By Lisa Rimmert, VO Director of Development

Team Vegan member Frannie Miller realized at a young age the connection between living animals and what we eat. Now, she devotes her time to creating a more compassionate world.

When she was five years old, Frannie was given a large piece of steak. She had never eaten steak before, so she asked what it was. “When I realized it was a piece of a cow,” she said, “I could not chew it or swallow it. I had to spit it out.”

That started Frannie’s journey, but it wasn’t until she reached college that she discovered there was a name for her way of eating: vegetarian.

For Frannie, veganism and activism came at the same time a little further down the road. Her daughters—undoubtedly raised by Frannie to be compassionate to all beings—became vegetarian and then vegan one by one.

An advisor and instructor at East Tennessee State University, Frannie is in a unique position to advocate for animals. She developed and teaches an online course called Food Choice and Society. She has seen several students incorporate Meatless Monday or become vegetarian or vegan because of what they learned in the course. One student, a Registered Nurse on a cardiac floor, became vegan and is educating the heart patients on plant-based eating.

Frannie enables Vegan Outreach to leaflet in Tennessee by hosting our traveling Outreach Coordinators and helping with campus leafleting. Now she is raising money for Team Vegan because, as she says, “The outreach works!”

Frannie is a brand new grandmother (congratulations, Frannie!) and wants her grandson to grow up in a compassionate world. It will take all of us to do our part—we can each find a way, like Frannie has, to incorporate activism into our lives. Frannie and her family are inspirations to me—and to many others.

Please help Frannie create a compassionate world for her grandson and all future generations!

Donate now to her Team Vegan page.

Thank you!

Steve Erlsten, VO’s Northern California Outreach Coordinator, has handed out 58,740 booklets at 76 different schools this semester!

On March 16, Steve reached more than 1,700 students at Fresno City College:

Jeremy [below, left] has been thinking about cutting back on meat because of the animal cruelty involved. He’s excited to try some vegan meat products, and might go vegan!

The following day, Steve handed out 780 booklets at Merced College:

Eugene [below, right] came back to tell me it was perfect timing, because he has been wanting to go vegan! It hasn’t worked before, but he’s going to try again with help from our classic Guide to Cruelty-Free Eating!

On March 31, Steve and fellow activists handed out 1,250 Your Choice booklets at Butte College:

It was another great day at Butte! Many thanks to Jeannie Trizzino for hosting me, leafleting, and for taking me out for sushi last night and lunch today! Melissa Gillan is a first-time leafleter, and she did great!

The high point of the day was when a student, who was rushing past on her way to class, said she went vegan after getting a booklet last March!

Now you can inspire twice as many people to go vegan: Visit Steve’s Team Vegan page and have your donation doubled today!

Steven Litrov has handed out 40,893 booklets at 76 different schools this semester!

On February 1, Tyler DeVere (below, left) and Steven had a record-breaking day at Nashville’s Lipscomb University:

We met several vegans and vegetarians who support our work and were happy to see us, and met one vegetarian, Tiffany [below, right], ready to go vegan after receiving a Guide to Cruelty-Free Eating!

On March 21, Steven teamed with Nolan Guiffre and Carol Hope of the Rochester Area Vegan Society (below), and together they handed out 900 Your Choice booklets at SUNY Geneseo:

First day back from a great spring break at home in LA. It was freezing with some snow here and there—contrast is huge from weather at home. I had volunteers from RAVS for about two hours—two great activists who have been rocking the Rochester area with leaflets this semester. They were both very enthusiastic and I believe just started leafleting this semester—definitely saved us some stops.

One student told Carol that he went vegetarian after getting a booklet last year! Lots of students said they were vegetarian. One student asked where the information in the booklet is sourced from because he couldn’t believe it—I recommended he check out other resources too.

I saw the book Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer on this small community bookshelf in the library. It was the book that influenced Natalie Portman to go vegan and she went on to influence me! Towards the end of the day I saw a girl reading Your Choice to her boyfriend [below, right].

On April 12, Steven and volunteers reached more than 1,000 students at Indiana State University:

Pretty warm and special day here, being joined by David Rojas and new vegan Rakeem Deizbarrz [below, left]. David initially joined us at Warped Tour last year and was excited to volunteer some more and brought Rakeem along. They both made interactions a priority and had lots of them [one of David’s, below, right], planting many seeds and opening hearts.

One student rolled up on his bike and asked me what I was handing out, and I said, “Info to help animals” and he said, “Hell yeah” and took one and rode off. Another student said she’s in an environmental group and was interested in talking about the impacts of animal agriculture more. I also met another student who had just recently gone vegan and is interested in starting up a club and getting more involved. Another student joined our conversation to tell us she used to be really involved, but schoolwork got the best of her. Awesome to have so much support!

You can support VO’s Adopt a College leafleting program and double your impact for the animals by taking advantage of our Team Vegan matching campaign: Donate now!

By Lori Stultz, VO Rocky Mountain Outreach Coordinator

Today I have the pleasure of introducing you to Kim Sujovolsky and Carlos Marrero, Vegan Outreach donors who I have gotten to know a little bit better over the past few weeks.

Among many other things, Kim and Carlos are the founders and directors of Brownble, an online program in which Kim and Carlos demonstrate how to make easy, delicious vegan food, encourage and offer advice on embracing a vegan lifestyle and developing lifelong healthy habits, and much, much more!

After learning that Kim and Carlos support Vegan Outreach, I spent some time on their website—finding out what Brownble was all about. I was so impressed by their program for a handful of reasons, but namely for their advocacy of a balanced approach to vegan nutrition. After talking a bit with Kim, I wasn’t surprised to find out that Brownble suggests resources from VO’s Executive Director and Registered Dietitian, Jack Norris, including the site VeganHealth.org, the book Vegan For Life, and his B12 recommendations for vegans.

I’m so excited for everyone to meet Kim and Carlos in the following interview, but first I have some exciting news to share! Starting July 5—mark your calendars!—we’ll be regularly posting short videos in which Kim demonstrates how to prepare an easy, tasty vegan meal or discusses helpful tips for people who are transitioning to a plant-based diet.

We’ll be posting these videos once a month! Kim brings a huge amount of enthusiasm to her work, so her videos will be fun and enjoyable to watch!

Without further ado, let’s meet Kim and Carlos, and, we wouldn’t forget, their pups Nala and Vega!

Lori: Tell us about yourself (work, hobbies, family, etc).

Kim: Both Carlos and I were born in Venezuela, and we’ve been together for 16 years! I was 18 when I met him, and 7 years into our relationship we tied the knot in a beautiful ceremony under a tree, surrounded by just a few friends and family. We’re both huge animal lovers (believe it or not I used to have dogs, cats, turtles, two sheep, and 5 ducks growing up because my mom was a huge animal rescuer). And we’re the proud mama and papa of our two cutie pies Nala and Vega, who you’ll see in the intros of all of our videos (they insisted…what can I tell you?!).

We’re huge movie and music lovers too, and we’ve traveled all over the place just to go to concerts and see our favorite bands live.

Although we lived in Venezuela for most of our lives, and I also lived a couple of times in New York City as a kid, we currently live in Madrid, Spain. We’re just in love with this city, and the vegan scene is really growing here!

Carlos is a musician (he’s even opened for the Red Hot Chili Peppers!), and he’s also a practicing doctor (an MD and an allergy specialist), and I’m a teacher. I love to teach. It’s truly my passion in life. It doesn’t matter what it is…I could teach plumbing and I’d be happy.

Cooking has always been one of my biggest passions in life, and although I call myself a total home cook and I’ve been cooking and learning since I was 15, I also have professional certification in plant-based cooking.

In late 2015 we decided to put all our passions together, roll up our sleeves, and create Brownble.com and the My Brownble online program, where we help vegans (and also people who are just dabbling their toes in the water) learn how to cook delicious vegan food, how to create amazing healthy habits that can last, leave dieting behind and become total vegan rockstars and embrace their journey.

Lori: Share with us the story of your “vegan journey.”

Kim: I first learned of what the word vegan meant a while before I took the plunge—thanks to the amazing book The Kind Diet, by Alicia Silverstone (yes, I’m a Clueless fan, don’t judge!). I flirted with it for a while, but I would fall off the wagon, then get back on. The seed had been planted though. A few years ago I watched the films Forks Over Knives and Vegucated. I will always be grateful to Marisa Miller Wolfson for making this incredible movie—Vegucated—which I completely give all the credit for my veganism to. I became vegan almost immediately. It’s funny because I started watching the film, paused it, ran out to our living room where Carlos was watching a soccer match and I said, “You need to see this!”

It was the first time either one of us had seen the truth about our food industry. I cried, a lot. I thought it was insane that this was even legal, but of course it is. I told Carlos, “That’s it, I’m going vegan, and you don’t have to if you don’t want to.” Carlos is not just a rockstar in real life, but in his heart too (he’ll kill me when he reads that!). He immediately told me he wouldn’t mind being vegan at home, and a few months later I came home to find him sitting on the couch with the strangest look of total shock. When I asked him what was wrong, he said, “I watched Earthlings.” If you’ve ever seen that movie you know that is no easy task. He needed that final push to go fully vegan, and he’s been vegan ever since!

Lori: How did you hear about Vegan Outreach?

Kim: We first heard about Vegan Outreach through the wonderful vegan podcast Our Hen House, and we’re such HUGE admirers of what Vegan Outreach does. So many activists, authors, and game changers went vegan because of a leaflet they got when they were just going on their merry way. It’s a powerful form of activism and how I wish someone had approached me in my late teens or early adult years with this information! I would have gone vegan long before I did.

Lori: You do so much for VO—from donating to now providing videos with meal prep demos and tips for transitioning and maintaining a vegan lifestyle! What inspires this?

Kim: When we created Brownble we knew that we didn’t want to do anything without giving back to all the organizations that are really doing the tough work out there. We made it a part of our business plan from day one that a portion of all our proceeds from our awesome members of the My Brownble online program would go to organizations such as Vegan Outreach. Our new collaboration through video is so exciting! Video is a powerful tool. It’s how I first learned to cook when I would run to the TV after school to watch cooking shows and started practicing. We love what VO does and all the support you give to new vegans. We’re honored to be a part of that process and help all of your readers and followers create this change deliciously and with ease!

Lori: What advice would you give to someone reading this who is considering adopting a vegan diet?

Kim: Try it! Don’t overthink it. Chances are you’re an amazing person that has overcome so much in your own personal life. You can do this!

Veganism is the opposite of deprivation! You can make any and all of your favorites in their vegan (and also healthier) version—from lasagna, to mac and cheese, burgers, BBQ, tacos, pizza, cupcakes, and sushi! The list goes on and on. That’s what we teach at Brownble and what we’re so excited to teach through Vegan Outreach.

I had to overcome some difficult life circumstances as a child (you can read more about that story in our blog) and going vegan years later helped so much of that pain heal. It allowed me to be my true authentic self…to be able to say I was vegan at a party or dinner was huge for me! For the first time I started to let go of that fear of what other people thought and that idea we all have that we need to be perfect and not cause trouble.

Veganism was the biggest confidence booster for me, and if a couple of Latin folks living in ham country can do it, you can do it too! The great news is you don’t need to do it alone. Find community (another reason why I love Vegan Outreach) and give it a try…you’ll be surprised with what you discover.

Lori: Finally, share with us your absolute favorite meal.

Kim: Oh boy! That’s such a tough question! Carlos loves to have a big vegan pizza with lots of veggie toppings, and I’m a total sushi nut, and yes…you can make pizza without dairy cheese and sushi without fish. There’s nothing you can’t make vegan!

Lori: Thank you, Kim and Carlos, for supporting VO, sharing more about yourselves, and for working with us to provide helpful and fun videos! We are looking forward to sharing your enthusiasm and advice!

And as a sneak peek, here are a few of the introduction topics that will be discussed and the yummy food Kim will be showing us how to make:

Topics of Discussion

Cooking Demos

By Lisa Rimmert, VO Director of Development

Sunday is Father’s Day, and we at VO want to give a shout-out to one of our favorite fathers, Brian Ottens!

Brian helps so many groups and individuals in the movement, and yet he is one of the most humble people we know.

He’s been integral to VO’s success for many years, and he often goes above and beyond to help. On top of his financial generosity, Brian volunteers his time to reduce animal suffering.

Recently, Brian helped VO by volunteering at the DC and Baltimore Green Dinners, staffing a table at the Baltimore VegFest, and writing a wonderful blog post about helping vegans sustain their choices. He is also a regular leafleter along with his daughter Emily, one of VO’s best volunteers. Nobody turns her down when she offers up a booklet!

Now, Brian and Emily are raising money for Team Vegan, and they’ve pledged to create uplifting farm animal pictures with sidewalk chalk—one for every $250 they raise!

Thank you, Brian, for all you do for animals, and Happy Father’s Day!

By Lauren Sprang, VO Board of Directors Secretary

Welcome to part two of three posts on traveling through Utah and visiting its dramatic Utah national parks (see Part I here and Part III here).

Back in April, my husband—Steve—and I drove from our home in Oregon to meet my sister-in-law—Heidi—in Moab. Moab is home to Arches National Park, and is only thirty minutes from Canyonlands National Park and Dead Horse Point State Park. If you’re headed that way or just want to read about it, here are some tips and pics!

On our first night we arrived hungry and wandered the few blocks of town. We found Twisted Sistas’ Cafe, which is a quirky place and offers one vegan dish—an Indian curry. All three of us ordered it and I added a side salad. If you’re hungry and you like curry, it’s a good bet: although they mostly serve meat dishes.

We began our first full day at another cute restaurant, Eklecticafe, and sat outside in the morning air. Their menu is more veg-friendly and they have a few breakfast options that can be veganized. The portions are large, so they’re great if you’re looking to get fueled for hiking or mountain biking, or even ATVing.

The first park on our list was Dead Horse Point State Park, since Heidi and Steve hadn’t spent much time there, and it was all new to me! Despite its name, the park is a beautiful place. There’s a 5-mile+ loop trail that’s longer if you want to do the spurs to the overlooks. We chose to do just part of the trail, making it an out-and-back, taking the West Rim Trail to Rim Overlook. It was recommended by a ranger because of the “potholes” in the rocks that hold water and tiny, unique organisms. You’ll only see these in the spring soon after the snow has melted. After our hike we drove to all of the overlooks, including the main one, Dead Horse Point.

The second park we visited was Canyonlands National Park, where we spent another day. There are two portions of the park, Needles and Island in the Sky. We visited Island in the Sky and hiked the 0.5-mile trail to Mesa Arch, the 1-mile trail to Upheaval Dome, and the 1-mile trail on Whale Rock (distances roundtrip). These were all spectacular and unique hikes.

One of my favorite places to eat while we were going in and out of Moab was Moonflower Community Cooperative. It’s a charming little health foods store with a lot of vegan products. We bought pre-made tofu sandwiches, house-made soup, and a peanut butter chocolate mousse that was amazing! We also stocked up on chips and crackers. Unfortunately, I didn’t get any photos.

Armed with food for breakfast, we got up before dawn, drove into Arches National Park, and hiked to Delicate Arch to watch the sunrise. Delicate Arch is popular—and crowded—at sunset, and maybe more spectacular, but I loved hiking in the dark of the morning and watching the sun spread over the red rocks.

Later that day we visited a few other arches, including Broken Arch.

For our last lunch in Moab we ate at Red Rock Bakery & Net Cafe. They offer a sandwich called “The Vegan,” so I couldn’t resist. It’s served on house-made bread with hummus, avocado, roasted bell pepper, and greens. We also ordered a coffee and a smoothie.

Our final food stop in Moab was Love Muffin Cafe for breakfast. This is a vegan-friendly cafe and I preferred it to Eklecticafe, although I’d recommend both. Love Muffin has a couple more options, including muffins and a chia pudding with fruit. Steve and Heidi had breakfast burritos.

There were a couple of Mexican restaurants that looked vegan-friendly and we did try one, but it wasn’t my favorite place and they seem to change management often. However, if you’re craving beans and rice, give one of them a try!

Moab is definitely a cool place to visit, and it’s close to three spectacular parks. It’s a small town situated on the highway and feels like a tourist destination, but with enough character to make it fun.

In the next post I’ll talk about eating near Capitol Reef National Park and Bryce Canyon National Park. Stay tuned!

By Lisa Rimmert, VO Director of Development

When we think of great vacation destinations in the Pacific Northwest, most of us think of Portland and Seattle. Both are fantastic cities, but there’s a mid-size port city in between that is surprisingly wonderful too. Tacoma, Washington is about an hour south of Seattle, with a population of just a couple hundred thousand. I recently visited for two days, and I had no idea that I’d like it so much. I hope you like reading about it!

Our first night in town, my husband and I visited Quickie Too, a vegan soul food restaurant in Tacoma’s Hilltop neighborhood. This restaurant is one of several run by Seattle’s Plum Restaurants–their others are Plum Bistro, Plum Pantry, Plum Burgers (a food truck), and Sugar Plum (for desserts). Quickie Too is their original vegan diner, and it’s in Tacoma! It’s small and seemingly unimpressive from the outside, but the food is fantastic. Brad ordered the Burro Diablo, with grilled seitan, brown rice, black beans, grilled onions, spicy chimichurri sauce, lettuce, and tomatoes.

I had the Ayinde’s Chili Mac, a twist on their famous Mac and Yease. Yum!

And what meal is complete without milkshakes? Brad ordered the strawberry, and I ordered the chocolate. They were almost out of chocolate, so they offered me a chocolate and peanut butter shake instead. It was delicious!

After dinner we drove about ten minutes north to Point Defiance Park, a 700-acre park with attractions that I think are great—pretty gardens, beaches, trails, and a boardwalk—and attractions I have no interest in—namely, the zoo and aquarium. We drove down Five Mile Drive, a gorgeous loop lined with old-growth forests, and containing wildlife, bicyclists, and scenic views to pull over and take photos of. Pictured below is yours truly in front of a 450-year-old Douglas fir called the Mountaineer Tree.

On our short drive, we saw birds, deer, and even raccoons!

I couldn’t believe how full each day felt here. There was just so much to do and see! The next day we drove two hours or so to Mount Rainier National Park. It may be cheating to write about that in a blog post about Tacoma, but I’m including it because it’s an easy drive and an incredible place to visit for anyone visiting Tacoma. We did some Googling the day before and found many trails to choose from. In the end, we chose Silver Falls Trail because, well, there was a waterfall. Enough said.

Silver Falls Trail is a loop, totaling about three miles. I’d describe it as easy to moderate—there were a couple of uphill portions. The waterfall was an excellent payoff at the loop’s halfway point. We admired it for a while, took some photos, and then headed back on the other side of the river.

When we returned to Tacoma, we took a quick nap followed by the perfect post-hike dinner at Viva Tacoma. We ordered the sesame ginger Cauliflower “Wings,” which were different than any I’ve tasted before. I’m used to them being flavored with buffalo or barbecue sauce, which I love, but these were great too.

For our entrees, I ordered the Raw Enchiladas. Typically I’m not a big fan of raw food–namely dishes that are traditionally warm but are served cold or at room temperature. These enchiladas were listed as a favorite on the Viva menu, so I went for it. They came with seasoned walnut “meat,” cabbage, and nut cheese wrapped in a sweet cashew tortilla and topped with lettuce, enchilada sauce, pico de gallo, cashew sour cream, and avocado. They were excellent.

Brad ordered the Viva La Burger, a veggie burger with jalapeno cashew mayo, lettuce, tomato, and cucumber. He reported that it was yummy, too. Viva was a big hit!

Our last exciting venture was whale watching. I have only done this once—while living in Monterey, California in 2006—and Brad never has. It was pretty pricey, but well worth it in my opinion. There are many companies to choose from, and many starting points all around Seattle. We chose the Puget Sound Express because they’re family owned, and we drove from Tacoma to the Port of Edmonds to embark.

Almost right away, we saw a couple of grey whales, which the naturalists on board said is rare. They were awesome and enormous. I took a couple of photos, but they didn’t do the whales justice.

Our main attraction was a group of transient orcas that the crew could hear chattering via hydrophone. On our way to see the whales, the naturalists played their live sounds for us over the ship’s speaker system, and it was pretty neat. They also played us a sound recording of resident orcas—the two make very different calls, which was interesting to hear. Below is an image of the pod of orcas we saw. The males have huge dorsal fins, so you can see one of them the best, on the right side of the photo. The other male must have been diving at the time of this shot. On the left side of the photo, you can see a group of females and young whales.

The naturalists aboard the ship gave us some history of the area. We went past Whidbey Island, the site of the Intersectional Justice Conference some of my VO colleagues attended in March. The naturalists also told us about the history of orcas in the Pacific Northwest. They included the story of the captures that used to take place, and they recommended watching Blackfish. They told us that in 1970 more than ninety orcas were herded into a net near the Puget Sound. Since orcas are incredibly sensitive and bonded to their families, many of the adults stayed with their young and were taken too. The whales were rounded up to sell to marine parks like SeaWorld. It’s always a downer to hear sad stories of inhumane treatment of animals, but I was very thankful that the naturalists took the opportunity to educate about this. I recommend readers watch Blackfish if you haven’t yet seen it. In it, there is footage from the Puget Sound capture.

Seeing orcas in the water, swimming with their families, was priceless. I’ll never forget it, or the rest of my trip to Tacoma. If you ever find yourself in the Pacific Northwest, I’d recommend a stop in Tacoma for sure!

Sam Tucker, VO’s Australia & New Zealand Outreach Coordinator, has handed out 30,395 booklets at 27 different schools this semester!

At the University of Melbourne, Sam (above) and volunteers Savannah Rain (below), Alysha Bond, Gali Schell, and Joe handed out 2,450 booklets on March 2—a new record for the Parkville campus!

The following day, Sam teamed with Jenny Li (below), Dilan Fernando, and Kieran Watkins at Monash University, and together they reached more than 2,000 students at the Clayton campus!

At the University of Canterbury on March 17, Sam and volunteer Jennifer Riley (below) handed out 800 booklets:

It’s been a pretty massive first week in New Zealand—traveled all the way from Hamilton to Dunedin (1,300 km driving plus a three-hour ferry between the two main islands) and leafleted three different universities.

Students have been really receptive and friendly—virtually everyone has been taking a leaflet. Already had four people email the address on the back of the leaflet asking for a Guide to Cruelty-Free Eating, and ran into lots of people I knew from high school who have since gone vegan! I used the last of my Compassionate Athlete booklets at UC, which were given to anyone that was wearing a rugby jersey until I ran out.

Sam, Jesse Wheeler, and Kyle Bueno leafleted the Waikato Institute of Technology on March 22 and set a new record for the Hamilton City campus:

We leafleted at Wintec until we hit the point where literally everyone we were offering a leaflet to had already gotten one by the early afternoon, so we did the rest of the day at the University of Waikato. Huge number of people reading straight away and huge number of people who were already vegetarian or vegan.

I had a good conversation with someone who was already vegetarian and keen to go vegan, just needed some more information. On the flip side, there were also a lot of hunters and farmers, as Hamilton is in the middle of a large rural area. I handled that by saying things like, “Even if you hunt, surely you can at least agree that animals shouldn’t be kept in cages so small they can’t even turn around for most their lives,” to which most people agreed and took a leaflet.

Visit Sam’s Team Vegan page and have your donation doubled today! The more money raised, the more animals spared from suffering.