By Vic Sjodin, Director of Outreach

For ten weeks this semester, Kimberly Moffatt and I represented Vegan Outreach on a nationwide leafleting and speaking tour of India. The tour generated a lot of excitement and made a significant impact.

While on tour, in each city Kimberly and I gave seminars on veganism, leafleting, and utilitarian advocacy for local animal activists of all stripes. Tour events also included leafleting multiple colleges and giving many speeches titled “The Unexamined Meal” to deeply engaged student audiences, whose attendance was often in the hundreds and sometimes even topped a thousand.

Our question and answer sessions often went long with many intelligent questions. After the talks, many students expressed that they would no longer be “non-veg” or drink bovine secretions.

Our ultimate goal was to use this tour to set up a permanent dedicated activist presence for farmed animals in India, which was accomplished with the hiring and training of Pooja Rathor as Vegan Outreach’s first India Outreach Coordinator.

We worked closely with the local group Federation of Indian Animal Protection Organisation‘s (FIAPO) Campaign Coordinator Shweta Sood and her extensive volunteer network. By the time our tour concluded–after only 10 weeks–we had reached over 133,000 people, mostly students, with the case for veganism.

The student interest was massive and hard to overstate with dozens coming back to talk and ask questions every day. Groups of 10-30 people regularly would form around us as we gave condensed, 10-minute speeches.

Readership rates in most places was sky high, and it didn’t take long for us to start meeting students later in the day who told us they were moved by the booklet and would never eat animal products again.

Many also asked for more booklets to show friends.

In nearly every city, activists who do direct animal rescue, such as Priyanka and Amit in Surat, decided to go vegan and many pledged to leaflet more. At the end of the tour, volunteer Tina let us know that she has been dairy-free for 10 weeks since hearing us give a seminar the first day of the tour in New Delhi.

We would like to extend our sincerest thanks to every person in the Vegan Outreach family of members for making this animal saving extravaganza possible. We would especially like to thank Dan Phillips, who had the acuity to see that this was a region in need of our knowledge and experience, where we could play a big role helping to pave change. We’d also like to thank FIAPO, Shweta, and the countless volunteers who joined us leafleting and shared their warmth, enthusiasm, and early mornings with us.

We would also like to thank VO board member Yvonne LeGrice, her husband David Hertel, and President Jack Norris for driving down to Los Angeles from Davis to welcome us home after our 22-hour return flight. What an amazing surprise–it was the perfect end to a great trip!

And lastly thank you to “Billy the Bull” in Varanasi who helped funnel foot traffic to Kimberly, helping us get the message out, and to the macaques in Jaipur for showing their support!

Here’s a 45-second clip of Kim leafleting in India:

And here’s a 4-minute interview with me:

Special thanks to: Verhaen from the New Delhi Nature Society for your above and beyond help in Delhi and scheduling many talks; our adopted mother in India, Delhi volunteer leader Madhu Roy; Varda of FIAPO for all of your help with booklet design and pulling the tour together; Arpan of FIAPO for your insights and letting us stay with your family; Prashant and Puneet for joining us on tour and for booking transport; Sonal and family in Lucknow for coming to our aid and breaking taboo to take us in and to ace volunteer Abhishek; Joe Gonzalez and Sauraub for your help in Varanasi; Rucha in Jaipur; Team RAKSHA; Erika And Claire Abrams; Ashutosh and team and Animal Aid Unlimited in Udaipur; Gautam in Ahmedabad; Ari Nessel for giving us connections and the idea to visit the inspiring Gandhi Ashram; Subru and Mercy For Animals for all of the shipments, providing ammo and joining us; the unbelievable Team PRAYAS and Darshan in Surat, Aneeha, Darshana, Team Pune and so many others in many other cities.

by Jack Norris, President

I was happy to see the March 15, 2016 article from EcoRazzi, Former NFL player David Carter goes from pigskin to vegan outreach, by Eva Lampert.

Excerpt:

For former NFL star David Carter, lovingly known as the 300 Pound Vegan, it’s not enough to sit on the sidelines. The Daily Collegian shared the story of his recent visit to Penn State University, in which he spoke about the dietary benefits of cutting out animal products.

It’s a short article that starts nice but by the end Lampert calls me out for promoting cheese!

I wouldn’t want [Carter] to go the route of Vegan Outreach president, Jack Norris, and promote eating cheese.

Lampert’s comment is in reference to this recent Facebook post that caused quite a kerfuffle:

This has long been VO’s unofficial position, and while many vegan advocates appreciated the post, many others criticized it.

A couple of the criticisms were misinterpretations–I’m not suggesting that current vegans should start eating cheese, nor am I suggesting that people who eat cheese call themselves “vegan.” And for anyone this post reached who is having a hard time giving up cheese, there were links from the text to some delicious vegan cheeses.

Some activists criticized me for implying that it’s okay to eat cheese. They believe it’s important for us to send a consistent message to the public and, apparently, think the meme should have read:

People say ‘I’d go vegan but I can’t give up cheese.’ These people are immoral.

I hope such critics will consider these two points:

• Many people have told us that because we did not push an “all or nothing” view to them, they were encouraged to take the first steps when they otherwise would not have done so–and eventually they became vegan.
• The largest study on veg recidivism, conducted by Faunalytics, found that current vegetarians and vegans were more likely to have transitioned gradually than former vegetarians and vegans (Study Of Current And Former Vegetarians And Vegans: Secondary Findings).

While I think we should encourage people to adopt the view that it’s wrong to kill animals for food, we can also promote the idea that any steps taken towards a vegan lifestyle are positive.

David Carter agrees.

By Lisa Rimmert, Director of Development

I recently had the opportunity to bring together my three top passions: comedy, vegan food, and raising money to help animals. It was a wonderful evening, and I want to share a bit of it with you.

On Saturday, February 27, more than 60 people gathered for a potluck and comedy show in Denver. The Denver Vegans host a potluck once a month, and while they usually host a speaker, they invited me to plan a comedy show, and I’m so glad they did! Attendees savored delicious Italian-themed vegan dishes, then enjoyed a hilarious performance of improvisation and stand-up comedy.

I invited a group of local improvisers that included vegan, vegetarian, and “veg-leaning” folks, and they opened the show with some short form improv games–making everything up on the spot while incorporating suggestions from the audience. Assembled for this event only, the troupe named themselves The Crispy Tofurkys, a fitting tribute to a great vegan company!

Following the improv comedy came three stand-up comedy acts, starting with one by yours truly! I was so happy to tell jokes to a room full of vegans, and I was humbled and honored to share the stage with two very entertaining comics.

Rahul Shah had the audience laughing with his gut-busting jokes and wonderful timing and delivery. You may recognize his name from the caption above, as he was also one of our improvisers. A true jack of all comedy trades!

I was very excited to have talented comedian Nancy Norton as our headliner for the evening. Nancy performs as a stand-up comic as well as an inspirational speaker. She has been heralded by the Denver Post and the Boulder Daily Camera, and she was so very funny, as always!

Thank you to everyone who came out and supported Vegan Outreach. We raised almost $300 to put toward outreach on college campuses all over the world! Thank you to the organizers at Denver Vegans, to all the performers for their time and talents, and to my wonderful friends who helped to set up the sound, sell merchandise, pack up after the show, and so much more.

Get in on the fun! Make a donation today and I will send you a Lisa Rimmert original joke!

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By Toni Okamoto

Join Michelle and I as we take you inside Hodo Soy Beanery and introduce you to the fascinating process of tofu-making! Hodo Soy creates fantastic artisan tofu out of their Oakland, CA factory, and they’re responsible for the tasty vegetarian option at all Chipotle locations called Sofritas! Click the image above to see how it’s made!

by Jack Norris, President, Vegan Outreach

For the past six weeks, VO’s Director of Outreach, Vic Sjodin, and intern, Kimberly Moffatt, have been touring India, teaching activists about leafleting and reaching tens of thousands of people with a message of compassion for animals and a vegan ethic.

Vic’s trip has not been easy–the conditions have been rough, he has been battling illness nearly the entire time. His days of traveling, leafleting, and speaking have been long and, quite frankly, unbelievable.

With all of this, you’d think the weekends would be a nice beak for Vic to get some rest. Yet it was no surprise when I logged onto Facebook last week to see that Vic was using his down time to raise money to put the kids he’s been coming across on the street in school. Vic’s selflessness and love for his fellow inhabitants of Earth knows no bounds.

To support Vic in his efforts to help these kids, VO is making a special request for donations. You can PayPal a donation to Vic at [email protected]. It doesn’t cost much to help these kids, so any amount will make a difference.

Thank you!

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Vegan Registered Dietitian Jack Norris explains how easy it is for vegans to get their protein!

 

By Toni Okamoto

In our second episode of Traffic Talk, Michelle and I discuss cheap eating tips for college students, quick and easy meal ideas, our favorite inexpensive cruelty-free shampoos, and more!

We’d love to hear your answers to vegan questions too! Leave them in the comments below.

By Lisa Rimmert, VO Director of Development

Monthly donor Steven Rouk volunteers his time for various projects to help people go and stay vegan. I hope I don’t sound too mushy, but he really is one of the most inspiring people I know. At 25 years of age, he has already done so much that’s worthwhile and world-changing–including supporting the work of Vegan Outreach! I’m thrilled to introduce Steven Rouk!

Tell us about yourself, Steven.

I try to do all of the things, which inevitably leads to disaster, and sometimes greatness. My life has always been a tug-of-war between the math / data / analytical side of me and the music / writing / emotive side of me. So some months, I’ll be spending 16 hours a day at my computer learning web development and analyzing data (recently, I’ve been working on creating an interactive map of factory farms in Colorado, as well as having recently founded the Boulder Data Science Meetup group). Other months I’m writing new songs on my guitar every night or trying to finish another novel (I’m currently publishing a novel to Instagram, one page per day, and also about to release a new song and music video). “Balance” probably isn’t the right word for my life, but if balance were to drink as much coffee as I do then it’d probably be somewhere close to me–caffeinated and over-ambitious.

I’m also really, really interested in the beautiful and vague notion of “impact”, especially related to animal rights and bettering our human societies in the most important ways. Reducing suffering and promoting well-being is what it all comes down to, really. At some point I’d like to start a company (or five) around these concepts. It’s on my bucket list – as soon as I finish recording my next album and get back from tour. (Joking! Sort of.)

How did you get involved in the world of animal protection? How about with Vegan Outreach?

It was a long, slow journey to veganism for me, with each step along the way prompted by a video or documentary. In the beginning, it was all PETA videos of factory farming. I’ve always treated food as a tasty thing to keep me fueled for the next adventure, so it took a while to fully break me of my deeply ingrained habits and completely live according to these new values I was forming. (I grew up in the South, so going vegan was essentially shunning half of the food groups I had known.) But, the magnitude of the issue implanted itself very firmly inside of me because of the sheer amount of suffering involved.

I eventually learned more about the environmental, health, and human rights aspects as well. The beautiful thing about the truth is that it’s a stubborn thing, fighting through any barriers if given enough time.

What drew you to Vegan Outreach’s approach, and what inspired you to support it financially?

I think leafleting is awesome and wonderfully effective. Imagine if every college student on every campus in the United States (nay! the whole world!) knew about the immense and completely unjust suffering of animals, and they all knew about the terrible thing that factory farming is. Wouldn’t that be awesome? Wouldn’t that create a massive influence strong enough to shift the current paradigm, with a whole generation empowered by the truth? Absolutely, and that’s exactly the vision VO is working towards.

We’re going to reach that day, and we’re going to reach it sooner than we all think. The question is, how will we have helped it get there? There are many ways that I’m trying to help advance the cause, but a no-brainer way is to throw some money to VO and other organizations that have such a huge impact. We all have individual battles to fight when it comes to this, but we absolutely must also support those who are helping pave the way in larger ways than we can do as individuals.

What barriers do you see that may keep young people from donating to support their favorite non-profits? What would you say to young people to encourage them to donate?

“Donation” is a dirty word to a lot of people, and truthfully I probably have a negative connotation with fundraising and donations as well. I hate asking people for money, and I don’t particularly like being asked either. So there’s a paradox, exemplified by this fictitious conversation – “That’s so awesome what you’re doing! Oh, you need money to continue…? Like… my money? Can’t you sell t-shirts on Amazon or something?”

We live in such a capitalist, pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps society that we think you have to sell something to be worth something. The thing is… you don’t. We give stupid amounts of money to profit-hungry companies all the time, buying random crap that we don’t need and probably don’t even want. Why? Because that’s how our economy is structured, and marketers have gotten really good at selling us pants and gadgets and thingamabobs, regardless of whether we need them or not. It’s a vicious self-reinforcing cycle.

We all need to challenge ourselves to see through that, to see through the impulse to buy random stuff we don’t need, and to instead support people who are actually doing important work but who aren’t supported financially by our current system. Or you can buy random crap and donate to important causes, that’s totally fine too.

I don’t make a ton of money, but I’ve never regretted or missed a donation. Never. I’ve been mad at myself for spending too much on beer out at bars, or spending too much at restaurants, or whatever, but I’ve never regretted donating to organizations I care about.

I’m a fickle human with a very limited attention span and memory, so I make it easy on myself – all my donations are set up on a recurring monthly basis, so I never even have to think about it. It’s easier than buying my daily coffee, and way more rewarding. (Though, coffee is pretty great.) Every time I see that donation go out, I know I’m helping people do some of the most important work in the world. I’m helping to bring on the revolution, the next iteration of humanity, one totally unmissed donation at a time. And that’s so awesome. (VO didn’t pay me to write this, I promise – it’s really just that important and amazing to support the things you care about.)

What is your favorite vegan meal?

Honestly, I’m a bit of a utilitarian when it comes to food. Left to my own devices, I will eat pretty much the same thing for every meal: a baked potato (with a little bit of olive oil and herbs), slathered in beans, and covered in salsa. Or I guess I also make this thing I affectionately call an “Epic Salad” (trademark – just kidding), which is a huge pile of spinach, covered in the largest variety of fresh produce I can muster up – tomatoes, peppers, mushrooms, carrots, obscene amounts of avocado, onion, etc. – and then drenched in a homemade olive oil vinaigrette with all kinds of herbs. I’m all about an easy, consistent routine so I can focus on my projects. If it weren’t for my girlfriend, I’d probably be downing Soylent three times a day by now.

Thank you, Steven!

And since he mentioned it, here’s where you can donate monthly to Vegan Outreach.

By Josie Moody, VO Office Manager

Let’s just get straight to the point: I have issues with deodorant. After all, you’re talking to the person who accidentally used bug spray on her underarms for a month because she mistook it for Burt’s Bee’s Herbal Deodorant. (I can’t be the first person who has mistaken the two with their practically identical packaging!) Other brands of natural deodorants left my underarms peeling, and once my husband actually bought me deodorant himself because he was tired of me smelling like Old Spice when I chose to use up an unwanted deodorant of his rather than spend money on a new one.

When I was asked if I wanted to review a deodorant for the blog, I’ll admit, I didn’t necessarily have high expectations, but I was willing to give it a try, and honestly, I’m glad I did! I loved this deodorant immediately. At this point, I’ve been using it for over two weeks and it still works great. The packaging says it works for up to 48 hours, and owner Dina Soker told me that she’s heard of people using it for up to five days without showering in between and that it still worked well. Lucky for my office mates, Jack and Alex, I won’t be testing that hypothesis.

This deodorant is a lotion versus a solid, which threw me off at first. I thought I might dislike applying a liquid, but after the first or second time I got used to it. Only Goodness Inside! also offers a sponge applicator for those who prefer to apply it that way. As a person who wears black almost exclusively, I am also happy to report that no residue was left on my clothing, either.

Straight talk: I did have sticker shock when I went to their site and saw how much each container cost. I asked Dina about this, and she explained that a lot of the inexpensive deodorants are full of cheap fillers, palm oil, and other chemicals I’d prefer not to put in my armpits.

On the other hand, Only Goodness Inside! deodorants are true to their name.  They are certified organic, made with non-GMO ingredients, contain Dead Sea minerals imported from–you guessed it–the Dead Sea, and most importantly to me, are gentle and effective! They are also unscented, but if you prefer your deodorant scented you can either add your favorite essential oil to the mix, or order yours to include one of their tailor-made scents.

This is a quality product, and while I know it’s not something everyone will want to or be able to spend a higher amount of money on, I want to let you know about the various vegan options for underarm care.

If you order before February 16th, you’ll get 25% off their Deodorant Essentials Pack when you use the code LOVE16. They also encourage you to sign up for their e-newsletter to regularly receive coupons and other offers–and every package you buy comes with a coupon to use toward future purchases!

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to the gym to put this product to work.