By Kevin Gallagher, VO Operations Manager

A few months back, I heard through the local vegan grapevine that a new vegan ice cream shop, The Cookie Counter, had recently opened in my city of Seattle, WA in the Greenwood neighborhood.

In fact, checking online, I discovered that prior to their new stand-alone vegan ice cream shop, that the Cookie Counter had since 2014 operated a vegan ice cream truck during the summer.

Curious to sample the sweet tastes of the Cookie Counter’s new storefront shop, I ventured forth on a summer weekend along with my more than willing companions—my brother, Mark Gallagher; Vegan Outreach Board of Directors Vice-Chair, Melissa Li; and Melissa’s adorable chihuahua, Pablo.

Given that it was a warm summer Sunday, we found ourselves at the Cookie Counter’s store at the end of a long line of people that stretched out the door onto the sidewalk. However, as it was a beautiful day, we didn’t mind the wait and just chatted among ourselves. We had ample time to see what the shop’s menu and display cases had for us to enjoy.

All of the Cookie Counter’s ice cream is made from organic coconut milk, and is both soy and gluten-free. Besides ice cream as a single or double scoop in a cone, the Cookie Counter serves vegan sundaes, floats, and shakes. They also make an assortment of baked goods such as cookies, brownies, and pies. And as this is Seattle—the capital of coffee!—the shop includes an espresso bar.

I also had time in line to reflect on the following. My interest in wanting to visit the Cookie Counter was both professional—since I’m a vegan and I work for VO—and partly one of my own personal history. Growing up in suburban Chicago, IL, I and my family had long patronized a local ice cream and candy shop, a shop that was and still is, as they say, “a Chicago landmark institution” now of some 85 years’ standing.

Thanks to this family connection to it, I ended up working for a number of years at that very same suburban Chicago ice cream store during the summer when I was on my breaks from school. Sadly though, this Chicagoland ice cream shop wasn’t vegan, but as I worked there in my vegetarian, pre-vegan days, that didn’t trouble me at the time. Only later, once I became vegan, did I wish that veganized versions of such memorable places existed.

So all of this went through my mind as I was waiting in line at the Cookie Counter. There was nostalgia about the ice cream shop days of my youth in Chicago, and my hope that the vegan ice cream shops of today can create similar strong ties with and memories in their local patrons.

Fortunately, from the looks of it that day in the Cookie Counter, that strength of local connection is being well established. And the Cookie Counter’s ice cream was being much appreciated by old and young patrons alike. This is, after all, rather an integral part of the Cookie Counter’s aim—to provide a nostalgic and enjoyable experience at a neighborhood vegan ice cream shop.

Eventually, Mark, Melissa, Pablo, and I made it to the head of the line and placed our orders for single scoops of lavender flavor ice cream in waffle cones—pretty much the nostalgic ice cream shop treat!

As a former ice cream shop employee, it’s a heresy to admit this, but I’ve never been the biggest ice cream fan. I was always much more drawn to the fruit tastes of sherbet and sorbet, and I stuck to basic vanilla on those rare occasions when I did have ice cream. But as a vegan, I’ve taken a liking to the vegan ice cream I have had.

Given that it was such a glorious summer day in Seattle, we decided, ice cream cones from the Cookie Counter in hand, to have them outside instead of remaining in the comfortable but crowded interior.

Even Pablo was very inquisitive about the ice cream we had in our hands, and we all thought it only fair to let him indulge his sweet tooth as much as we did. So like us, Pablo too got to have a wonderful taste of ice cream on that warm summer’s day!

Though summer has now drifted to autumn—and it being long past peak summer ice cream season—there’s no reason not to enjoy the sweet treats of a vegan ice cream parlor at any time of year. And this is the perfect time of year to sample and enjoy their baked goods. After all, the Cookie Counter is thankfully open year round for one to savor its desserts.

On October 12, 2016, TripAdvisor, the world’s largest travel site, announced a policy change that can’t be easily ignored—

[The company] announced its commitment to launch a set of industry-leading actions, including changes to its policy on selling tickets to animal attractions, and the launch of a new education portal to help inform travelers about the standards of care for wild, captive, and endangered species in tourism and their interactions with tourists, and their impact on wildlife conservation.

This is a huge step in the right direction in terms of raising awareness about wildlife captivity.

To read more information about TripAdvisor’s recent decision, check out the full press release on their website.

By Jamila Alfred, VO Maryland/DC Events and Outreach Coordinator

We all know Russell Simmons as being the ultimate businessman and professional hustler, but not everyone is familiar with his relaxed, compassionate side.

Who would have thought that the long-time hip-hop mogul would become a hardcore yogi, let alone a super-passionate vegan? I definitely didn’t, so reading his engaging book, The Happy Vegan: A Guide to Living a Long, Healthy, and Successful Life, not only helped me learn more about him, but it also reminded me of the main reasons why I chose to live vegan.

The books starts with Simmons telling his personal story of transitioning to a vegan lifestyle and all the cognitive dissonance that came along with it. His experience was similar to many—he ate a lot of animal foods, dabbled in recreational drugs, and overall wasn’t feeling healthy. With his discovery of veganism he now has more energy and zest, which prompted him to share his newfound happiness with the world.

Simmons sectioned off the top factors that concern vegans—ethics, environment, and health—but he also discussed issues that affect communities of color, namely African-Americans. He touched on the concept of soul food being “slave food” since it derived from the time when African slaves were given the scraps of animal carcasses and other swill as meals. I was glad that he touched on this because not many people know about this important historical fact.

His conversational tone and personal stories made this such a fun and relatable read! Simmons, like many other people, thought that by giving up animal products he would be betraying his heritage and culture. He explained that those animal products—among other things— have been killing fellow African-Americans for centuries and invited people of color to understand that veganism is just as much for them as it is for anybody else.

Simmons dropped so much knowledge in an entertaining yet laid-back way, which I’m sure, converted many pre-vegans. It’s clear he wrote this how-to guide for middle-aged people of color, and for that I’m truly grateful! Marginalized groups aren’t usually included in the vegan message, so I think it’s a good idea for people like Russell to continue to speak up for his community.

Get yourself a copy, give it to a friend, and let us—or Russell Simmons himself—know how much you liked it!

Martha Mendoza, Associated Press reporter, talks with NPR’s Kelly McEvers (Sept. 13, 2016) about Slave-Like Conditions on Hawaii Fishing Fleets. Excerpts:

[T]hese are American-flagged boats that are American-owned. And they have American captains. And they’re fishing in a U.S. fishery managed by the federal government. There’s a fleet of about 140 boats with about 700 crew members. Almost all are non-citizen, undocumented men from Southeast Asia in the Pacific. They don’t have visas. And they are never allowed to come onshore.

Read More

If you’re in or near the Baltimore, Maryland area, join the fun at this year’s Vegan SoulFest. The festival is scheduled for Saturday, August 20.

There’ll be several retail exhibitors, featuring local vegan products and delicious food! The festival has a great lineup of speakers and demonstrators, and other entertainment the whole family will enjoy!

Join Vegan Soul, Vegan Outreach, VO’s David Carter—The 300 Pound Vegan—and a ton of great vendors and speakers for the 3rd Annual Vegan Soul Wellness Festival in Oakland, CA. This free event will take place at Laney College on Saturday, September 24.

See you there!

By Lisa Rimmert, VO Director of Development

Each year The Pollination Project—an organization we at VO are big fans of—seeks nominations for vegan activists who work behind the scenes to create a more compassionate world.

The awards are named after the late Lisa Shapiro, an inspiring activist from Boulder, CO.

Lisa would be proud of this year’s winners! Out of all the nominations this year, eleven heroes were chosen—one couple and ten individuals, including our friends Aneeha Patwardhan and Patti Breitman!

Aneeha Patwardhan is an activist who VO’s Director of Outreach Vic Sjodin had the pleasure of meeting while in India. Here’s an excerpt from Vic’s tribute:

I love Aneeha’s endless passion and urgency for animal rights, and for sharing the beauty of veganism with others. She began her work after she came across a Vegan Outreach Facebook post that showed a young man who had gone vegan after getting a booklet. In typical fashion, she immediately ordered booklets of her own, which she and a friend then handed out during a march for animals in Pune, India. She has since helped organize leafleting and video outreach to the public nearly every weekend with local activists.

Read more about Aneeha here.

Patti Breitman is the founder of the Marin Vegetarian Education Group, co-founder of Dharma Voices for Animals, and co-author of the books Never Too Late to Go Vegan: The Over-50 Guide to Adopting and Thriving on a Plant-Based Diet, How to Eat like a Vegetarian Even If You Never Want to Be One, and more. Not only that, but Patti is also a friend and supporter of Vegan Outreach!

Read more about Patti here.

Congratulations to Aneeha, Patti, and the other wonderful Unsung Vegan Heroes!

Liz Dwyer, Culture and Education Editor of TakePart (Oct. 5, 2016) reports that Students Are Going Vegan, and It’s Helping Colleges Trim the Fat. Excerpts:

According to a survey released Tuesday by peta2, the youth division of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, meat- and dairy-free menu items have become one of the hottest things on college cafeteria menus. The organization surveyed nearly 1,500 four-year colleges and universities in the United States and found that 62 percent of schools serve vegan menu items on a daily basis, up from 28 percent in 2014.

A study published in the September 2015 edition of the Journal of Hunger & Environmental Nutrition found that people who go vegetarian spend an average of $750 less on groceries than folks who follow federal dietary recommendations.

Read More

By Katia Rodríguez, Mexico Campaigns and Spanish Media Coordinator

My coworker—Emmanuel Márquez, VO’s Mexico Outreach Coordinator—and I have been traveling together since August. We’ve leafleted in seven different states throughout Mexico, visited several campuses, and have met a lot of young people willing to change their diet for animals.

We’ve handed out over 82,000 leaflets so far, and we’re very grateful because we’ve had some really amazing volunteers join us as we go into different cities. Some of them were experienced volunteers that support us every time we visit their city, and others were new volunteers that ended up loving the experience.

One very special volunteer we met along the way was a 9-year-old boy named Emiliano.

Before getting into all of the details about Emiliano, I would like to talk about his incredible parents. Emiliano’s parents went vegan after hosting Emmanuel in 2015 when he visited Xalapa, Veracruz to do campus outreach. They are loving and supportive parents that teach respect and compassion to their children.

After talking with Emiliano, we became more and more amazed by his compassion and empathy.

A good example of this was when Emiliano visited an animal sanctuary in another state and met two dogs that were siblings. He fell in love with one of the dogs, but told his parents that he wouldn’t be able to adopt just one of the pair. Emiliano could see how much these dogs loved each other and didn’t want to separate them.

His parents decided to let Emiliano adopt both dogs.

When Emiliano heard what Vegan Outreach does, and how many animals a person can save by leafleting, he was very curious about the activity. Emmanuel and I invited him to leaflet with us and he immediately said yes! We gave him a Vegan Outreach t-shirt and he could hardly hold back his tears.

After giving him some quick tips on how to leaflet, he was leafleting like a pro! This 9-year-old superhero handed out 400 leaflets in a single day!

After leafleting, we invited him to go to a restaurant with us where he could enjoy a vegan hot dog!

Emiliano’s parents thanked us for inspiring him, but, honestly, he inspired us. He wants to change the life for millions of animals and he’s off to a great start!