Baltimore and DC—Unsung Heroes

By Alex Bury, Organizational Development Consultant

Vegan Outreach staffers David Carter, Paige Carter, Lisa Rimmert and volunteer Brian Ottens recently helped with two amazing events in Washington, DC and Baltimore, MD.

Thanks to DC and Baltimore superstars Brenda Sanders, Naijha Wright-Brown, and Maureen Cohen Harrington, who worked closely with great teams of DC and Baltimore volunteers, more than 200 people learned about vegan eating. They didn’t just get a VO booklet or hear a talk—they got a booklet and heard great talks and ate delicious vegan food!

As part of the Green Dinner speaker series, David also spoke at Northwestern High School in Baltimore.

Vegan Outreach is concerned about veg recidivism (people who go vegan and then fall off the wagon due to lack of support). That’s one reason why we want to support more of these events.

A quick touch is important and we’re ramping up our fall plans for college leafleting—but we have to also offer quality over quantity at times. That means meeting non-vegetarians, sharing good vegan food so they get an idea of what they might eat, answering their questions, and offering a personal connection. These deeper touches are messier and harder to organize but if we want to work towards a vegan world we have to do them.

Vegan Outreach is also concerned about the lack of diversity in the mainstream animal movement and the damage that does both to people of color who are excluded, and to the work that is less effective when it’s mostly geared towards only one group of people.

So you can see why we love these dinners!

Brenda and Naijha offered welcoming spaces, filling comfort food, and great info about going vegan. They featured local speakers and David Carter also spoke. When he talks about being fit on a vegan diet it’s hard to ignore!

Superstar VO volunteer Brian Ottens and staffer Lisa Rimmert were on hand to answer questions about vegan eating and offer plenty of booklets with recipes, nutrition guidelines, and information about how animals suffer in slaughterhouses.

Brenda and Naijha have created a thriving community of vegan resources so that once people get that first nudge to go vegan, they can follow up with local events and people to stay vegan.

A new vegan can eat at Naijha’s restaurant, The Land of Kush, attend Brenda’s Vegan Living Program, or attend events like the Baltimore Vegan Mac ’n’ Cheese Smackdown.

I don’t know of any city that has successfully created a vegan support community like Baltimore has. Brenda and Naijha, we don’t know how you do all that you do, but we know we’re honored to support it.