By Lisa Rimmert, Director of Development

Raising money for the work of Vegan Outreach is a team effort all year long. From Josie Moody, who does a thousand jobs including keeping our donor records updated, to Alex Bury, who since January has been providing expertise in a variety of ways, to our Outreach Coordinators and other staff who are out there talking to the masses about VO’s work and why we do it. It really takes a village, and I’m so lucky to work with brilliant and compassionate people like these.

I’m even luckier that in May and June, our team gets even bigger–thanks to the volunteers of Team Vegan! This fundraising campaign, in which all donations are matched by a small group of philanthropists, brings together folks from all walks of life to raise funds for VO’s work. From activists to athletes to VO staff and everything in between, dozens of folks roll up their sleeves and make a huge difference for animals.

How does it work? Simply visit the Team Vegan website and click “Register” to get started. You’ll choose a username, a photo, and a fundraising goal, and you’ll write a little about who you are and why you care about spreading compassion for animals. I’m here to help–with writing this text, or deciding the best ways to ask friends and family to donate. Some Team Vegan members choose an activity to go along with their fundraising–running a 5K, leafleting, or doing anything else you want.

For inspiration, check out what some Team Vegan members are doing:

VO’s Director of Outreach, Vic Sjodin, has been in a cast for the last two months. For every $50 donation to his page, he will walk one mile! He’s raising money for animals as he literally gets back on his feet after an injury. Go Vic!

VO Board Member Melissa Li enlisted her beloved Chihuahua, Pablo, to help her raise funds. If he makes his goal, Pablo will participate in a doggy dash or help Melissa leaflet.

Ricky McCallum wants to help Vegan Outreach while helping friends, family, and neighbors with their computer issues! He suggests a $20-per-hour donation to his Team Vegan page. So creative!

Emily and Brian are a father-daughter fundraising team. While they’re not sure yet what activity they want to do, they’re not wasting any time before starting to raise funds. Their Team Vegan page is up and running with a great photo and story to inspire donations!

Get in on the fun now! Register for your own Team Vegan page today.

Thank you!

Reviewed by Josie Moody.

What’s one of the best things about being vegan? Testing out new recipes, of course!

I had the perfect opportunity do so using Terry Hope Romero’s newest cookbook, Vegan Eats World: 300 International Recipes for Savoring the Planet.

Her previous cookbooks, Veganomicon, Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar, and Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World all have homes in my cookbook library.

This book was user friendly in so many ways. It has easy, readable directions, colorful pictures and a mixture of recipes that left me wondering how one woman could continue to come up with interesting and tasty ways to prepare food.

I flipped through the pages, trying to decide which recipes would, literally, make the cut. Although the book focuses on dishes from around the world, I wanted to choose twists on something familiar. I also didn’t want to blow my grocery budget on expensive, obscure ingredients. Luckily, it was easy to do as recipes are categorized based on the time needed to prepare, ingredients, level of difficulty, expense, and more.

See below for the three recipes I chose and how they turned out.

I look forward to using Vegan Eats World again and again as I go on many more excursions, all from the comfort of my own kitchen!

By Jon Camp, Vegan Outreach Executive Vice President

Whether you’re new to vegan eating or are a long-time vegan looking to shake things up in your kitchen, eating vegan just got a lot easier, thanks to Lighter, a Boston start-up. Lighter provides a personal nutritionist who creates your custom menus and has all your groceries delivered right to your door. The company is on a mission to make healthy eating convenient, affordable, and delicious.

How it works is: You sign up for a meal plan, and once a week, Lighter delivers a week’s worth of groceries and the recipes for however many meals you selected. You can select which ingredients you don’t wish to be in your recipes, the ideal amount of prep time you’d like, and you can pause your plan for as long as you need.

Around a month ago, I decided to give this a shot. I opted for the plan that provides 9 meals a week. I asked that olives (yuck) not be included in my recipes, but that anything else was fair game, and that prep time for my average meal be 15-30 minutes. I pay $65 a week, and each Monday, a friendly individual knocks on my door with a bag full of fresh fruits and vegetables, grains, legumes, spices, and some snacks. I receive an email with my recipes for the week, and I’m all set.

Some of my favorite meals so far have “Quick Thai Chickpeas,” “Pasta Puttanesca,” and “Zesty Sweet Potatoes & Black Beans.” Not only are these meals more consistently delicious, interesting, and healthy than what I had been eating in my pre-Lighter days, they’re remarkably simple to make and I’m not having to hem and haw over what I’m going to eat or where I’m going to find the recipe. I’m a busy guy, and I’m not known for my culinary creativity. Having a variety of pre-designed healthy meals has been a big boon to my wellbeing; I feel great while on the plan, and I’ve shed a few pounds that I had been wanting to shed.

Lighter now delivers in: Atlanta, Austin, Boulder, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia, Portland, San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle, and Washington, D.C.

To learn more, visit www.lighterculture.com.

Activists Taylor Holman, Brian Alexander, Alix Pulido, and David Pinski are four of this semester’s most prolific Adopt a College leafleters: Taylor has handed out 8,390 booklets at 16 different schools; Brian, 8,101 booklets at 12 schools; Alix, 7,987 booklets at 12 schools; and David, 7,541 booklets at 9 schools!

Above (from left) are David at Cal State Dominguez Hills, and Alix, Brian, and Taylor at Chaffey College.

On February 16, Taylor and Brian teamed up at Los Angeles Pierce College (above) and set a new one-day record for the campus, handing out 1,189 booklets!

On January 27, Alix, David, VO Outreach Coordinator Steven Litrov, and fellow activists handed out 3,370 booklets at Cal State Fullerton. Steven reports:

We heard from several vegans and vegetarians on this bustling day! Alix invited her mom, Gina [above], to leaflet for a couple of hours (she did awesome), and two members of the Herbivore Club on campus joined for about an hour, too. One of the members, Javier Chavez [below], said he was influenced by a leaflet received at Mt. San Antonio College to make the switch!

David, Steven, and fellow activists reached more than 4,100 students at Cal State Northridge on January 25. Steven writes:

Huge day here on the first day of the quarter! Had a ton of volunteer help, including Laura Sanchez [above, left], who stuck it out all day long with a smile despite the weather, aches, and huge crowds. David Pinski [above, right] continues to impress with his persistence and ultra-straight arms and smiles. We were also joined by first-time leafleters Yuliana Miranda [below, left] and Pamela Whistley [below, right, and first from the left with Laura and David], who rocked it for a couple hours towards the end of the day.

We met two students who had been influenced to go veg from leaflets, including our volunteer Yuliana, who was leafleted at this school four to five years ago and initially didn’t read the booklet, because of the frightening images, but later did and did more research. Then Laura met another student in passing who went veg after getting a leaflet – awesome!

Both Yuliana and Javier not only changed their diets after receiving booklets, but also became Adopt a College leafleters! If you’d like to get booklets into more students’ hands, please consider taking part in VO’s Team Vegan campaign.

The more money raised, the more animals spared from suffering. And now through June 30, all donations up to $200,000 will be matched, dollar for dollar!