Enewsletter

This issue is sponsored by The Vegetarian Site:

I support Vegan Outreach because of their single-minded focus on saving as many animals as possible from the horrors of modern agribusiness. Every day, Vegan Outreach strives to be more efficient and effective; every day, Vegan Outreach activists are out there, creating real, lasting change.
—Rory Freedman, #1 New York Times best-selling coauthor of Skinny Bitch

	After getting an Even If You Like Meat at MSU Bozeman, Danny is going vegan!

Notes from Vegan Outreach

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From “Your Daily Dose of Vegan Outreach!” & Jack Norris RD Blogs

• Is Being a Vegetarian Important? Part 1
• Is Being a Vegetarian Important? Part 2
• Looking Forward from a Historical Perspective

Notes from Our Members

Kendra, Lacey, and I reached nearly 3,000 students at Cal Poly Pomona. One student took the booklet, smiled, and said, “What, you want me to leave the matrix?” Had professors stop to take extra booklets for their classes, including one who teaches nutrition. Said numerous students in her class are vegan – woohooo!! Heard from four vegans and lost count of the vegetarians. They were also serving veggie dogs at their “Hot Dog Caper.”

     Alexandra [right], Vietly [above], Jessica, and Kassy joined me for the first day of classes at UCLA. The 4th booklet I handed out was to a young woman who yelled, “Oh yay, I was in Ms. Quesada’s class at Santa Monica College, you gave a presentation there last semester!!! I quit eating meat and am so inspired. Thank you sooo much!!!” She hugged me and thanked me profusely!!
—Nikki Benoit, 9/27/12

Jennifer and I reached over 1,700 students at Long Island University and the New York Institute of Technology. One student was loudly moaning when she read the Even If You Like Meat: “Oh no, no, no. How can this be?”
     One student said his father is vegetarian, and he was curious about what it was all about. Our discussion and reading the Even If You Like Meat led him to commit to cutting back on half of his consumption of animal products, and signing up to help get better food options in the cafeteria.
     Another student said, “I got one. I like meat. Don’t make me look at any more of this.” I said that he must be a pretty compassionate guy, or it would not disturb him so much. I explained how I was there, and others around the country go to campuses around the country, to educate, and then reduce as much suffering as possible. I asked him if he thought he could cut back on his consumption of animal products one day a week, then 2, then maybe more. His eyes lit up, and he replied, “I can do that!”
—Karen James, 9/24/12

Rick Hershey snapped this pic of Luella Berg handing out Even If You Like Meat at Southeast Missouri State. Luella has reached more than 3,350 students this semester!

Tremendous interest from faculty and staff members at Flagler College, including one business ethics professor who is going to talk about the Compassionate Choices in his class, and an administrator who was very happy to hear that students were interested in the info. The bookstore manager even put a stack of CCs at the checkout counter. One student who sometimes falls off the veg wagon said the booklet will get her back on track. Two students said they got one last semester, with one of them pledging to delve into this issue and the other having already made changes. Another student said he read the booklet and wanted to know what he could do. I said he could start by cutting his meat consumption in half and then go from there, and he said that was something he could do.
—Dawn Ratcliffe, 9/24/12

At Champlain College, a student who had given up eating pork needed help giving up the rest; he got encouragement and a Guide. During the first 10 minutes of leafleting at St. Michael’s College, I overheard two different students telling their friends, “This is why I don’t eat meat!”
     Today at the University of Vermont, a guy let me know that he went vegetarian after receiving a leaflet from me two years ago! He’s not quite vegan yet but working on it. He got a Guide and I got a photo of him [left]. He said he wanted to let me know that the outreach really does work!
     The day was good with several good conversations. Unfortunately, there were some students who set up a table to promote the dairy industry. (Vermont loves its dairy industry.) They even brought a little calf with them on a leash. Students flocked around the cute calf, took photos, etc. I’m glad I was there to offer a deeper glimpse into animal ag. I looked at the calf and silently said, “I’m doing this for you, little one.”
—Lana Smithson, 9/28/12

At the University of Kentucky, I reached over 3,000 students and had several conversations with ag students. As I combated one student’s claims, I felt bad, as her bottom lip started to quiver – and quivered more intensively as the conversation went on. She said that in her ag classes, they’re accepting that practices such as battery cages and gestation crates are going to eventually be of the past, and current ag students are preparing for different practices than go on now. We parted on very friendly terms, shaking hands, and genuinely wishing each other well.
     Not all my conversations were with ag students. I had a number of people mention how sad the booklet was. And towards the end, a young woman came up to let me know that she was planning on going veg as a result of the booklet. This is the third out of four days where someone came up to me towards the end of the day to let me know they were going veg as a result of getting leafleted that day. It’s been the nice cool drink at the end of a hot day of toil.
—Jon Camp, 9/27/12

After getting an Even If You Like Meat, the PCC student on the left is going veg – and her friend seemed interested, too!

Started slow at Hostos Community College, but in the end, Nathan and I reached over 1,000 students. Amazing conversations, too! For example, two women decided right then they were going to go veg and get veggie burgers for lunch.
—Katie Pryor, 9/29/12

Paulette made the long drive to meet me, and we had a great day of outreach at the University of South Carolina, Benedict College, and Allen University! Many productive conversations. Paulette talked with James who was very interested and had lots of questions. Vaughn pledged to go vegetarian and eventually vegan. Another student said he used the booklet to write a research paper last semester.
—Jeff Boghosian, 9/27/12

Thanks to Javier and Lauren for leafleting with me early on my trip. In three days, I was at Portland Community College, Mt. Hood CC, Clackamas CC, Chemeketa CC, and Lane CC. Too many good conversations to relate them all. For example, a former vegan whose doctor told him to eat meat was happy to get a Guide with Jack’s nutrition information. One woman said she had tried to be an advocate but had burned out. I gave her an A Meaningful Life and said I hoped she’d stay involved. A young woman said she’s wanted to go vegetarian, but her parents who she’s living with are against it because they’re afraid it will be bad for her health. I suggested she show Jack’s nutrition information to her parents.
     Talked with a young man who used to live in a region with a lot of chicken factory farms. He’s known people who worked in the factory farms, and they tell him about workers kicking the chickens and being mean to them. Talked with a woman who works as an inspector for large animals. I said I’d like to know what she’s observed. She said, “No, you wouldn’t.” She said the videos are not like real life.

     A young woman [left] told me getting the booklet in the past caused her to go vegetarian! And after getting a booklet, another woman [above] said, “That’s it. I’m going vegetarian!” And at Lane, there were so many vegetarians and interested people, I gave out 98 Guides!
—Cobie deLespinasse, 9/27/12

Epic day with Italia at Oakland University. Lots of interest. Four separate students came back to talk after class; all said they wanted to go veg. Another who used to be veg pledged to go back and got a Guide. Another woman mentioned she had thought about going veg sometime this year; we briefly chatted and she got a Guide.
     Awesome day at St. Clair College and the University of Windsor, with much interest and interesting conversations. An administrator gently pulled me by the shoulder. To my surprise, he asked for a booklet and then, with a smile on his face, directed me to the free vegetarian barbecue!
—Vic Sjodin, 9/20/12

The Montana State, Billings students were more receptive, polite, and interested than I ever could have imagined. I met a ton of vegetarians and several vegans. Favorite quotes of the day:
     “Yes, gotta help the animals!”
     “It made me cry for, like, five minutes.”
     “I don’t want one, people were reading it in class and it made me want to cry.” (Guided her and told her if it made her want to cry, then to check out some of the veg recipes and meal ideas in there.)
     I had a string of four interactions in a quarter of an hour that made my day: I had a convo with a student into death metal who was saddened by the booklet, so I told her about Cattle Decapitation (an all-vegan death metal band) and gave her a Guide. Next, a guy, about 30, was walking my way with hunting gear on and a baseball cap that stated, “PETA: People Eating Tasty Animals.” He actually commended me for being out there and it was slow enough for me to start a short dialogue with him – I made a joke about his hat and stressed that we’re only out there to raise awareness about how animals are treated and to try and lessen animal suffering. We had a friendly back-and-forth and he actually referred to himself as an “animal rights guy” and said that he respects all animals – “even gophers.” This was all stated in a very genuine tone – not the typical BS you might hear from the other side. Shortly after that, a dude named Brian asked what it was about, to which I said, “It’s about helping animals.” He asked, “How?” which led to a discussion about factory farming and vegetarian eating; he seemed to really like the meat reduction approach and our lack of spin. Finally, in this whirlwind of great conversations, I met Justin, who walked up to me and stated, “I got the result I think you wanted me to get. I think I’m gonna give the vegetarian thing a try.” He told me how sad it was to read about how animals are treated, so I gave him a Guide and snapped a pic of him with it [above, right]. The most productive 15 minutes I’ve had in a while.

Above (from left): A Montana State student reads Even If You Like Meat; Kat Campbell makes her leafleting debut at MSU; and two Montana Tech students read their booklets cover-to-cover.

     It was great to have Kat [above] and Jennifer with me at Montana State; it was Kat’s first time leafleting, and she drove four hours to be there! We met one former vegetarian who now will be going back. Best part of the day was a guy named Danny who asked, “Hey, are you the Vegan Outreach people? The work you’re doing is really important.” He went on to say he is going vegan after receiving the booklet, so I snapped a pic of him [top of page] and will be putting him in touch with others on campus that want to get involved.
     At Montana Tech, I watched a couple sit down and read the booklet cover-to-cover [above]. Also had a productive conversation with someone who was opposed to fur; I commended him for speaking out for animals, and gave him a Guide.
     In my 3-year history of doing college outreach at about 75 different schools across 11 states, I would say that the University of Montana had one of the absolute highest, if not the highest, number of vegetarians and vegans I’ve come across. I even ran out of Guides at one point; to give you an example of how great the outreach was here, a student named Trinity White Feathers, a wildlife biology major, walked about a half mile with me to my car just to get a Guide. I had many, many students come up to me and tell me how saddened and shocked they were by what they read. Another student, Chelsea [right, top photo], walked up to me, leaflet in hand, and stated, “This is the saddest thing I have ever read. I was tearing up in class.” We had an excellent discussion and she seemed empowered by the idea that she could make a difference.
     Too many other amazing discussions to fit here. For example, I had a discussion with a woman [right] which ended by her saying, “If people knew how animals were raised, they wouldn’t be eating meat.” I replied, “That’s why I’m out here.”
—John Oberg, 9/19/12

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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. All donations are tax-deductible. Vegan Outreach POB 30865, Tucson, AZ 85751-0865