Interested in mentoring a new or aspiring vegetarian or vegan?
While we can always use mentors anywhere, we are in special need for mentors in the following states:
Alabama
Arkansas
Georgia
Idaho
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Minnesota
Mississippi
Montana
Nebraska
Nevada
New Mexico
North Dakota
Oklahoma
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
Utah
West Virginia
Wisconsin
Wyoming
If you live in any of these states and are willing to help out, please fill out our vegan mentor survey by clicking here.
Remember Josh Fernandez from our series How Do You Vegan: The Brand New Vegan Edition? He was very new to veganism and was concerned that he may keel over on mile 25 of his first marathon as a vegan. He wrote:
“Another problem with veganism is that I’m a marathoner, sometimes clocking in at about 60 miles per week, and I told myself that if I only eat plant-based food I would most likely keel over on mile 25.
I haven’t actually tested that theory yet, but I will find out on December 6, when I run my first marathon as a vegan. And mark my words: If that happens, on my death bed I will write another blog post for Vegan Outreach, entitled, “FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, PLEASE, BUTCHER A COW AND EAT IT IMMEDIATELY.”
I’m kidding.”
Well, I am happy to announce that not only did he live to show that vegans can run marathons … but he also qualified for the Boston Marathon with the time of 3 hours and 11 minutes! That’s a 7 minute and 19 second pace per mile!! AANNND, best of all, after he left everyone in the dust, he walked around in his Vegan Outreach hoodie! Representin’.
Above is Sam at the University of Waikato in Hamilton, NZ, where he handed out 1,352 Your Choice booklets this fall: “I met three vegetarians, all of whom were interested in cutting out dairy and eggs but didn’t know how to approach it, so I gave them a Guide to Cruelty-Free Eating and told them to send me an email if they had any questions.”
On October 22, Sam teamed with volunteers Jessica Pilla and Monnica Lee at the University of Adelaide; together they were able to get out 2,200 booklets, more than doubling the previous campus record: “Massive day of outreach – we ran into lots of vegans, vegetarians and people who read the booklet, were disgusted by what they saw and wanted Guides to take the next steps towards a cruelty-free diet. It was Monnica’s first time ever leafleting but she was a natural, Jessica had helped out at Flinders University on Monday but had never leafleted before that either; they both did really, really well! Afterwards, I came home to two more email requests for Guides.”
Green Festival Expo is coming to Portland Dec 11th – 13th at the Oregon Convention Center for the first time in Green Festival’s 14 year history, and guess who will be there? Yep! Vegan Outreach!
Green Festival Expo is the largest and longest-running sustainability event in the United States with a mission to bring together the world’s most trusted companies, engaging speakers, national and local innovative businesses, conscious consumers and pioneering thinkers in one place to promote the best in sustainability and green living. What better place to do it than one of the most vegan friendly cities in the world, Portland, Oregon?!
During the 3-day expo there will be B2B mentoring sessions for green business owners, an interactive family fun area for kids to learn all about reducing their carbon footprint and over 50 inspirational speakers.
Green Festival Expo is now featuring a Portland Local Market Place on the floor where attendees will be able to shop locally, taste vegan and vegetarian food and enjoy organic products close to home.
Bike to the expo, park at the Green Festival Bike Valet and receive FREE admission! Youth 16 and under are granted free admission as well. Hours open to the public are: Friday 12pm – 6pm, Saturday 10am – 6pm & Sunday 10am – 5pm. SHOP. TASTE. ENJOY! And be sure to visit Northwest Outreach Coordinator Jose Elias and the Vegan Outreach table!
Activists Barbara Bear, Rachel Shippee, and Alex Greenwood are three of the Adopt a College program’s most prolific leafleters.
So far this semester, Barbara Bear has personally handed booklets to 8,299 students. She also recently passed 100,000 booklets handed out over the course of her leafleting career! Above (from left) are Barbara (in hat) with Hannah, a vegan student who wants to volunteer after getting an Even If You Like Meat at Ventura College; Sindy, an Oxnard College student who got a booklet at Warped Tour, then watched Earthlings online, and has been veg ever since; Miriam, another student Barbara met at Oxnard College, who found a VO booklet in class last semester and decided it was a sign that she should go veg; and activist Beate Wolfe (far right) with Spencer, a student at Santa Barbara City College who said that getting a Your Choice from Barbara and Beate prompted her to go back to being veg!
Rachel Shippee has leafleted campuses in both Illinois and Mexico City this fall, reaching 8,019 students! Above (from left) is Rachel with a few of the 13,300 students that she and fellow activists reached at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México on October 15: Ana is a vegetarian who took booklets to share with her family, Helena is a vegan who helped leaflet on the spot, and Roxana decided to go vegetarian after reading a booklet!
Alex Greenwood (above) has leafleted 11 different Ontario campuses this semester, placing booklets directly into the hands of 7,624 students! On October 27, Alex reached 450 people at the University of Toronto: “A student said that she got a leaflet from me yesterday, was very interested in it and was going to stop eating red meat. We talked about how there is even more suffering in chicken, and she got a Guide to Cruelty-Free Eating.”
Through December, your donations to Vegan Outreach will be matched, dollar for dollar, up to $225,000: Donate now to spare twice as many animals from suffering!
On Monday, November 30th, Vegan Outreach lost a dear friend and a hero to the animals – Karen Oberg, volunteer and mother to John Oberg, VO’s Director of Communications. Karen lost her long battle with cancer.
Karen and John
The first time I met Karen, a few of us had just finished leafleting the Warped Tour in Detroit, and we came back to sleep at her place, which was nearby. We were tired and hungry, and we arrived to a bounty of cooked veggie burgers, homemade fries, and fixin’s that Karen joyously offered us, which we happily devoured. And little did we know that when we all slept in beds that night, Karen quietly went off to a room and slept on the floor. She gave us all the available beds and didn’t even let us know of the sacrifice she made for us.
Karen was also a dedicated VO leafleter. Despite being diagnosed with cancer, she would still join John for leafleting, putting in some impressive days of outreach. On a leafleting outing just this past September, she personally handed out over 800 booklets — from a wheelchair!
How John treated Karen during this time was the stuff of legend. John moved back to Michigan to be there for his mom and was with her at all times, taking her to appointments, to concerts, sports events, etc. Here’s a heartwarming video of John catching a fly ball at a Detroit Tigers game and giving the ball to Karen. John truly set the gold standard for how we should treat our loved ones during a time of illness.
Karen will be remembered as someone who showered others with kindness, generosity, joy, and humor in the face of great adversity. Thank you for all you did to bring more compassion into this world, Karen.
Today is Giving Tuesday, and we want to help animals in a big way!
We want to raise $20,000 by the end of the day!
That’s $10,000 plus our year-end matching donations from a group of generous donors who believe in the cause as much as you do!
Please consider making a donation today – and have it matched dollar-for-dollar to double your impact for farmed animals! They need you. We need you. Let’s reach even more people with pro-veg booklets in 2016!
Hopefully you’re having a happy and compassionate Thanksgiving! We don’t mean to get ahead of ourselves, but we wanted to get you started with some great holiday gift ideas for that vegan on your list! The Vegetarian Site has it all. Since 2000, The Vegetarian Site, a fully vegan website, has been offering food, books, gifts, supplements, accessories and more to vegans around the world.
They also donate 10% of the sale of each product (not just the profit!) to a chosen animal charity each month. This month, it’s Vegan Outreach!
Gift certificates are always a great option, especially for vegans don’t have easy access to some of their favorite foods locally. Countless shelf stable mixes for ethnic foods, cookies, brownies and other desserts, as well as spices, meal bars, protein powders, meat and dairy alternatives can all be found on the site. With a “Dollar Menu“, an extensive sale section and one cent samples, it’s easy to get more bang for your buck.
Additionally, this year The Vegetarian Site has four new personalized Holiday Gift Bag options. Each medium gift bag is filled with sweet or savory vegan treats. Try the Sweet Stuff,Vegan Meaty, Vegan Bakery, or Gluten-Free Vegan Bakery option. The folks at The Vegetarian Site will happily include a personalized message from you and ship it directly to the recipient.
Your purchases in November from The Vegetarian Site will support Vegan Outreach. Thank you and enjoy your shopping!
As a traveling outreach coordinator, I have heard the following statement more than a handful of times: “I don’t know how you do it; I could never live on the road.” And I think all the former, highly admirable traveling outreach coordinators would agree with me when I say that, like with any other job, it isn’t always easy. For me personally, and as I mentioned in a previous post, I miss cooking my own meals. I also miss my own bed, my adorable Oliver
(this picture was taken in August when I was packing for the tour), and other silly things one may take for granted, like a pillow case and towel that always smell like home.
In response to the individuals who claim they could never live on the road, I usually respond by telling them that, yes, there are certain things that become a bit more difficult when one is constantly traveling but that you find little things along the way that make the lifestyle easier. These things would undoubtedly vary from person to person (or should I say traveling outreach coordinator to traveling outreach coordinator), but I have personally found these three to be the most helpful:
The Planet Fitness Black Card Membership
I have always enjoyed physical activity, especially as I got older and the stress of college set in. It helped relieve the ongoing anxiety that school created. The first gym I joined after high school offered a wide variety of classes, and after trying out a few different kinds, I settled on the 5 a.m. boot camp class. It felt great to get the happy endorphins going at the start of my day, not to mention that I met a wonderful group of women who would soon become my good friends. I stuck with my morning gym routine all through school, and I have carried that over into my work schedule. I learned from a former traveling outreach coordinator that Planet Fitness is a popular chain gym on the East Coast and that if you purchase their “Black Card” Membership package, you can use any Planet Fitness gym in the United States. Pretty cool, huh? Working out before I start leafleting gets me energized and motivated for the day. Not only that, but it provides a predictable atmosphere. Being at a different school each day, a different city every few days, and at least two or three different host homes each week, Planet Fitness has become somewhat of a “home base” for me. And as an added bonus, they have nifty massage chairs that I frequently take advantage of!
Electric Car Cooler
This clever invention has made road life wonderfully easy when it comes to food! It doesn’t require ice; it simply plugs into the cigarette lighter of my car. It stays cold up to 12 hours when it’s unplugged (or when the car isn’t running) and an indoor wall adaptor can be purchased for the days you aren’t driving around. I currently have a bag of carrots, five or six apples, a few bananas, a container of hummus, a loaf of bread, and a water bottle inside mine. Oh, the joys of modern technology…
Friends, Family, and Animals
There are five wonderful individuals I speak with, if not on a daily bases, at least several times a week. Three of the five are fellow Vegan Outreach employees: Outreach Coordinator Steven Litrov (who is currently touring the Midwest), Director of Development Lisa Rimmert, and Operations Manager Kevin Gallagher. These three never, ever fail to make me laugh, and they continuously offer support and encouragement. Kevin also does a great job of keeping me entertained by passing along interesting news articles.
My good friend Erin Vader is also another solid source of support. Erin and I are used to being there for each other long distance anyway, since she lives in Detroit, Michigan, but that only strengthens my appreciation for her early morning “Good morning!” text messages and daily questioning about my travels and the schools and places I visit. An amazing animal activist herself, I cannot express how much that girl means to me.
And last, but certainly not least, my mom.
Her support and encouragement is arguably the most appreciated out of all my friends and family members (those mentioned in this post and the others scattered throughout the country). I know she worries about me and would prefer I have a more “stationary” or “normal” job, but she supports me regardless. She keeps me updated on the family “happenings” back home, and she frequently sends me pictures of Oliver.
And for everyone’s enjoyment, here is the latest picture she sent me:
In short, yes, there are the few drawbacks to living on the road. However, there are definitely routines, gadgets, and people that make it possible. Looking at the bigger picture, the animals need our help. And for the time being, this is the way I choose to go about helping them. Thus, I will continue to draw upon and cultivate new ways of making this lifestyle possible.
Vegan Outreach is excited to wish the wonderful people at Tofurky a happy 20th anniversary! For 20 years, they have been helping vegans and vegetarians feel included during holiday festivities by providing a cruelty-free alternative to the traditional turkey centerpiece. It was my great pleasure to chat with Tofurky founder, Seth Tibbott, about the early days of manufacturing and marketing a product that would completely change the veg world.
During the interview I felt a great respect for several things not elaborated in the interview below:
First, Tofurky is a family-owned company and despite having multiple offers from investors, have remained the way they originally intended. This is important because they are the visionaries of the brand based on mission and ethics rather than money; and speaking of money, being self-owned means they can continue generously giving to organizations that are helping animals. Check out a Tofurky Trot near you!
Most importantly, not only does Tofurky taste delicious, but they also do their innovative work because they care about animals. Hearing Seth talk about the importance of working towards more cruelty-free products was inspiring, and studies have shown that their hard work is helping turkeys! In the last ten years, Tofurky sales have gone up 123%, while turkey sales have gone down 9.6%. I can’t wait to see what tasty products they come up with next!
Here’s my interview with Seth:
Tofurky is a clever name, were there ever any other possibilities?
First off, “Tofurkey” is a name that dates back to the 1970’s and refers most of the time to a Thanksgiving dish made by mashing tofu with seasonings, lining a colander with cheese cloth, punching a cavity in the tofu with your fist and filling the cavity with stuffing. The “curd” is then flipped onto an oiled baking sheet and baked with a baste. The first Tofurky Roasts we made in 1980 were using this recipe. The first two years, my friends Hans and Rhonda Wrobel of the Higher Taste made the tofu and gravy for the Tofurky Roasts and we made the Tempeh Drummettes and handled the distribution and marketing of the product. There was some discussion about calling it a “Stuffed Holiday Roast” or “Celebration Roast” (which now is a yummy Field Roast product) but I thought the name “Tofurky” was more fun so we ran with that.
What inspired you to create Tofurky?
Tofurky was inspired by years of unsatisfactory Thanksgiving experiments, many of which took place with my naturalist friends at Bill Mckinney’s cabin in the Cascades near Ashland, Oregon (see photo above). I became a vegetarian in 1972 and would either nibble on side dishes or actually backslide into eating turkey. Two of the epic vegan failures were a Stuffed Pumpkin that contained rice and veggies and lacked a protein rich savory component and a Gluten roast that took all day to prepare but was virtually impossible to cut, let alone digest. I was looking for a Thanksgiving roast that was “bombproof” to make, delicious and easy to prepare.
Original Tofurky Box
How did people respond when you first began this project?
The first year, 1995, inside the first 500 Tofurky Roasts, we included a self addressed, stamped postcard requesting feedback from our customers. With no internet, this was the primary means of communication back then.
We got great feedback. I remember one in particular that said “I have been waiting 20 years for this product. Finally I am not a second class citizen at Thanksgiving anymore!” That year we also received some great press from NPR and the NBC Today show.
In the early days, how did you convince retailers to carry your product?
Some retailers saw the potential right away and others were very skeptical, mostly due to the high price of the Tofurky (served 8/cost $34.95). The prevailing retail wisdom at the time was no product would ever sell in the freezer price above $3.99 so there was some sticker shock with the Tofurky. Two early adopters of the product were Food Front in Portland and PCC (Puget Consumers Market in Seattle). They both brought in substantial amounts of Tofurkys that year and PCC even had to add a “Tofurky Hotline” where customers could order them. Other stores were not so sure. When I presented to one large Portland chain, they weren’t sure if they could sell any but reluctantly ordered one Tofurky. The next day they called and said they had sold that one and could I bring them 2 more? This exponential growth went on right up to Thanksgiving and was a lot of fun to watch.
How many people purchase Tofurky roasts these days?
Today we sell between 350,000 and 400,000 Tofurky roasts per year. Along with our other Tofurky products like sausages and deli slices we produce about 10 million pounds of Tofurky each year.
Original Tofurky Feast Holiday Table
How has the world – and the market for veg options – changed over the last 20 years?
Well first off, I started Turtle Island Foods in 1980 as a tempeh only company. Back then there was no tofu, tempeh or meat alternatives available and barely any granola. My diet consisted of pressure cooked soybeans and tortillas and soy grit burgers, so tempeh was a huge step forward for me. When I first brought my commercial tempeh cakes to stores, the response was “Awesome! Do you have any more products? We are trying to fill up our shelves with products and are having a hard time finding enough!” By 1995, when Tofurky came on the scene, there were plenty of frozen burgers, led by the Gardenburgers and Boca Burgers, and also refrigerated tofu hot dogs but not alot of other good options. The variety and quality of vegan meat alternatives and cheeses available now is nothing short of amazing.
Did Tofurky ever experience the kind of corporate pushback that newer vegan brands are currently facing (e.g. Just Mayo vs Unilever)?
We have never been harassed by larger corporate entities though several have offered to buy us, something we have never been tempted to do. My stepson, Jaime Athos has worked here for going on 10 years now and is now our President and CEO. He is very sharp.
Knowing what you know today, what would you have done differently in the first few years of establishing your brand?
No regrets though I wish there was Kickstarter around as an option for raising money! As it was, I gave my brother 27% of Turtle Island Foods for a $17,000 investment in 1990. Oops! We are still on good terms and he was happy with his investment.
Current Tofurky Vegetarian Feast Packaging
Did you ever think Tofurky would be as popular as it has become?
Before you launch a product you never know really how it will turn out. But after reading all the feedback cards the first year, there was a deep sense that we had struck marketing gold. It was such a great “kairos” moment when we for the first time could finally see our way through. The world just opened up in a whole new way and changed our company forever. We were lucky enough to introduce deli slices and sausages of high quality in the coming years, using the same basic recipe which expanded the company’s opportunities beyond the holiday realm.
Are there any plans for new products?
Always. We will never stop innovating. It’s the lifeblood of the company and is in our mission to bring great tasting products out at a price that is as affordable as possible. We think the next 20 years will see great advancements in plant based proteins and in 100 years, they will be the dominant paradigm. A great deal of our hope rests on the outstanding work of organizations like Vegan Outreach who are exposing uncomfortable truths about the current meat based paradigm.
