Enewsletter

Notes from Vegan Outreach

Jack Norris gets Even If You Like Meat into the hands of a student at Cosumnes River College.

Matt Ball discusses the issues with a student at New Mexico State.

Links of the Week

Over at the Jack Norris, RD blog, Jack’s been covering everything from soaking beans to the sad story of fish oil and small sample sizes. Some B12, of course. Even a lip balm recommendation!

Also, Animal Voices has posted a podcast interview with Matt Ball, discussing The Animal Activist’s Handbook, as well as various lessons he wishes he’d known when getting started 25 years ago.

You can listen to the podcast on the site, or download the mp3 for your iPod, etc.!

Company of the Week

Office: “Vege USA has an amazing variety of products. We got the Vegan Orange Chicken from Whole Foods, and it was very dense and hearty!”

Please submit your nominees for product of the week via this page; previous entries here.

Notes from Our Members

Couldn’t have had a better day with Matthew [Glover, right] at William Paterson University, where we reached over 1,000 students! Great conversations, and a number of students interested in going veg / getting active with Vegan Outreach. One of them – Daniela – came back to help leaflet, and later sent this message to Matthew:
     “I wanted to say thanks for caring about animals as much as I do. I was very excited to have met an animal rights activist in person. I am filled with excitement and can’t wait to begin helping animals in need. I would also luv to help volunteer for Vegan Outreach.”
—Vic Sjodin, 11/5/12

Thanks to a Cuesta College student who had an epiphany after being leafleted at the SLO farmers’ market a couple of weeks ago, we were invited to have a table at Cuesta’s Fall Fest event. Very receptive students, and the organizer of the event thanked us profusely for coming, said she would keep us in the loop about all future events they have on campus, and said she could give us an “in” for our own events on campus anytime we’d like. How cool is that?! When I went out to another area of campus to leaflet, a teacher who couldn’t make it to the event said she’d share the Compassionate Choices with her class.
—Barbara Bear, 10/31/12

Above are Kim Christian, Rachel Atcheson, Sarah Hudson, and Kim Carland at Salem State University.

Nettie and I reached over 1,000 students at the University of Oregon. Many good conversations, including one with a man who replied to my offer of a booklet by saying, “Oh, I buy organic.”
     I answered: “If you want to go the route of eating animals who are treated more humanely, it’s best to actually visit a farm. Because sometimes when it has a label like ‘organic,’ if you actually visited the farm you wouldn’t like what you saw. Thank you for considering the animals’ well-being when you eat. And another thing you can do that’s really good is to eat vegetarian some of the time.”
     I used to respond to “humane” meat people by immediately telling them why they were wrong. I do think they’re wrong, but am trying to be more encouraging – it’s a fine line to try to walk.
—Cobie deLespinasse, 11/5/12

Probably the friendliest crowd I’ve met was at tonight’s Propagandhi concert. I caught the last few seconds of a conversation among three young women that ended with the phrase, “OK, Let’s go veg.” One of the girls came over to me as the other two were walking in and said she wanted to shake my hand and thanked me for being there. Definitely one of the top moments of my activist career so far.
—Kevin O’Connor, 11/5/12

At the University of Houston, a student is engrossed in Compassionate Choices (above), while Marc Camp fields questions from other interested individuals (below).

Good interactions at Idaho State, including Audrey, who, after getting a booklet earlier in the day, told me it was “so cool” that I am vegan. She’d thought about being vegan, but had been convinced it would be too hard. I simplified it for her, emphasized the number of athletic friends I have, as well as the plethora of vegan professional athletes, and mentioned the section about staying healthy on plant-based diets in the Guide. She seemed stoked! Also met Courtney, who told me the booklet is a push for her to move toward compassion. Guided her and left her with some words of encouragement.
—John Oberg, 11/1/12

It’s part of Texas A&M culture to address others with “Howdy!” Because of this, my opening line would often be, “Howdy. Info to help animals?” It went over well. I was so surprised by how little antagonism there was this time at TAMU. Even many of those who were obviously involved in animal agriculture took a booklet and thanked me. And besides the lack of antagonism, I was heartened by the number of students who told me how sad the booklet was or that they’re vegetarian or vegan. One young woman let me know that she took an animal science class a little while ago, and that it really bothered her, and left her with a sick feeling about what we do to farmed animals.

     Today was an amazing day at the University of Houston. Renuka, my brother Marc [left], and I reached more than 3,600 students. Not only was the leafleting prolific, but so were the conversations. For example, a talk with Zubair was one of the most engaging and productive conversations I’ve had throughout my history of outreach. We discussed many things, including religion. After explaining that I’m just one person and that there is great diversity on this throughout the animal advocacy community, my belief is this is the only life I’ll live – I didn’t think those who lead lives of abject misery now will be somehow rewarded in an afterlife. This was one of the reasons why I took suffering so seriously, and why I felt an urgency to do something about it – because this existence of suffering was all they had. But then when it got to the fact that he was a Muslim, I pointed out that our fellow leafleter Renuka was as well, and I explained how I thought a life of mercy and considerateness and really walking the walk was a better advertisement for any religious conviction than a life of following the status quo. I also explained that I often feel more connection to those of faith than the faithless because they really believe in something greater than themselves. Everything I said clicked with him.
—Jon Camp, 11/5/12

	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 fully tax-deductible. Vegan Outreach POB 30865, Tucson, AZ 85751-0865