Impact of 10 Weeks to Vegan

 

2023 Randomized Controlled Survey

10 Weeks to Vegan is a weekly email series from Vegan Outreach containing tips, recipes, and resources for those interested in learning more about animal-free eating. We’ve adapted versions for 55 different countries and regions.

In 2022-23, Vegan Outreach conducted a survey to assess the effectiveness of our 10 Weeks to Vegan program by including a randomized control group. Previously, we’ve conducted numerous surveys to determine whether participants had converted to vegetarian or vegan at the end of 12 weeks and 6 months with very high rates of change (you can see the results of those surveys below). But we wanted to include a control group to see if people who sign up for 10 Weeks to Vegan were likely to change even if they hadn’t received the series.

Methodology

The surveys ran in Chile, Vietnam, and the United States. Instagram and Facebook users in our target audience were shown our typical ads used to pique interest in learning more about going vegan (the image at the top of this page is representative of ads we typically run). When someone clicked on the ad, they were taken to a screen explaining that we were conducting research and asking if they would take part. We let them know that if they agreed to participate, they might not receive any information about becoming vegan for 12 weeks. If they declined to participate, we sent them to our usual signup form for 10 Weeks to Vegan and they were not part of the study.

To encourage participation, we told them that they would be added to a raffle in which two randomly chosen participants per month, from each country, would win a $50 Amazon gift card (U.S. and Chile) or a 500,000 VND Tiki voucher (Vietnam).

If they agreed to participate, they were presented with a pre-test survey. After they took the survey, they were randomly assigned to be in either the treatment group (receiving the usual emails from the 10 Weeks to Vegan program) or the control group (receiving no emails). People in the treatment group were also invited to be part of the 10 Weeks to Vegan Facebook support group for their country. After 12 weeks, both the treatment and control groups were sent a post-test survey to fill out.

Conversion Rates

The main outcome we measured was the net conversion rate of the treatment and control groups. We defined a conversion as someone who reported going from meat-eater to vegetarian, from meat-eater to vegan, or from vegetarian to vegan. A recidivist was someone who changed in the opposite direction. The net conversion rate was the number of conversions minus the number of recidivists divided by the total number of participants.

We measured whether someone was a meat-eater, vegetarian, or vegan in two different ways:

  • Based on diet frequency (how often they eat various categories of animal products)
  • Based on how they self-identify: meat-eater, flexitarian, pescatarian, lacto-ovo vegetarian, or vegan

We asked the diet frequency questions before asking how they identify so as not to predispose them to answer the diet frequency questions according to how they identify. We considered flexitarians and pescatarians to be meat-eaters.

Unfortunately, we made an error on the Vietnam self-identify questions rendering those responses unusable, but we were able to include the data for the diet frequency questions.

Results

The survey began in April of 2022 and lasted until June of 2023.

Our response rates were relatively low, as seen in the chart below.

2023-RCS-response-rates-Impact-10W.png

We suspect that the response rate for the control group was higher than that for the treatment group because the treatment group’s post-test was longer than the control group’s. We also suspect that Chile had a higher response rate because their potential reward was relatively higher than the U.S. or Vietnam’s reward. We notified people about the post-test up to two times.

The conversion rates are shown in our Google spreadsheet, 2023 Randomized, Controlled Survey of 10 Weeks to Vegan Program.

2023-RCS-conversion-rates-Impact-10W.png

On that spreadsheet, we did three different analyses:

  1. Purple headings: Included all participants except the treatment participants who didn’t receive the 10 Weeks to Vegan emails, the control group participants who received the 10 Weeks to Vegan emails (by signing up in a different way), and the participants who chose the first answer for each question (which were incongruous and an indication someone was simply filling out the survey to be part of the raffle).
  2. Blue headings: Included only treatment group participants who reported joining the Facebook support group and opening at least 4 of the 10 Weeks to Vegan emails (the “committed group”) and control group participants who reported not seeking info on how to become veg after taking the pre-test (an “uncommitted” group).
  3. Yellow headings: Included all participants, even those excluded in the first (purple) analysis.

As with our previous surveys, there was a high rate of change between the pre-tests and post-tests.

Generally, for the United States and Vietnam arms, there was a difference between the treatment and control groups with mostly small overlaps between the 95% confidence intervals, giving us confidence that 10 Weeks to Vegan is having an impact.

For example, for the United States purple analysis, the treatment group had a 21% (95% CI: 14-30%) conversion rate based on diet frequency questions and a 20% (95% CI: 13-29%) conversion rate based on the identification questions, compared to the control group’s conversion rates of 12% (95% CI: 8-19%) and 14% (95% 9-20%), respectively.

In Chile, the only comparisons that showed a positive impact for the treatment group (where there wasn’t a large overlap between the confidence intervals) was in comparing the committed treatment group to the control group (for the diet frequency questions only). For the self-identify questions, the control group actually converted at a higher rate than did the treatment group (without a large overlap of confidence intervals).

Discussion

This randomized controlled survey showed that in the United States and Vietnam, participants taking part in 10 Weeks to Vegan were more likely to convert to vegetarian or vegan than participants randomized to a control group. Participants in the treatment group in Chile didn’t convert at a higher rate than the control group.

We haven’t figured out a good way to control for self-selection bias—in other words, the bias that people who are more interested in going vegan are more likely to take the survey. Making the reward higher could decrease this self-selection bias, but doing so could increase the bias that people who care about the reward—who might not be representative of the average participant in 10 Weeks to Vegan—are more likely to take the survey. In one of our past surveys, where each participant received a $5 gift card, we found a high rate of fraudulent participants.

Based partly on the results of our randomized controlled survey, we direct our ad spending for 10 Weeks to Vegan to countries where we get the most new members in our 10 Weeks to Vegan support groups; there are 49 such groups serving the many countries in which we actively promote 10 Weeks to Vegan. In 2023, we’ve averaged over 6,000 new members per month in these support groups.

In this survey, our first randomized controlled survey, we found a much higher post-test response rate among the control group. We believe this is because the treatment group’s post-test was significantly longer than the control group’s. One modification we’ll be implementing is to reduce the number of questions for the treatment group’s post-test and to allow the data to be submitted once they’ve answered the critical questions—the same questions that the control group receives.

This randomized controlled survey of 10 Weeks to Vegan is studying the impact on people who sign up through our ads but not those who, albeit in much smaller numbers, come to us organically. We’re working on ways to study those who sign up organically.

We’re in the process of adding required pre-test surveys for all 10 Weeks to Vegan participants in every country who signs up online, along with optional post-test surveys (we have no choice but to make the post-test optional). While these surveys won’t have a control group, they should allow for country-to-country comparisons and allow us to continue to monitor the program’s effectiveness.

We’re also planning a second randomized controlled survey, but it will be some time before that begins.

2022 and Previous Surveys

To assess the effectiveness of 10 Weeks to Vegan, we surveyed United States, Mexico, and India 10 Weeks to Vegan and Get Healthy participants before and after they began the email series. In order to evaluate long-term change, we sent out a follow-up survey to those in the United States for whom it has been ≥6 months since completing the series.

Methodology

The pre-test was emailed to participants within a week after they signed up for 10 Weeks to Vegan. We sent the post-test approximately two weeks after people finished the entire 10 Weeks to Vegan series. To encourage participation, we offered two randomly chosen participants per month a $50, $300 peso, or 1,500 INR, respectively, Amazon gift card.

We evaluated responses from participants who received 10 Weeks to Vegan, took both the pre-test and the post-test, and reported reading at least one email. In total, we evaluated responses from 500 US participants, 105 Mexico participants, 63 India participants, and 103 Get Healthy participants.

We asked people how often they eat various animal and plant products. The pre-test asks how often participants ate various animal products in the last month and the post-test asks how often in the last week. We follow the food intake questions with a question about whether they identify as a meat-eater, vegetarian, or vegan.

We considered those who moved from being a meat-eater to vegetarian or vegan, or from being a vegetarian to vegan, as a positive change. We classified those who moved in the reverse direction (vegan to vegetarian or meat-eater, or vegetarian to meat-eater) as a negative change. However, anyone whose self-identity was vegetarian or vegan at the pre-test and moved in a negative direction at post-test was cross-checked to see if their diet frequency showed otherwise. We counted the net changes for our total conversion figures.

For people who, based on food intake, misclassified themselves as a vegetarian or vegan in the identity question at pre-test and then reverted to a meat-eater or vegetarian at posttest, we didn’t count their reversal as a net negative. In these cases, we assume that they didn’t understand the definition of “vegetarian” or “vegan” at pre-test but then learned the definition during the series. The conversion rates would be inaccurate if we considered such people as having reverted simply because they learned the definition.

We further adjusted the results to reflect findings from the control group in our past Leafleting Effectiveness Study (LES). The LES asked the same food intake question as our 10 Weeks to Vegan surveys. We found that those in our control group had a conversion rate of 1.6%. Because we would have used this same methodology if we had a control group for our 10 Weeks to Vegan surveys, we subtracted the 1.6% rate from all our net conversion rates to arrive at the final, adjusted rates shown in the table below.

Additionally, we compared the results of those who signed up in-person versus online. In-person sources primarily came from those who signed up through public outreach on college campuses or local events. Online signups came from those who signed up via an online ad or through our website.

We determined p-values using a McNemar test comparing non-vegans at pre-test to total conversions at post-test.

Results

We received the following response rates to the surveys:

  • US pre-test: 7%
  • US post-test: 15.5% of those who took the pre-test
  • US ≥6-months post-series follow-up: 30% of those who took the post-test
  • Mexico pre-test: 10.5%
  • Mexico post-test: 10% of those who took the pre-test
  • India pre-test: 3%
  • India post-test: 10.5% of those who took the pre-test
  • Get Healthy pre-test: 9.5%
  • Get Healthy post-test: 12.5% of those who took the pre-test

The adjusted conversion rates in the table below show what percentage of participants moved in a positive direction—either from meat-eater to vegetarian or vegan, or from vegetarian to vegan. In all but one instance, those who signed up online showed the greatest change.

10W-Impact-All-Surveys-Table.png

All findings for the United States 10 Weeks to Vegan and Get Healthy were statistically significant. All but the in-person diet frequency results for Mexico were statistically significant. Because the pool of respondents from India was relatively small, the findings didn’t reach statistical significance.

Follow-up Results

We followed up with 143 US participants 6 months or longer after they’d completed 10 Weeks to Vegan. The results were very encouraging. There was no statistically meaningful recidivism between the time that they completed the post-test and the follow-up survey.

There was a slight improvement in in-person outreach and a slight decrease in online. The differences between the two were only statistically significant for the self-identity question.

Below are the results from the initial pre-test to the ≥6-month follow-up survey.

10W-1-to-10W-3-Impact-Table.png

Based on this data, it appears that our work is having a lasting effect.

Soy coffees in corporates | 23K+ students trying vegan

In the second quarter of 2023, our programs in India have reached new milestones, thanks to your unwavering support. Here are some exciting updates:

456,790 kgs/ 1,007,050 Pounds of Animal Products Reduced!

  • We have reached 91% of our annual goal with 6 more months to go!
  • We reduced 88,400 kgs/194,889 pounds of paneer and 263,940 liters of milk, marking the highest dairy reduction achieved in a quarter. Tech Mahindra agreed to reduce 18,200 kgs/ 40,124 pounds of paneer and 136,500 liters of milk in the second phase of reductions. They will also offer soy milk to their staff as an alternative to milk.

  • We are also excited to share that we will soon launch the Green Tuesday Initiative in Vietnam, expanding our impact further.

    Our Latest Successes

    23,000+ Students Are Now Trying Vegan

  • 23,664 students signed up for the 10 Weeks to Vegan challenge through our Adopt a College webinars.
  • Collaborated with 800+ colleges and organized 76 webinars to raise awareness about animal rights, shedding light on the issue of speciesism.

    Learn More

    Meet Nija

    Nija Dillon has joined the India Outreach team as the Outreach Coordinator of Gujarat. With her dedication, she has successfully signed up 6,971 students to our 10 Weeks to Vegan program and organized engaging Food Planet Health awareness webinars with more than 100 colleges. Nija’s commitment to creating positive change is truly inspiring.

    Your support has been instrumental in enabling us to hire the right talent and to achieve these remarkable milestones. Help us make an even greater impact by becoming a monthly donor—monthly gifts help save more animals all year long.

    Become Our Monthly Sustainer



    With gratitude,

    Richa Mehta,
    Director of Programs, India

    • Vegan Ceviche

    Pura Vida, Costa Rica!

    We’re so excited to share with you that we’ve just launched our newest 10 Weeks to Vegan program for Latin America, Semanario Vegano Costa Rica! With the support of local activists, it has been possible to create a culturally relevant program that will provide support to those who want to give veganism a try. Here is a vegan take on a traditional fish-based dish!


    The original version of this is made with soursop, which is native to tropical areas of the Americas. Since it is difficult to find in the United States, we have substituted oyster mushrooms. Let us know what you think!

    Ingredients:

    • 250 grams of chipped oyster mushrooms (approx 2-1/2 cups)
    • 1 pepper
    • 1 medium white onion
    • 1 medium purple onion
    • A handful of cilantro (coriander)
    • The juice of 5-6 limes
    • Salt and pepper to taste
    • 1 teaspoon of olive oil
    • Avocado, chili pepper, and crackers

    Directions:

    Start by slicing the mushrooms in a shape that you like, finely chop the onions, and the sweet pepper, dice the cilantro and place everything in a bowl. Add the olive oil, salt, and pepper to taste and mix well. Squeeze the juice of 5-6 limes—it should be enough to cover part of the ingredients. Make sure everything is well mixed and let the ceviche bowl sit in the fridge for at least 30 minutes, this will intensify the flavor. Once you’re ready to eat it, add avocado on top and eat it with crackers.

    Tip:

    You can also change the base of this recipe with chickpeas, hearts of palm (palmitos), cauliflower, or texturized vegetable protein (TVP). If you miss the taste of seafood, try adding chopped seaweed, you’ll notice that this will make a huge difference!

    Our Best Q1 so Far, and Here’s Why!

    I’m excited to update you about the first quarter of 2023. We did webinars with 200 colleges, reduced 220,462 pounds of meat and dairy through Green Tuesday successes, organized workshops for our GT partners, and more!

    We can inspire more vegans and end animal agriculture with your support. Become our monthly sustainer today!
    Donate Today

    200 Colleges Joined the Food Planet Health Webinar Sessions!


    In the last quarter, our outreach team organized three outreach tours in three different states of India and educated students about speciesism.

  • 200 colleges participated in the webinars.
  • 6000+ students joined the 10 Weeks to Vegan program.

    Learn more

    Our Green Tuesday Initiative Successes

    Hyderabad EV week:

    We partnered with Hyderabad EV Week, a kickoff week before the Hyderabad Grand E Prix. Plant-based food was served at their marquee events, such as Rall-E Hyderabad, EV Summit, and the Mobility startup challenge.

    Q1 Pondicherry tour is a success:

    Pondicherry University(PU), one of India’s most prominent universities, will reduce 125,002 pounds of chicken and 104,168 pounds of dairy consumption annually.

    PCRM collaboration with Green Tuesday Initiative:
    Hundreds of employees from Tech Mahindra and Incture Technologies joined the workshop organized by Green Tuesday and Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine(PCRM).

    Our Latest Successes

    Building an Online Community for New Vegans!

    In the last quarter, our outreach team organized three outreach tours in three different states of India and educated students about speciesism.

  • The 10 Weeks to Vegan website helped more than 11,000 people with resources and information about veganism.
  • Our online communities on Facebook, Instagram, and Telegram are helping more than 5,000 people in their transition.

    We could do all these only because of you. Thank you for supporting our important work. Share our newsletter within your network and inspire your friends to help animals!

    Share it over email



    With gratitude,

    Richa Mehta,
    Director of Programs, India

    • Pasta With White Sauce

    By Frederico Maciel de Mello

    I’m not a super cook so I like easy recipes. Here is one of my favorites.

    Ingredients:

    • 4 tablespoons of vegan butter or olive oil (with vegan butter it is much tastier)
    • 4 tablespoons of wheat flour
    • 500 ml of cashew nut milk (you can use unsweetened milk, but cashew nut milk is great because it has a neutral flavor)
    • Salt, black pepper and nutmeg to taste.

    Directions:

    •  In a heated pan put the butter and let it melt. Add the flour and stir for about 2 minutes with the help of a spoon or spatula
    • Add the milk all at once and, with the help of a wire whisk, mix well until it boils
    • Put the fire down and let it cook for about 5 minutes, stirring from time to time
    • Finally, season generously with nutmeg, salt and black pepper
    • Yields approximately 400 grams of sauce
    • Add to your favorite pasta and enjoy!

    Our goals for 2023!

    We did incredible things in 2022 with the support of our generous donors and hardworking staff. We have even bigger goals for 2023, and we need you more than ever!

    Our goals for 2023

    Here’s the difference your contribution can make in 2023:

  • Inspire 50,000 new students to sign up for the 10 Weeks to Vegan Program in India.
  • Reduce 992,080 pounds of animal products – 694,456 pounds of meat and 297,624 pounds of dairy products.
  • Expand the Green Tuesday Initiative to Vietnam.


    We couldn’t have done it without you!

    We exceeded both our outreach and Green Tuesday Initiative goals in 2022. Here’s what we achieved with your support.

    Vegan Outreach is possible because of YOU—together, we can stop animal suffering by helping people go vegan.

    Donate Today


    With gratitude,

    Richa Mehta,
    Director of Programs, India

    • Leafleting with Vegan Outreach—Australia and New Zealand

    By Sam Tucker, Australia and New Zealand Outreach Coordinator

    Sam Tucker

    Ever since I first learned about the suffering of animals in factory farms and slaughterhouses, I’ve wanted to do more to help than just change my diet. Don’t get me wrong, simply eating vegan or vegetarian does make a huge difference—in fact, going vegetarian represents sparing about 35 mammals, birds, and fish every year. But if we can inspire just one other person to change their diet, we’ve already doubled our impact for animals!

    Through advocating for others to adopt a more compassionate diet, we can save thousands of more animals than we ever could have through changing our own dietary choices alone.

    I’ve been vegan for more than eight years, and since then I’ve been involved in many different forms of activism, including organizing and attending protests, hosting an animal rights radio show, creating YouTube videos, and running websites. But of all the forms of activism I’ve been involved in, I’ve found leafleting at universities with Vegan Outreach to be one of the most fun, easy, and effective ways to inspire people to adopt a compassionate diet.

    Almost every day that I leaflet, people tell me they want to go vegan or vegetarian after reading about the horrors of factory farming. A study conducted by Farm Sanctuary in 2013 found that about 1 in 50 students who receive a leaflet go vegetarian or pescatarian. You could spend just one hour leafleting, hand out 100 leaflets or many more and there could be many new vegetarians!

    Considering that the average meat-eating person will eat about 2,000 animals in their lifetime, that one hour of leafleting has the potential to spare thousands of animals.

    Sam Tucker

    As well as being an effective way to save animals, leafleting is also easy to do! Most people simply take a leaflet and say, “thank you” or don’t take a leaflet and say, “No, thank you.” The people who stop to talk are usually doing so to ask questions about going veg or to tell you that they’re already veg. Overall, I’ve found that the general reaction from the public is very positive.

    Virtually everybody is against animal cruelty. Most people simply don’t realize how much cruelty and suffering is inherent in the production of food made from animals or how easy it is to replace animal food products in your diet. When we educate people about this in a friendly, positive, and non-confrontational way, they’re very often receptive to our message.

    So, go ahead and give leafleting a shot!

    Visit this page for more information.

    7000+ students in 1 month | 1.1 million pounds of animals products reduced

    This year our focus has been strengthening foundations and building long-term relations with key stakeholders and organizations. It all paid off in getting closer to our goals and helping animals in India. Here’s how.

    Adopt A College Virtual Tour in Two States

    We collaborated with the Ministry of Youth Affairs, an entity of the Indian government, early last quarter to conduct nationwide webinars in association with the National Service Scheme (NSS).
    We leveraged this collaboration to organize two virtual tours with universities in Maharashtra and Karnataka.

    Highlights include:

  • 13 webinars with 106 colleges
  • Reached 7,000+ students
  • 6,631 students signed up for 10 Weeks to Vegan

    Our Journey with Tech Mahindra

    Our journey with Tech Mahindra, a tech giant in India, started in August 2021 with one campus in Hyderabad. We have continued to engage with their teams across India and expanded the Green Tuesday Initiative to 18 campuses in 7 locations so far.


    Highlights include:

  • 0.5 Mn kgs/1.1 Mn pounds of animal products prevented from being served. 18 campuses of Tech Mahindra joined Green Tuesday Initiative
  • Organized 2 awareness workshops for India and global facility teams

    Senior Campaigns Manager Part of Government Sustainability Committee

    Bhavya Vatrapu from our India team is now part of the Telangana government’s strategy team for sustainability initiatives. It’s a core working group set up by the IT department to promote sustainability initiatives in the state. Other members in the core group include sustainability team members from HSBC, Microsoft, HYSEA, CCI, and other government officials.
    This will open up opportunities for Bhavya to interact with industry leaders and key companies and introduce them to food sustainability.

    Thank you for believing in a better future for animals and enabling this important work.
    We can inspire more vegans and end animal agriculture with your support.

    Donate Today



    With gratitude,

    Richa Mehta,
    Director of Programs, India

    • What’s 529,109? • Bangalore Tour • A Big Thank You

    I’m excited to tell you that our Green Tuesday Initiative reduced 529,109 pounds/ 240,000 kgs of animal products so far in 2022 from getting served. Halfway through 2022, we’ve already reached 60% of our annual goal.

    Recent Campaign Successes

  • VDart Technologies, a tech and business consulting firm based out of Tiruchirappalli, has implemented the Green Tuesday initiative. On 4th May 2022, their sustainability and admin teams came together along with Sidd Ahmed–CEO and Oliver Sam–Vice President, for the virtual accreditation event.
    VDart pledged to reduce their weekly milk and egg consumption. This change will reduce 11,700 eggs and 3,510 liters of milk annually.

  • Tech Mahindra’s new campus joined the Green Tuesday Initiative. This quarter, on World Environment Day, June 5th, Bahadurpally campus started serving meat-free meals to all the employees on Tuesdays.

    This change will reduce 67,600 kgs/ 149,032 pounds of Chicken and 676,000 eggs annually. With this addition, 16 Tech Mahindra campuses are part of the Green Tuesday Initiative.

      Highlights of the Bangalore Tour

      After two years of not traveling due to the pandemic, we did a tour in Bangalore to visit companies and institutions. The tour was indeed very successful. Here are the highlights of the tour:

    • We renewed the Green Tuesday partnership with REVA University, one of the largest universities in India with 15,000+ students. They will now serve meat-free meals 5 days a week. This change will reduce 62,160 kgs/ 137,039 pounds of chicken annually.
    • Carl Zeiss, a Germany-based optoelectronics manufacturing company, joined Green Tuesday Initiative. They now serve meat-free meals on all days of the week to all their employees. This change will reduce 11,700 kgs/ 25,794 pounds of chicken annually.

      Along with visiting the partners, Bhavya and Sowndarya also got a chance to brainstorm, unwind, do team-building activities, and explore vegan food in Bangalore.

      “I joined Vegan Outreach during the pandemic and never got a chance to meet our partners in person. Bangalore Tour was an excellent opportunity to meet them, visit their cafeterias, understand their perspectives, and position the Green Tuesday Initiative.”

      -Sowndarya Ganesan, Campaigns Specialist

      A Big Thank You

      Thank you for making #TeamVeganMonth a success! With the help of supporters like you, we raised over $137,000 for animals. Each dollar up to our $125,000 goal was matched, which means we can continue to roll out programs to spread veganism to make the world a better place for animals. in India.



      With gratitude,

      Richa Mehta,
      Director of Programs, India

    • Miguel Marrón

    Miguel Marrón

    Continuing our activist profile series, today we’re going to learn more about Miguel Marrón. In fall 2017—his first semester as a traveling Outreach Coordinator—Miguel leafleted 47 schools and handed out 47,885 leaflets. He just kicked off his spring leafleting tour, and he’s already handed out 12,500 leaflets.

    Where are you from and where do you live now?

    I’m from Northern Utah, and I live on the road.

    What got you interested in animal rights and veganism?

    I went vegetarian shortly after a grade school field trip where the class was taken into the mountains and instructed to kill chickens with our hands and pocket knives. Five or six chickens were let loose from cages and chased by a pack of about 50 kids. I remember pushing one of my classmates to the ground so that one of the chickens would have a chance to escape. I soon realized that this sort of thing must be happening all the time in order for us to be eating chicken every night at home.

    When I was 17 years old, I saw Meet Your Meat at a Goldfinger concert. I researched what I saw and realized that going vegan would bring my actions into better alignment with my values and beliefs of not harming others.

    For about five years, I didn’t know any other vegans. Honestly, I think a big part of why I got into activism was to meet other vegans. What keeps me an activist is seeing the results of our efforts and knowing that we’re making a difference. I often get exhilarated when I notice how fast and effective it is to get the animal rights message out to the masses with things like leafleting and pay-per-view.

    How did you get involved with Vegan Outreach and leafleting?

    I got involved with Vegan Outreach around 2010. I started Animal Unanimity, an animal rights student organization at Weber State University. I brought back VO literature from the Animal Rights National Conference in DC. After I distributed all the literature I had, I started ordering literature and leafleting regularly in Ogden, UT.

    What got me interested in VO specifically is how straightforward and fact-based the booklets are. I’ve found leafleting to be very exhilarating. It’s a really amazing way to bring this message to many people very quickly.

    Do you have a favorite leafleting moment to share?

    It’s too hard to choose just one. I’m overwhelmed at how generous the volunteers and hosts have been to me. I’ve been welcomed into the homes of total strangers and met so many amazing people!

    What do you do for fun when you’re not leafleting?

    In some ways, my life hasn’t changed much since I’ve been on the road leafleting. I still enjoy regular yoga and jogging. I also enjoy reading, writing in my journal, and playing Nintendo. Every chance I have, I go into nature and try to identify the plants and mushrooms that I see.

    Do you have anything else you’d like to add about leafleting?

    It’s really cool once an entire campus community has been saturated with VO leaflets. I notice that the topic is on everyone’s minds. I enjoy walking around and listening to students discuss these issues with each other.

    Can you tell us one of your favorite vegan products to share with our readers?

    I enjoy Treeline Cheese.