In the the first quarter of 2022, Vegan Outreach India has strengthened our foundations for a greater reach. This includes strategizing for long-term collaborations with universities and colleges, working with government regulators for wider access to students, planning virtual tours to organize more Adopt A College Webinars, making solid connections, and setting up a pipeline of companies that will implement the Green Tuesday Initiative this year.
Here are some of the highlights from the past quarter.

New Green Tuesday Partnerships

Kaa’s Kitchen is based in Hyderabad and delivers 15,000 meals every month. We collaborated with them to add vegan options and veganized 90% of their meals.

Tech Mahindra, Pune joined the Green Tuesday Initiative. Last year, 14 campuses of Tech Mahindra implemented Green Tuesday Initiative in their cafeterias. This change will reduce 15,860 kgs/ 34,965 pounds of meat and 7,930 eggs annually in addition to 249,600 kgs/ 550,274 pounds of meat and 7,800 eggs of reduction from last year.

Mission Compassion Virtual Tour with Mangalore University Colleges



Mission Compassion has always been our most successful flagship program to organize Adopt A College Webinars. Our first virtual tour this year was with Mangalore University, and here are some highlights:

• Organized 15 Webinars for students from 93 colleges
• Reached out to 9,000+ students and inspired them to choose a compassionate lifestyle
• 7,956 students joined the 10 Weeks to Vegan program who are now considering going vegan
  
  

  10 Weeks Subscriber’s Testimony

  Ramya joined the 10 Weeks to Vegan program and went vegan. She didn’t stop there. She went a step ahead and became a volunteer at Vegan Outreach. Here she shares her experience:
  

  Thank you for believing in a better future for animals and enabling our work. Together we will inspire more new vegans and help animals with your support.
  Please donate today to support our work in India.

  
  
  With gratitude,

  Richa Mehta,
  Director of Programs, India

Happy new year, 2022. We have had fantastic accomplishments leading to tangible and lasting change this past year only because of our generous supporters.
Vegan Outreach India dedicates this newsletter to all the supporters.

Green Tuesday Initiative Reduced 336,000 Kg of Animal Products

We had our biggest successes last year. We partnered with 10 major entities in India and implemented the Green Tuesday Initiative.
Here are some highlights:

Tech Mahindra, a global IT giant, implemented the Green Tuesday Initiative in 14 campuses across 5 locations. This change reduced 249,600 kgs/ 550,273 pounds of meat and 7,800 eggs.

Reva University, one of the largest private universities in south India, partnered with Green Tuesday to implement meatless Tuesdays. This change reduced 62,160 kgs/ 137039 pounds of meat.

Hetero Limited renewed the pledge to serve meat-free meals to their employees. They also implemented Green Tuesday Initiative in their new locations and raised awareness among employees. They now serve 2.5 million+ meat-free meals every year.

We are now part of the Telangana government advisory group to make the state’s organizations more sustainable. Their IT department will also serve more plant-based food at their official events.

40,000+ Students Joined the 10 Weeks to Vegan India Program



• We organized 150+ Adopt College webinars this year and signed up 40,000 students for the 10 Weeks India program.
• Four colleges, REVA University, Auro University, Sanatan Dharma College, G H Raisoni University, signed the Memorandum of Understanding as part of our Adopt a College Collaborations and pledged to organize animal rights awareness events throughout the year.
• We organized two virtual tours:
  1. Mission Compassion, organized in May, was a huge success. 7000+ students participated in the 5-day event.
  2. Mission Compassion 2.0, organized in November, encouraged 14,000+ students from 240 colleges to consider going vegan!

  Our Team Expansion

  Komal Tehlan is our newest outreach coordinator, spearheading college partnerships and outreach in Delhi, NCR, and other northern regions of India. She’s inspired 2,200 students to join the 10 Weeks to Vegan.

  Sowndarya Ganesan joined the India campaign team in March. She is an environment enthusiast and has been an asset in getting Green Tuesday partnerships.
  

  10 Weeks Testimonial

  Because of you, Praneetha could go vegan. She shared her 10 Weeks to Vegan program experience with us:
  

  We are cherishing all of these accomplishments because of you. Thank you for being there for the animals.

  
  
  With gratitude,

  Richa Mehta,
  Director of Programs, India

I hope you and your loved ones are doing great.

We are in good spirits because we have already achieved and surpassed our yearly Green Tuesday Initiative goals with three months to go. Through the Green Tuesday Initiative, we have reduced 313,536 kgs/691,228 pounds of meat and eggs from institutions in the first 9 months of this year!

Big Update to Tech Mahindra Collaboration

On August 15th, 2021, Mr. C. P. Gurnani, MD and CEO, Tech Mahindra, announced the implementation of the Green Tuesday Initiative and launched the booklet at Tech Mahindra’s Hyderabad campus.

On September 28th, four new Tech Mahindra campuses—Noida, Gurugram, Kolkata, and Chandigarh—joined the Green Tuesday Initiative. Representatives from each campus joined a virtual accreditation ceremony and flagged off the partnership.
Some offices are currently operating with partial staff. Once fully rolled out, around 5,659,000 meat-free meals will be served to the employees.

Adopt a College Collaboration with Nagpur University

Rashtrasant Tukaji Maharaj Nagpur University is one of the oldest public state universities located in Nagpur, Maharashtra. We partnered with them to organize outreach programs at all its affiliated colleges. Here are some of the highlights of the collaboration.

Outreach to 7,000+ students
Webinars with 240 colleges
50+ additional webinars

10 Weeks to Vegan India Series Now in Hindi

We just launched our 10 Weeks to Vegan and 10 Weeks to Vegan for Vegetarians in Hindi! More than 40% of Indians speak Hindi, and we hope this version reaches more people who are comfortable with the Hindi language. As of today, more than 3,000 people have received the Hindi series emails

With the Hindi additions, we now have 40 versions of 10 Weeks to Vegan.
Check out all of our versions here!

We have an opportunity to inspire more people to go vegan, and we need your help!
Become a monthly sustainer.

With gratitude,

Richa Mehta,
Director of Programs, India

Tech Mahindra, a global IT giant, has partnered with Vegan Outreach to implement their Green Tuesday Initiative at their Hitech City, Hyderabad campus. On August 15th, Mr. C P Gurnani, MD and CEO, Tech Mahindra, launched the Green Tuesday booklet and announced the collaboration. By implementing the Green Tuesday Initiative in their cafeterias, Tech Mahindra will cut down meat consumption by 20% to reduce their food-related carbon footprint.

“Tech Mahindra is always at the forefront of taking sustainability and environment-related initiatives. From hosting plastic-free events to organizing the most extensive plantation drives, Tech Mahindra has always encouraged and inspired us to make an impact and keep doing more. By implementing vegetarian Tuesdays, we are taking one step forward in reducing our food-related carbon footprint and creating awareness about the food choices of employees. In the next year, we will be working with Vegan Outreach to implement this initiative in more campuses in other cities. Our team is also working to create a soulful, delicious alternative menu on Tuesdays.” – C V N Varma, Vice President – Corporate Services at Tech Mahindra.

What we eat is rapidly becoming an issue of global concern—multiple reports have identified meat and dairy as one of the leading causes of climate change. One such example is the recent report from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on climate change, which emphasized a shift towards plant-based diets as a significant opportunity to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Worldwide, meat and dairy production uses 83% of farmland and produces 60% of agriculture’s greenhouse gas emissions.
“Companies around the world are seeing the urgency of fighting climate change through food choices. As a Green Tuesday partner and one of the leading IT companies to implement this program, Tech Mahindra is leading the way to a sustainable future. India is the 5th most vulnerable country to climate change according to the 2020 global climate index, and policies like this will truly create an impact. There is a growing awareness among organizations in this regard.” -Bhavya Vatrapu, campaigns and social media manager at Vegan Outreach.

Tech Mahindra’s Hitech City campus has 15,000 employees and once fully rolled out, this initiative will benefit approx. 200,000 employees working at Tech Mahindra offices at various India locations.
Richa Mehta, Director of Programs India at Vegan Outreach thanked Tech Mahindra for implementing the Green Tuesday Initiative saying, “Their support and commitment to serve more plant-based food will have a significant impact. This initiative will help fight climate change, promote a healthier future, and save millions of lives. I am grateful to Tech Mahindra for setting an example for other companies to follow the path towards sustainability and carbon neutrality by implementing sustainable food policies.”

So far, in India, we have collaborated with twenty-six institutes and corporations including BITS Pilani Goa,Lovely Professional University and Hetero drugs . Some have implemented meatless days, while others have reduced the number of eggs and dairy products served in their canteens.

Our work is possible because of generous supporters. Help us reach even more institutions. Please donate today to support our work in India.

We are halfway through 2021, and I’m so glad to say that we reached half of our yearly 10 Weeks to Vegan sign-up goals.

One motivating factor driving us is the feedback and testimonials we get from the people we work with and students. We love seeing our program impact so many people, and I am sharing some of them with you today.

Inspired 18,000+ Students to Go Vegan

In 2021, we have collaborated with 67 colleges and universities in India and organized our Adopt a College webinars. Our outreach team has inspired thousands of students to make more compassionate choices. 18,000+ students signed up for our 10 Weeks to Vegan program in 2021, and they’re considering going vegan.

After every webinar, we receive heartwarming feedback from students that gratifies all the hard work.

Adopt a College Collaborations

Three colleges, REVA University, Auro University, and Sanatan Dharma College, Ambala, signed the Memorandum of Understanding as part of our Adopt a College Collaborations and pledged to organize animal rights awareness events this year. More than 5,000 students will participate in various activities from these colleges and learn about a vegan lifestyle.

Two Companies Joined the Green Tuesday Initiative

TA Digital will now serve meatless meals once a week in their cafeteria and promote a plant-based diet after joining the Green Tuesday Initiative. TA Digital is a technology company based in Hyderabad that delivers artificial intelligence, marketing solutions, and automation services. This change will reduce 3380 kgs/7451 pounds of chicken annually.
Their employees participated in our vegan cooking challenge and shared some interesting vegan recipes.

Check out a glimpse of the vegan cooking challenge here.

Sparks Lifestyle and Living is an event management, catering, and meal subscription firm based in Hyderabad. They will now replace one chicken dish with a delicious plant-based dish in all their buffet services. They also added a full range of vegan options in their selection menus, both for catering and meal subscriptions.

You are a big part of Vegan Outreach’s India program. Thank you so much for enabling this important work!

We would love to have your feedback on the work we are doing in India and feature your feedback in our next edition of the newsletter. Please reply to this email.
Donate today to help animals in India!

With utmost gratitude,

Richa Mehta
Director of Programs, India

TA Digital joined the Green Tuesday Initiative and will now serve meatless meals once a week in their cafeteria. Once the offices reopen after the lockdown, employees will have more plant-based options on Tuesdays, and TA Digital will promote a plant-based diet. Since the employees are currently working from home, they participated in our vegan cooking challenge and shared some interesting vegan recipes.

TA Digital, a technology company that delivers artificial intelligence, marketing solutions, and automation services, joined the Green Tuesday Initiative to fight climate change and promote wellness. “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Our first step to reducing food-related carbon footprint is partnering with Vegan Outreach’s Green Tuesday Initiative.
We hope our new partnership will help fight climate change and promote employee wellness,” said Vignesh S – HR and Business partner, TA Digital.

What we eat is rapidly becoming an issue of global concern; multiple reports have identified meat and dairy as one of the leading causes of climate change. One such example is the recent report from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2019), which emphasized a shift towards plant-based diets as a significant opportunity to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

“Worldwide, meat and dairy production uses 83% of farmland and produces 60% of agriculture’s greenhouse gas emissions. There is a growing awareness among organizations in India regarding the same, and we are glad to help them reduce their carbon footprint with Green Tuesday Initiative,” said Bhavya Vatrapu, Campaigns and Social Media Manager, Vegan Outreach.

Our Green Tuesday Initiative is a campaign by Vegan Outreach to help institutions reduce their environmental footprint by making small changes in the food they serve. Since 2019, Vegan Outreach has partnered with 25 Institutes and companies in India as part of the Green Tuesday Initiative.
Mail us [email protected] if you’d like these fantastic free recipes or start the Green Tuesday Initiative in your institution. 🙂

We rarely stop to pat ourselves on the backs when we hit new milestones or reach our goals. There is so much to do. Our team is constantly working to help animals by reaching out to more students to help them make compassionate choices and recruit institutions to the Green Tuesday Initiative.

However, I’m pausing to share how fantastic 2021 has been so far and what our team has accomplished.

Mission Compassion 2021

Vegan Outreach organizes annual tours for outreach events at colleges, schools, fests, and conferences. We couldn’t travel this year because of the pandemic. Our go-getter outreach staff partnered with Kuntal Joisher, Mountaineer (Mount Everest summiteer) and vegan activist, and Mumbai University for a virtual tour instead. The Mission Compassion 2021 tour was born!

Mission Compassion 2021 has been an enormous success and is the biggest tour to date in terms of student participation. 7000+ students from 86 colleges participated in the five-day event and are now considering going vegan!

Impact

Our in-person outreach and webinars have effectively raised awareness about animal rights issues with students and inspired them to go vegan. According to a survey completed by 1,009 students who attended the webinars,

• 92.0% of the students agreed there is a need to switch to a plant-based diet for animals and the environment.
• 88.9% of the students said they would like to move to a plant-based diet for animals and the environment.

Green Tuesday Virtual Pledge Signing

BITS Pilani, Goa virtually signed the Green Tuesday pledge. Over 30 student representatives and faculty members attended the event in February. Celebrity guests included Sadaa Sayeed, a South Indian actress, ethical vegan, entrepreneur. Mount Everest summiteer and vegan activist Kuntal Joisher also joined and inspired. Both applauded the students for taking a step towards a better tomorrow.

New Companies on Board

Transcend Adventures is an adventure and trekking company that organizes guided tours, weekend adventures, and mountaineering training. They will now provide vegan food options for their travelers. This change will reduce 2520 kgs/5555 pounds of meat consumption annually.

Annora Pharma is based out of Hyderabad and manufactures a wide range of medicines, including tablets, capsules, pellets, liquid orals, and syrups. Starting April 1st, they will serve meatless meals to all their 800 employees on Tuesdays. This change will reduce 4160 kgs/9171 pounds of chicken annually.

You supported us in a challenging year, and our team kept creating more vegans for animals and the planet. Thank you! Sustainers are now more critical for us than ever.
Please help us reach our 2021 goals by becoming a monthly sustainer!.

With utmost gratitude,

Richa Mehta
Director of Programs, India

I hope you and your loved ones are doing well.
You are a big part of Vegan Outreach’s India program, and I’m writing today to tell you how we helped animals in 2020 directly from our staff.

Staff Stories

We couldn’t have done any of this work without supporters like you!
Help us reach our 2021 goals by becoming a monthly sustainer!

With utmost gratitude,

Richa Mehta
Director of Programs, India

BITS Pilani, Goa, one of India’s most prestigious institutes, became the latest signatory of the Green Tuesday Pledge to address the rising global climate change crisis. Once fully rolled out, they are to slash-down the use of animal products like eggs and meat by 15%.

“At BITS Pilani, Goa, we are always taking new steps towards environmental sustainability, and the Green Tuesday Initiative takes us one step closer to achieving our sustainability goals,” said Yash Jain, Student Mess Convenor. “Globally and in India, institutions are reducing their use of animal products and choosing plant-based foods to fight climate change,” added Richa Mehta, Director of Programs, Vegan Outreach.

India is the 5th most vulnerable country to climate change according to the latest global climate risk index. Animal agriculture is one of the largest contributors of human-made greenhouse gas emissions, and multiple reports have identified it as one of the leading causes of climate change. One such example is the recent report from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2019), which emphasized a shift towards plant-based diets as a significant opportunity to limit greenhouse gas emissions.

We also wrote to the decision-makers of three other BITS Pilani campuses — Dubai, Hyderabad and Pilani — to take the lead and implement sustainable food policies. Educational institutes play an essential role in building the best future for the next generations, and steps such as the Green Tuesday Initiative will be the way to go.

About the Green Tuesday campaign
Green Tuesday Initiative is a campaign by Vegan Outreach to help institutions reduce their environmental footprint by making small changes in the food they serve. So far, we’ve collaborated with twenty-two institutions in India.

The lockdown has ended, and we all are adapting to the new normal. We are still working remotely, but we are not letting the pandemic come in our way when it comes to helping animals and reaching our goals.

I am excited to share some updates about our team’s work and new initiatives during the times of social distancing.

Adopt A College Webinars

Our Adopt A College webinar program is an initiative to connect with the students from volunteer groups like the National Service Scheme and National Cadet Corps. Through virtual sessions, we reach out to thousands of students and help them make compassionate food choices.

In September

We have organized webinars with 20+ colleges.

4000+ students have signed up for the 10 Weeks to Vegan program.

100% of the students who attended our webinar signed up for the 10 Weeks to Vegan program at the National Institute of Technology, Calicut.

Campaign Success

BITS Pilani, Goa Campus, has agreed to reduce their meat and egg consumption by 15% to decrease their carbon footprint. Once the college re-opens, they will switch to plant-based dishes once a week and serve 105,000 meat-free meals every year.

We have written letters to the three other largest BITS campuses—Dubai, Hyderabad, and Pilani to follow BITS Pilani’, Goa, lead and reduce their meat and egg consumption on the campus.

Green Tuesday Initiative Website

Since 2019, we have been helping institutes in India reduce their environmental footprint by replacing meat and dairy products with plant-based food options in their cafeterias. Our campaign website is now live. Please visit and sign up for our newsletter to get blog posts, updates, and resources.

Visit: GreenTuesday.org

Help us reach our 2020 goals! Please donate today for animals in India.


Donate Now!


Warmly,

Richa Mehta
Director of Programs, India