Enewsletter
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Enewsletter • May 11, 2011 | ||||||||||||||||||||
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Notes from Vegan Outreach
Huge New Record!Already this semester, Adopt a College activists have handed VO booklets directly to 636,615 students at campuses across the country, a huge leap forward from the previous spring-term record of 547,220! VO was able to print and distribute the booklets handed to all these individuals because of the donors who stepped up and contributed to the end-of-year matching campaign. Even as activists are still reaching new people every day, we’re looking ahead to the fall semester. The number of new students we reach depends on how many booklets we can print and ship. And that depends on you! Do you want more people to learn the truth and to start taking action for the animals? Do you want to create more and more vegetarians standing up for what’s right and providing the animals a voice? Then please, be a part of Team Vegan 2011! You can still register to be an official member of the team – details at the Team Vegan site. Or you can donate today, and your contribution will be doubled, dollar for dollar! You can contribute to the Team’s general fund, one of our amazing leafleters (like Fred Tyler, our man up North, and the “Help Stop Violence” guy), or Sherlock the Doggie and Team Vegan Cat. So what are you waiting for? Be a part of it today!
From “Your Daily Dose of Vegan Outreach!” & Jack Norris RD Blogs
Product of the WeekDeborah: “Upton’s Naturals Italian sausage-style seitan is awesome! After browning it, I couldn’t resist eating it right out of the pan. The taste and texture blew me away. Faux meats can be so disappointing at times, but this one rocks! I added it to spaghetti sauce, and even my non-veg Italian husband had to agree that it was fantastic. They make other products which I will be trying soon!” Please submit your nominees for product of the week via this page; previous entries here.
Notes from Our Members
Cassandra
and I reached 2,612 students at
the Borough of Manhattan Community College.
Despite the new record for this campus, we had
the lowest rate of leaflets getting thrown on
the ground and in the trash since I began leafleting
this campus. Take rate was huge, and we heard
just tons of great responses. Lots of students
requested extras for presentations and projects.
Things are looking up and attitudes are most
certainly shifting! I
met 5 vegans and 12 vegetarians
at the University of Minnesota, Duluth. One woman
said she had been vegan for a while but stopped
because her partner started eating meat again.
She liked our approach and was excited to get
a Guide
so she could move back towards a veg diet. One
guy took a booklet, and I heard his friend tell
him: “It’s terrible reading, but it’s good
for you.” John,
Brian, and I had a day of fantastic
outreach at the University of Toronto, Mississauga.
Two different women said they were now going
vegetarian.
At
the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign,
the first person I offered the booklet to stated
that she was a vegetarian, and the second person
I offered the booklet to stated that he was
vegan. Heard from a bunch more. Just before
I left, a student let me know that getting the
booklet from me in the past had moved him to
decrease his meat consumption. Kate
and I reached 1,600 students at
the University of Maryland, College Park. One
student said, “I’ve never seen so many
people reading a handout before. This is insane!” Cold,
cloudy day at Western Connecticut State,
but Aleta and I had great interactions. A guy
Aleta leafleted came to talk to me, saying he
had been vegan but stopped because of B12 deficiency.
I told him about supplements, and discussed
how easy it would be for him to return to eating
vegan. He said he would try again! Aleta had
a student say, “I was just thinking about
this this morning because I got one of these
leaflets last semester.” He took another
one. Another student received a booklet last semester
and spoke with Aleta about how it affected him,
and how the animal cruelty is awful. One guy
took a booklet and then came back for a dozen
more to give to friends! Two students walked
by Aleta, one took a pamphlet and one said no.
The student who accepted said, “Yes he does,
and I will carry his!” 25
of us saturated Phoenix’s First Friday Art Walk
in what may be the biggest VO
leafleting ever! Reached almost 4,000 people,
got great feedback and had many productive conversations.
Two separate women told us they went vegetarian
after getting the booklet last year, one said
it was “life changing.” One guy was
happy to get all our booklets, saying he’d been
looking for information like it for the longest
time.
At
Florida A&M, Darina and I
had students approach us and ask for a booklet,
saying that their professor had brought up the
booklet in class. I had a nice encounter with
a woman, who, upon taking a booklet, asked
if this was going to make her go vegetarian
or vegan. I explained it wasn’t an all-or-nothing
proposition. She said that she didn’t want to
look at those pictures because they made her
sad, and handed it back to me. I replied that
it was certainly her choice to read it or not,
but I felt it was very important as consumers
to know what we are supporting when we spend
our hard-earned dollars. She ended up taking
the booklet back, saying that she would read
through it. We
had great conversations today,
with many saying how much our literature has
influenced their food choices. One person even
went into the deli, read through our literature,
and decided not to order anything in the deli! While
leafleting the volleyball tournament,
one of the girls told me that she has now been
a vegetarian for two years as a result of having
received a pamphlet. When I gave her a Guide,
all her teammates requested a Guide,
too. Great
conversations at Richland College.
One young woman said that she was now seriously
considering changing her diet as a result of
the booklet. A former vegetarian member of the faculty
was very interested in the materials and liked
VO’s approach. And a number of people asked
about getting active! I
heard from more vegetarians / vegans than
ever before at the University of Arizona –
lost count of how many said, “I already
have it (the booklet) and I’m veg / don’t eat
meat.”
At
El Camino College, Yvonne, Jennifer,
and I reached 2,700+ students. Too many amazing
stories to report; a sampling: Great
day at Solano Community College
and Napa Valley College. I told the first two people
I saw how compassionate they looked
and that they probably loved animals. It turned
into a five-minute conversation with one woman saying,
“I think I’m going to try and give
up meat.”
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