Enewsletter
 |
Enewsletter • May 30, 2012 | ||||||||||||||
 |
 |
||||||||||||||
Notes from Vegan Outreach
Go, Vegan, Go!Team Vegan members have now raised over half of the $85,000 matching challenge! Thanks to everyone for your efforts to help the animals! This week, we’d like to highlight more of the leafleters on the Team: Laura, Joel Badeaux, Cathy Berlot, Ava Bivens, Audrey Caplan, Kellie Cupcake, Erin Gaines, Laura Hart, Melody Hodges, Zubair Hussaini, Dan Kuzma, Todd Lee, Heather Leughmyer, Lesley Parker-Rollins, Darren Roth, Lisa Shapiro, Queenie Tsui. These dedicated volunteers are working hard to make sure that, during next semester, they and other VO activists reach as many new people as possible! You can make a tax-deductible contribution to any of these members (or the people in the feedback section below, or via the Team Vegan general donations page). And your donation will be doubled, dollar for dollar! So please, click over to TeamVegan.biz, support a team member, and help take the animals’ message to more people! Thanks so much!
From “Your Daily Dose of Vegan Outreach!” & Jack Norris RD Blogs
Product of the WeekTeam Vegan member Katie Pryor: “I just used soy feta ‘cheese’ by Sunergia Soyfoods to make vegan lasagna. Amazing! I got it at Whole Foods, but it’s also available online.” Please submit your nominees for product of the week via this page; previous entries here.
Notes from Our Members
What a day at
Southern Maine Community College! A hunter came over to thank me for
the information. He said he doesn’t buy any store-bought meat because
he doesn’t agree with factory farming. He was very nice and wished
me luck with my outreach. Later, another hunter (who called himself a “big-time”
hunter) said that the information in the leaflet looked interesting.
He politely asked for a 2nd leaflet to show to a friend. A man who looked
like a faculty member walked by and said, “People ARE reading that!” A
different man who also looked like a faculty member smiled and said, “Ah
yes.” A girl said the leaflet was being discussed in her class.
A different girl said, “This is great! I’m writing a paper
about this topic.” Two people in cars stopped, rolled down their
windows and asked for a leaflet. A cheerful vegan girl thanked me for
being there and said, “Don’t ever get discouraged if people are
mean. You’re doing a good thing. I know the cruelty information is difficult
and can ‘smother the soul,’ but keep up the good work.” A
man (who earlier stopped to talk about the discouraging disconnection
people have from food production) gave thumbs up and said, “Persevere!” Sparks always fly at
Citrus College. A new vegan was excited to get a Guide and
get connected to the local vegan community. In the midst of other conversations,
a young woman comes back with her booklet asking for four more for her
coworkers. She works at
[a fast-food restaurant], where she and her colleagues are getting
sick. They’re realizing now why their own managers won’t eat that crap.
So thank you, golden arches, for churning out future vegetarians.
Long and productive
day at the University of Louisiana, Lafayette, where Victoria
and I reached 2,478 students. At one point, I saw about three dozen
waiting to cross a street, all reading their booklets. Lisa and I reached
over 950 students during this beautiful day at Rutgers!
Many people reading and discussing the booklet, including two I watched
read it cover to cover! Several good conversations, and students
interested in helping out in the future. Great chats with
students at Idaho State. For example, I spoke with
a girl who lived at home and whose dad pulled the “for every
animal you don’t eat, I’ll eat two” nonsense on her. She has
been trying to be vegetarian for as long as she can remember, and
gets so much criticism for it, but she told me she’s not giving up;
and even though it’s taking her a while, she hopes to cut out all
animal products from her diet in the next year. I told her how awesome
she was, and that she is making a huge difference for animals, no
matter what her dad says or does. We laughed, we cried, we shared
my Clif Bar. Switching to “Help
end modern-day slavery” upped the take rate to
about 60–70% today at the University of Connecticut. Good, wide-ranging
conversations, and many students reading. One student came back after
reading her Even If You Like Meat, and talked about wanting
to be a vegetarian. I gave her a Guide; later, she came
back again to get copies of Even If to distribute in her
dorm!
Great day at
Lock Haven University and Mansfield University – schools that have
been hardly touched in the past. One young woman came up to say she’s been
needing a push, and that she’s read the booklet and is now going
to attempt to go veg. We have also received an email from a student who
received a booklet and now wants to get involved in outreach. Within an hour at
Moraine Valley Community College, two separate people came up who were
interested in going vegetarian. Another student asked about going veg
and getting active for animals. Later on, a student told me she had seen
the booklet in class and was considering making changes. Another instructor
told me he was using the booklet as an example in his persuasive writing
class. Then a very muscular student told me he was vegetarian. Southern Polytechnic
State was only my third time leafleting and my first
solo venture. I must admit I was pretty nervous pulling into the
parking lot. But one student, after looking over the booklet, sent
me to a better leafleting spot, and I was quickly able to set a record
for the school. The take rate was really high and students were pleasant;
I only wish I had brought more! I can’t wait to get out there on
my own again!
|
|||||||||||||||
