Enewsletter
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Enewsletter • March 6, 2013 | |||
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Notes from Vegan Outreach
Links and Excerpts
Product of the WeekBonnie combines our Cookie Correction with the Gluten Free Bar, finding these Chickpea Chocolate-Chip Cookies to be “seriously good.” Yes, you read that right: chickpeas. Please submit your nominees for product of the week via this page; previous entries here.
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Notes from Our MembersMary, Jamie, Kevin, John, and I
dressed up as elves to leaflet
Christkindlmarket, and had good interactions.
Mary had a wonderful conversation: At the San Luis Obispo farmers’
market, we met a few former vegetarians
who accepted a Guide
to get back on the path. Once again, there were
many who commented on wanting to be vegan and
getting closer to being vegan, so Erika, Jill, Randall, Eron, and I were happy
to help them in that effort. With the visit from St. Nick [above] and two new activists, it was a great night all in all!
Many students at Lane Tech College
Prep were interested in learning
about what happens to farmed animals. Terry,
Nicole, Mikael, Kenny, Jovan, and I reached
nearly 700 of them before work. Six-hour round trip to Broward
College was worth it, as I had
some of the best interactions I’ve had this
whole semester. For example, through the course
of our conversation, one student became convinced
of the benefits that would come if more people
stopped contributing to the inherent violence
of animal agribusiness. It was great to hear
the thoughfulness these students put into their
questions and comments. It was really obvious
these kids already had been giving the issues
some deeper thinking, and I have a strong feeling
the booklets being giving out here today will
only cause more to do the same.
What
what WHAT a day of outreach at
Arizona State, my old stomping grounds! Together,
Meggie, Joseph, Zubair, Chris, Dillon, Amber,
and I reached 4,435 individuals – the most
at any school in the state of Arizona! I met
5 people that want to get involved and probably
30 vegetarians/vegans. Had a great conversation
with a student who had an issue with one part.
I gave him credit and pointed out how the other
99.9% of the booklet is still information that
he probably agreed with; he seemed really content
and actually interested in the idea of vegetarianism.
Thank you, Mr.
Carnegie. Another great interaction was
with Amy [right], a former vegetarian. Apparently she
was anemic, so I gave her a Guide and
pointed out the “Staying Healthy on Plant-Based
Diets” section; she was ridiculously excited
about it.
Excellent
reception at Phoenix College, a community college
comprised almost entirely of minorities. Heard
tons of awesome things like, “This is why
I’m vegetarian!” “This is really sad,”
“It’s pretty crazy stuff,” and “Lots
of people in class are talking about this.”
Had absolutely amazing conversations, including
instant vegetarians. On a side note, the last
three days I’ve met like 6 people who’ve said
they’ve written research papers on the subject
of farm animal mistreatment. The word is spreading!!!
Headed to GCC for the second day in a row and it was excellent! These kids are super receptive. Met Cynthia, a video production major who thought the booklet was very well-designed and loved how it includes heartwarming pictures of animals at the end. She said she’s been thinking about this for a while and now thinks she’s going to do it. At first she told me she was going to start by cutting out beef, so I quickly guided her in the opposite direction, stressing the emphasis on chickens. She said their household eats a lot of bacon, so I gave her the idea of eliminating or cutting back on meat except for bacon and then, with time, incorporating Fakin’ Bacon (not Smart Bacon, which tastes nothing like bacon IMO) so she and her family could go at a sustainable pace. It’s amazing how simply handing her a booklet triggered her to finally commit to a meat-free life after considering it for some amount of time.
Had a great conversation with a dude who stopped in his tracks and was like “Yeahhhh, I hate animal cruelty. I feel very strongly about this.” He ate meat, so I verbally expressed the pie chart of animals that die yearly in the US. He was flipping through the booklet and muttered “son of a b**ch” to himself a few times (just to give you an idea of how upset this made him). He was under the impression that this was only going on outside of the United States, but when I corrected him and then told him how our purchasing power controls whether or not this goes on, he seemed pretty pumped up and happy to receive a Guide. Spoke with Freddy, who came up to me and asked what I was handing out – when I explained it to him, he told me he was actually pretty interested and that his stepmom was a new vegetarian, so I Guided him! Then I talked to Brandon – it was slow and he asked me to tell him more. He was pretty shocked. I gave him a Guide and pointed out some things he could buy next time he was at the grocery store, and he said he would. Another excellent conversation with Ken. He said, “but I love pork and chicken” after I mentioned “Help animals.” I gave him a 20-second spiel about still being able to get those same kinds of tastes, textures, and aromas from plant-based meat alternatives without supporting this kind of cruelty. He seemed to have never heard of meat substitutes before and when I mentioned he can get a lot of these where he currently shops, his eyebrows lifted up high and he excitedly said, “I’ll have to check it out, thanks man!”
My first First Friday leafleting in exactly a year – I forgot how awesome the outreach is! Meggie, Clarrissa, Joe, Jacqueline, Joseph, June, Zubair, Erik, Rachel, Kimberly, and I reached over 3,300 people. As soon as I put my boxes down, a guy named Joaquin [above, center] walked up to me and asked, “Do you have any recipes? A whole year and still going strong!” He went vegetarian from getting leafleted by us at First Friday exactly a year ago! Later, I met a person [above, left] that received a booklet from Meggie at Mesa Community College on Tuesday. She recited some of the booklet word-for-word, and mentioned, “Yeah, if I cut my meat intake in half, I’ll still save a lot of animals!” She told me that after she read through the booklet, though, she doesn’t wanna ever eat meat again! Also spoke with Ali [above, right], whom I had leafleted at Mesa CC, and she told me the Even If You Like Meat had her crying. I handed her a Guide and she said, “Awesome!”
Great day back at Arizona State with Meggie. Ran into Brinley [Suppes, left], a student I leafleted here a week ago. Last week, when I said, “Help animals?” she said, “Yeah, definitely.” I mentioned how farm animals comprise 99% of animals killed in the US. I gave her my card and within the hour she had shot me an email and said how shocked she was about the statistic and that she is immediately going to make a change and encourage others to do the same. Turns out that change was her going VEGAN!!! She’s been vegan for a week (straight from eating meat), has gotten one friend of hers to go vegan, and is encouraging her family to look at their food choices. She even helped me leaflet for about 20 minutes before her next class and wants to start volunteering. Amazing!
Had a student
tell me, “You already made me cry once”
when I offered her a booklet. She was happy
to get a Guide, for sure! Also ran
into Althea [below], with whom I had a quick conversation
last week here. She told me she’s been eating
less meat since we talked and that the other
day, she was going to have chicken but decided
not to because that’s the worst choice in terms
of animal suffering!
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