In our latest video, we take you inside the ALL-VEGAN restaurant in Sacramento called Garden To Grill! Click the image to play the video, and let us know your favorite all-vegan restaurant in the comments below!

By Vic Sjodin, Director of International Outreach

We’re excited to announce a new college-leafleting record! For the fall 2015 semester, Adopt a College activists have reached 1,174,739 students, busting our previous all-time semester record of 1,098,979.

A record 639 activists participated this semester – that’s 305 more participants than just two years ago! We’re not only affecting students, but also introducing hundreds of caring people to animal advocacy! This semester we also crossed the pond to leaflet in the United Kingdom for the first time.

Leading the charge this semester is Vegan Outreach’s traveling Outreach Coordinator Steven Litrov, who has reached 74,790 students during his first full semester of touring. Way to go Steven!

Close behind is indefatigable Steve Erlsten in Northern California, who has handed a booklet to 73,254 students. Steve is now the fourth most prolific leafleter of all time!

Leading volunteer efforts is John Sakars, who has reached a whopping 57,261 students in Canada, Upstate New York, and the Southeast. Kimberly Moffatt toured the United Kingdom, Southern California, and the Southwest as a volunteer, reaching 37,657 students.

On September 23, we were just 11 booklets shy of reaching 32,000 students with the plight of farm animals in a single day! There were many such monster days of outreach this semester – we reached more than 20,000 students on 15 different days!

Thank you to all who braved the elements and stood on the pavement smiling away while handing out booklets. I hope everyone who is a part of the Vegan Outreach family takes a lot of pride in what we’re accomplishing together. This outstanding semester couldn’t have happened without all of you, especially those who generously donate to make this work possible!

VO Outreach Coordinator Thomas Goodman (below, left) has personally handed booklets to 23,340 students at 38 different campuses this semester! And longtime Adopt a College activist John Sakars (below, right) is this fall’s most prolific volunteer – traveling with Thomas through Canada and Upstate New York, and later with Yuri Mitzkewich, VO’s Southeast Outreach Coordinator, John has placed booklets into the hands of 54,000 students at 66 different schools!

After reaching 1,050 Dawson College students with John on October 2, Thomas wrote:

Today, more than any day on the tour yet, was filled with so many positive one-on-one interactions with individuals professing their interest in becoming involved with activism in their community.

There were also a few stories I’d like to share: One individual heard from a friend that there were two people handing out literature from VO, and she was inspired to come meet us. Another individual has been leaning toward lessening her meat intake and is going to begin starting Meatless Mondays. Lastly, there was a young man who mentioned he became a vegetarian nearly one year ago to motivate his father to lessen his meat intake for his health. He said that while he did it for his dad originally, he is thinking of now going vegan for animals!

Above (from left) are Yuri, Natalie Boydstun, and John at the University of Florida, where they handed out 4,356 booklets on December 7 with help from Alec Neller and Nick Salamun, breaking the previous campus record set by John and Yuri in October! When John handed a Your Choice booklet to Rosa (above, right), she was excited to tell him that she had already become pescatarian last fall after receiving a VO booklet on campus.

Today, your donation will help twice as many people move toward a vegan diet: Donate now to receive dollar-for-dollar matching!

As of December 4, Steve Erlsten, VO’s Northern California Outreach Coordinator, has already placed Vegan Outreach booklets into the hands of 71,590 students at 99 different schools this semester!

Above is Steve with Taylor Walton, a Fresno State student he met in September:

Taylor stopped by to ask if I needed some help. The second big rush was about to start, so I gave her some booklets and let her hand out as many as she could without much instruction. Once the class change died down I asked if she had leafleted before, and we started talking about activism. When I asked if she was vegan, her response made my day.

She said she decided to go vegan this morning after getting a booklet from me! She had been trying not to think about how the animals are treated, but the booklet made that impossible. On her first day as a vegan she handed out 500 booklets!

When we were finished, she asked to take a photo of me for a class art project. She is going to sketch people who have had an impact on her life – including me.

Taylor not only went vegan and volunteered on the spot, but also joined Steve in setting a new leafleting record for her campus!

Now you can inspire twice as many new vegans – and new vegan activists: Have your donation matched today and double your impact for animals!

You probably know about VO’s current matching donation drive — any donation made this month will be matched dollar-for-dollar!

But did you know that if you donate appreciated stock to VO, you won’t have to pay taxes on the gain and you’ll get to claim the value of the stock as a tax deduction?!*

Your donation of stock this month will be a double win for VO with your gift matched 100%, and a double win for you on your taxes!

If you’re able to make a stock donation, please contact Lisa Rimmert, Director of Development, at [email protected].

Don’t delay if you’d like a deduction for 2015! Thank you!

*View IRS Publication 526 for details and speak to a financial adviser.

VO Outreach Coordinator Lori Stultz has personally handed booklets to 52,082 students at 67 different schools this semester!

Lori kicked off the semester in California, where she single-handedly reached more than 5,500 students her first three days in action! Below (from left) are a couple of the students who were inspired to go vegan after receiving booklets at Cerritos College; and Conner, a new vegetarian Lori met at SUNY New Paltz: “He said that he hoped to one day make the full transition to an animal-free diet. When I offered him a Guide to Cruelty-Free Eating, he said it was exactly what he needed at this point in his journey.”

In October, Lori teamed with Adopt a College volunteers Steph Chocko and Kathy Carlsson at Stony Brook University, where they reached 2,000 students in a single day: “One student came back to us after receiving a Compassionate Choices booklet, floored by the information. He told us he’d never eat another pig, especially after reading about Emily. He was about to go home and make oatmeal for breakfast and asked us what he should use in place of cows’ milk. I gave him a Guide and had an enjoyable conversation with him about the wide variety of dairy-milk alternatives.”

Now you can spare twice as many farmed animals from suffering: Donate today and receive dollar-for-dollar matching!

(click the link to play video)