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Enewsletter • November 18, 2009 | ||||||||||||||
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A lot
of curious and/or enthusiastic
recipients during my tenth trip to the University
of Arizona: “Oh yeah!” “Really?
Great!” “Of course!” “Whatcha
got?” “I’ll take a look.”
A lot of people said they got one before, including:
“Got one last year – now I’m a vegetarian!”
“I have that, it made me cry.” Two
couples and three others were thrilled to get
Guides.
Notes from Vegan OutreachLink of the Week: Newsletter!
Vegan Outreach’s 2009 print newsletter is now available online (PDF). Articles include: “Summer Distro: Hot! Hot! Hot!”; “Letter to a Young Matt”; “Team Vegan: The Cutting Edge!”; and “Adopt a College Amazes! Over One Million Students in One School Year!” If you’d like to learn more about Vegan Outreach, please take a moment to peruse this annual summary. To receive a hard copy for yourself, or copies to distribute in your area, please contact us! The newsletter also has more details about the amazing $70,000 end-of-year matching challenge. Right now, your fully tax-deductible contribution will be matched, dollar-for-dollar! Please consider making a special donation to this challenge – your support will go twice as far towards a veg world. In the newsletter – and below – you can read some of the payoff of the work we accomplish together! You can use a credit card to make a secure donation online, or send a check or money order to: Vegan Outreach | POB 30865 | Tucson, AZ 85751 You’ll be glad you did!
Products of the Week
Mame: “I recently discovered Daiya vegan cheese, available from Pangea. It’s hands-down the best vegan cheese available. The flavor is delicious, and it melts to stretchy perfection. My friends and I had a big pizza night last night, and Daiya was a hit!” Christine: “I am just in love with Amy’s soups! They are organic and most are vegan. The lentil vegetable is to die for!” Send your product of the week to product (at) veganoutreach (dot) org; previous entries here.
Notes from All OverJonathan Safran Foer on the Need for Focused Outreach to Students“For someone like my grandmother – frankly, for a lot of people – I don’t really push it. I think for people who are still forming their habits, like high school students or college students, that kind of willed ignorance is lame at best and something much worse because they’re most able to change. They’re the ones who are ultimately going to have to foot the bill of factory farming and are more required to do the uncomfortable thinking that a 90-year-old doesn’t.” Full interview.
Lightning Round
Notes from Our Members
I was
stunned to read your booklet! It
is hard to believe – those poor animals!
Thank you for making such information known.
When I visit Delaware, there are so many
chicken “farms” that really smell.
Can you send me as many booklets as you can,
so I’ll be able to spread the word? Our experience
at Duke was notable because of
the great many professionals who accepted a
booklet, including administrators, professors
from the divinity school and other departments,
and doctors and nurses from the university hospital.
Rob also had the awesome experience of giving
a Compassionate Choices booklet to
a female student who returned an hour later,
saying that she had read the booklet during
lunch and was going vegetarian. “It is
so terrible what they do to animals. I’m going
vegetarian.” So there it is, one more
example of the hugely positive impact that Vegan
Outreach is having across the nation and throughout
the world! At Marist College,
I heard students later in the day commenting
to their friends: “OMG I read that in
class, it’s terrible”; “Oh I got
that last time you were here.” An environmental
professor took a leaflet and mentioned that
he talks about factory farming to all of his
classes and shows them pictures, so he was glad
to see me distributing leaflets. Quite a few
students mentioned being vegetarian in the past
and wanting to try it again, many had questions
about being vegan. It was a very positive trip!
I finally
had the chance to leaflet with
Rick Hershey at Northwestern. The highlight
for me was when two young men came up to ask
a bunch of questions. Eventually, a third man,
intrigued, joined in. They were truly hearing
me out, accepting my good points, and I think
that at least one of them was having a bunch
of “aha” moments. I ended with my
typical bit about how for me it ultimately comes
to the fact that when we eat meat we might get,
say, this much pleasure (as I spread my thumb
and forefinger about an inch apart) and we
inflict, say, this much suffering (as I spread
my hands about a yard apart). It’s very simple
and it seems to resonate with others.
Great
day at Pasadena City College.
Students at this school are so inquisitive,
always want to ask sincere questions. Two told
me they were working on starting a student group,
several asked about what they could do to stop
this treatment of animals. One said, “Ah
yes, one more reason to really stop eating meat
for good.” Another student stopped to
get another flyer since his classmate took his.
Students
at Anoka Ramsey Community College
were excited to get the leaflets saying, “Absolutely!”
“Thanks for being here!” “Fabulous!”
“It’s so exciting that you’re here!”
At Dakota County Technical College, one woman
told me, “I got one of those last year.
Now I don’t eat meat.” Met a
couple of vegans / vegetarians
/ supporters within the first 20 minutes at
Truckee Meadows Community College (Reno, NV).
Jesse Melgar was able to help out for a while.
He started off a little hesitant but was rockin’
and rollin’ within minutes, and told me
he was surprised at how receptive students were.
It seemed like he had a lot of friends on campus
and they all accepted leaflets when they ran
into him.
Today
we had a great team at Royal Melbourne
Institute of Technology. We got out 400 booklets
in a lunchtime, an amazing success considering
a lot of students aren’t in school at the moment.
Driving home, a woman noticed my “Boycott
Cruelty – Go Vegan” bumper sticker.
She rolled down her window and asked if I had
materials. We both pulled over to a parking
spot, and I gave her Why
Vegan? booklets for
herself and her friends. I switched
my day off and took a vacation
day in order to cover schools in northwest Ohio.
At the University of Toledo, a young man
said he had tried to go veg before but felt
like he was not getting enough protein. I gave
him a Guide and he thanked me enthusiastically
saying, “I have been thinking I needed
something like this!” Also overheard some
girls saying the booklet made them cry. At Bowling
Green, a young man came up and said he does
not eat animals but what is wrong with dairy?
I filled him in and he gladly took a Guide.
Later on he came back to thank me again for
the booklet, said he was moved by it, that it
is very well written and researched, and he
wants to get involved with activism. Gave him A
Meaningful Life
and encouragement.
At the
University of Illinois, Urbana,
I encountered 1,200 students ready to learn
more of the truth about what today’s farmed
animals go through. This school is a testimony
to the power of persistence. I have worked this
school each semester since the beginning (2003)
and have seen reception and genuine interest
in the animals’ plight increase each year; antagonism
towards me and scoffing at the issue decrease
each year. Being present consistently and repeatedly,
and giving the students room and time to warm
up, that they might take a look at the issue
when they are ready, seems prudent. Letter
to a Young Matt in your newsletter
was great. It reminds me of how influenced I
was by (the original version of this essay) back in the mid-90s. I hope
it gets wide distribution.
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Vegan Outreach is a 501(c)(3)
nonprofit organization dedicated to
reducing the suffering of farmed animals
by promoting informed, ethical eating.
Vegan Outreach
POB 30865, Tucson, AZ 85751-0865
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