on some notion of "vegan
purity" which is impossible
to obtain in our world today. We
have to bear the suffering, rather
than try to pretend that we can
separate ourselves from it by being
"pure."
-CR, 1/16/08
Leafleting two charter
schools (Prospect
Heights International High School
and Clara Barton High School), I
thought I had brought way too much
literature, but I ran out. One great
exchange occurred after a girl had
been flipping through the booklet
while she was waiting in the covered
bus shelter. She walked back over
to me and asked if I was a vegetarian.
I said I had been since I was nine
years old, and her eyes totally
lit up. She pointed at the brochure
and said, "This is gonna make
me be a vegetarian now, too."
I told her I was sure she could
do it, suggested that she go to
our website, mentioned a few of
my favorite restaurants and products
to buy. She smiled thoughtfully
and walked back to the bus stop.
-Jenna Calabrese, 1/18/08
At Illinois State University,
I heard from 31 vegetarians
and 4 vegans. I was approached by
a student who wanted to let me know
that originally he took the booklet
out of curiosity about what propaganda
I might be peddling. However, he
stated that he found the booklet
remarkably accurate according to
his experiences as an animal agricultural
worker. He explained that he had
worked on chicken and turkey production
operations, but had most experience
with pigs, having worked on a mega
hog farm as a culler (killer) of
piglets who were not growing quickly
enough. He apologized 3X for being
a meat eater, so I gave him my harm
reduction speech about not eating
birds, who are relatively smaller
and suffer more, I would argue,
than other farmed animals. His own
experiences with killing piglets
should be enough to keep him off
pork.
-Joe Espinosa, 1/16/08
At the University of
California, Irvine,
well over a hundred kids told me
they were veg or vegan, and even
more walking around with vegan choices
for lunch: salads, veggie rolls,
chocolate Silk. Every time I go,
there are more and more.
-Stewart Solomon, 1/15/08
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