From Los Angeles to Brooklyn and in between, Vegan Outreach has connected with a multitude of curious non-vegans—sharing vegan food and providing informative, fun, and welcoming ways for folks to explore veganism.

We’ve hosted vegan food tasting events, shown iAnimal virtual reality videos at local festivals, and given presentations to groups of all sizes—and the positive feedback we get is very uplifting!

Today, we’d like to share a few of those inspiring moments with you and recognize our hard-working Community Events Coordinators. Below, each Coordinator recounts a particularly impactful moment they had over the past few months.

1. Gwenna Hunter

“This week, I had the extreme pleasure of having Dr. Ietef Cavem Vita and Genesis Butler of A Vegan Child’s Journey speak in front of 150 male youth from Green Dot Public Schools in Los Angeles. We served delicious vegan tacos by Nays Tacos.

“Honestly, the kids were very judgmental at first because they wanted to see meat—but once they started eating the tacos, they loved them! They couldn’t believe tacos could be so delicious without having meat!”

—Gwenna Hunter
Greater Los Angeles Community Events Coordinator
April 13, 2018

2. Jackie Va

“On Sunday, I hosted the Taste Vegan Meats and Cheese Potluck in Stockton, CA. The event was capped at 40 RSVPs and it sold out in one day! Almost all of the attendees were non-vegan.

“I put literature out for people on the dining tables and set up an information table. Most people took more than one booklet, flipped through the pages, and asked questions as they ate. People stayed for 2 plus hours to talk to each other.”

—Jackie Va
Central Valley Community Events Coordinator
February 20, 2018

3. Nzinga Young

“Today, I did humane education presentations for the staff at Animal Care Centers (ACC) Brooklyn and Manhattan locations. Forty non-vegan employees spent their lunch break discussing how their love for animals could extend to animals raised for food.

“Attendees received a bagged lunch, two VO booklets, and a Tofurky coupon so they could recreate the vegan chicken salad they had for lunch. Both ACCs said the events were a hit and conversations on veganism lingered long after I left!”

—Nzinga Young
Greater NYC Community Events Coordinator
April 5, 2018

4. Victor Flores

“Vegan Outreach had the opportunity to attend the Bees and Seeds Festival in Albuquerque, NM last weekend. We gave out samples of sopaipillas from La Salita and served them with Bee Free Honee.

“So many people stopped by our booth that we ran out of samples! We gave out a lot of information on veganism and several folks committed to giving it a try.”

—Victor Flores
Greater New Mexico Community Events Coordinator
May 20, 2018

5. Roopashree Rao

“VO tabled for the first time at the Holi Mela in Woodley Park, Los Angeles. The crowd was in a festive mood since it is the Festival of Colours! Quite a few kids and adults tried the vegan milks and cookies.

“A handful of people watched the iAnimal Virtual Reality video, and it clearly made a huge impact. When people have a strong reaction, my response to them is, “I didn’t know either—but once we do see the cruelty, we can decide if we want to make changes.”

—Roopashree Rao
Indian American Community Events Coordinator
March 4, 2018

 

Let’s give a big round of applause for this hardworking group of activists who are truly making a difference through community outreach. Stay tuned because this won’t be the last you hear of their work!

Do you want to get active for animals? Sign up now for our Action Alerts or join our Vegan Mentor Program!

Summer is around the corner, and VO’s Outreach Coordinators are wrapping up their Spring leafleting tours!

We’d like to acknowledge the following eleven individuals who went above and beyond for the animals this semester.

1. Steve Erlsten

Steve is VO’s Senior Outreach Coordinator. He’s handed leaflets to 98,289 individuals at 151 schools so far this semester.

“Traffic at schools is getting lighter as the semester comes to a close, but I’m still meeting great students everyday! Last month, I met a student at Contra Costa College who said she’d been trying to go vegan and talking to her mother about all the benefits. She was excited to put a Guide to Animal-Free Eating to use!”

2. Perla Anerol

Perla Anerol, VO’s Mexico Outreach Coordinator, has given out 54,009 leaflets at 56 schools in the Spring semester.

“I spoke with four groups of friends, about 25 students altogether. Several of them said they were willing to reduce their consumption of animal products.

“One student said she is willing to eliminate animal foods. Another student said he’d already tried to eliminate animal foods, but the doctor discouraged him from doing so. Now he wants more information to try again.”

3. Sarah Weldon

Outreach Coordinator Sarah Weldon gave out 30,365 leaflets this semester at 54 schools.

“One of the coolest things happened at Tarrant County College-Northwest Campus in Fort Worth! I met two men who are former military members—like me—and both were interested in veganism!

“They both came back to talk with me after receiving a leaflet. The three of us talked for 15 minutes about all things vegan. They didn’t even know each other before this!”

4. Miguel Marrón

Outreach Coordinator Miguel Marron has handed leaflets to 55,638 students at 75 schools this semester.

“It was cold today, but I was able to spend some time leafleting inside. I heard from a couple jokers, but I wasn’t discouraged. The vast majority of students were receptive. One student told me he’d received a booklet last term and that he’s been eating less meat ever since.

“Another student approached me later in the day, after receiving a booklet from me in the morning, and said she read the booklet and ‘had no idea’ this cruelty was happening to animals. Now she’s planning to go vegan!”

5. Sam Tucker

Sam Tucker, VO’s Australia and New Zealand Outreach Coordinator, has handed vegan leaflets to 40,955 people at 40 schools—and he showed iAnimal virtual reality videos to 467 people, too!

“One of my favorite days of outreach was the day of combined iAnimal virtual veality (VR) outreach and leafleting at Macquarie University in Sydney.

“A few volunteers and I handed out 2,600 leaflets, mostly our brand new Australian What is Speciesism? leaflet, which has been hugely successful. We showed 46 students VR footage of factory farms and slaughterhouses in exchange for a free vegan cupcake, brownie, or other vegan treat.”

6. Jevranne Martel

VO’s Canada Outreach Coordinator, Jevranne Martel, handed leaflets to 33,720 people at 72 schools.

“Overall, this semester has been absolutely amazing. The interest is truly going up everywhere. I have met so many incredible students around Canada who are interested in going vegan. I am always very grateful for the time they give me and their receptiveness.”

7. Brian Chavez

Outreach Coordinator Brian Chavez gave out 33,915 leaflets to students at 37 schools.

“At the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, I came back to my car after handing out 1,400 leaflets and this is what I found. That was on the 18th of April!

“At the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, I met a student who’d been vegetarian, but found it hard to deal with social pressure when going out to eat. She thanked me for the information and is going to try again. I’ve handed out 33,448 leaflets this spring. Traveling and leafleting in the Midwest has been great!”

8. Emmanuel Márquez

Mexico Outreach Manager, Emmanuel Marquez, gave leaflets to 30,579 students at 80 schools. He also showed iAnimal virtual reality footage to 1,863 people!

“One of my favorite days of outreach this semester was at Ciudad Juárez Tech Institute. We presented two Humane Education presentations—46 students total, showed iAnimal virtual reality videos to 81 students, and handed out 1,300 leaflets.

“We had amazing interactions and responses. We met a vegan student who signed up to volunteer. At least five people were moved to tears, four vegetarians decided to stop eating dairy, and one decided to go vegan after seeing the VR footage.”

9. Kimberly Moffatt

Outreach Coordinator Kimberly Moffatt handed leaflets to 28,348 students at 59 schools this semester.

“I have to say my favorite day of outreach was at University of Maryland. Students, members of the local Save chapter, and a passionate group of activists from Frederick braved the cold to advocate for animals. Many were first time leafleters. We met other students who were interested in making more compassionate food choices.

“It was a fun, long day getting to know everyone better. Everyone enjoyed themselves and they want to get involved with leafleting and Vegan Outreach in the future.”

10 and 11. Yuri Mitzkewich and Carlos Yanez

On VO’s first-ever virtual reality tour, Southeast Outreach Coordinator Yuri Mitzkewich showed iAnimal virtual reality videos to 1,943 students! He also gave out 2,031 leaflets, covering 45 schools.

VO’s intern Carlos Yanez accompanied Yuri on the tour. He showed iAnimal to 1,923 students and handed leaflets to 2,012!

“During week 12 of our VR tour, we visited Harvard and MIT in Cambridge, MA. I’m happy to report we got some of our best results at these two schools! At MIT, we showed 56 students VR footage, and at Harvard we showed VR to 90 students. We returned to Harvard the next day and set a tour record—123 VR views!

“There was a group of students who were particularly moved by the footage and pledged to never eat meat again. It’s so inspiring to see what caring and open minded students will do when simply given the opportunity to learn and take action to be living and doing better.” — Yuri

With Earth Day coming up on April 22nd, and more attention being paid to climate change, Vegan Outreach teamed up with the Factory Farming Awareness Coalition to create a booklet about the environmental benefits of a plant-based diet.

The new booklet, Fight Climate Change with Diet Change, answers questions about one person making a difference and addresses deforestation, water usage and pollution, and more.

If you have Earth Day events coming up in your area, you have a great opportunity to make animal agriculture part of the conversation.

Order these leaflets today to hand out in your area!

 

As the Outreach Coordinators’ leafleting tours come to an end, we’d like to acknowledge this semester’s most prolific leafleters of Vegan Outreach’s Adopt a College Program.

We’ve asked each of them to share their favorite memory from this fall—hearing their stories will definitely leave you feeling inspired. Let’s get to it!

John Deetjen, Outreach Coordinator

“It’s difficult to pick one specific interaction—there were many things that made this semester great. It was really encouraging to hear students talking in mass about the concept of Speciesism—thanks to our new booklet.

It was also cool hearing from so many students who are very close to going vegan, and it’s great to provide them with the resources on how to do it. One student at College of Dupage even called our resources the, ‘Answer to her prayers.’ She’d been wanting to go vegan and now she is confident she can.”

John leafleted at 88 schools this semester and distributed 75,318 leaflets.

Steve Erlsten, Northern California Outreach Coordinator

“Meeting Gisella at Contra Costa College was a great reminder that some people need extra encouragement to put their compassion into action. She’d been vegetarian for about 18 months and was excited about the information in the Guide to Animal-Free Eating I gave her. By the end of our conversation, she was confident that she could go vegan and stay vegan!”

Steve leafleted at 89 schools this semester and distributed 72,304 leaflets.

Kimberly Moffatt, Outreach Coordinator

“My favorite memory from the semester was when I leafleted with volunteers at Nassau Community College. Altogether we spoke to about 20 people—students, faculty and security guards—who were either interested in going vegan or reducing their animal food product consumption. We talked to people who’d tried going vegan once and wanted to try again, and everything else in between. I told them how they could text and receive our Guide to Animal-Free Eating and explained VO’s mentor program.”

Kimberly leafleted at 58 schools this semester and distributed 35,350 leaflets.

Miguel Marrón, Outreach Coordinator

“Last week I was leafleting at Riverside City College, and I talked to a student who received a booklet from VO one year ago. She’s been vegan ever since.”

Miguel leafleted at 41 schools this semester and distributed 46,136 leaflets.

Emmanuel Márquez, Mexico Outreach Manager

“My favorite outreach moment this semester was at the Universidad Regiomontana in Monterrey, Nuevo León, MX. While tabling, I met Patricia. She learned how cows are treated in dairy farms while viewing Animal Equality’s iAnimal Virtual Reality.

After watching the 360 footage, she told me she felt good for not taking part in that system anymore. She attended a Humane Education presentation I did last semester, and after that she gave up dairy. She shared that using iAnimal made her desire to avoid dairy stronger and motivated her to keep moving forward to always eat vegan.”

Emmanuel leafleted at 62 schools this semester and distributed 47,674 leaflets.

Yuri Mitzkewich, Southeast Outreach Coordinator

“One of my favorite memories this fall was our visit to Florida Southwestern State College. We had a lot of great conversations—the interest in our message is heavy at community colleges and small universities because students rarely get information shared about veganism. That is one of the more important functions I feel VO does to spread the message about animals.”

Yuri leafleted at 85 schools this semester and distributed 70,909 leaflets.

Read Part II for another round of inspirational stories from more of the Fall ’17 top leafleters!

Donate in honor of a leafleter today to keep their work going.

 

Thanks to thousands of generous Vegan Outreach donors, we’ve accomplished a lot for animals together in 2017!

Get all the details—and simple instructions for replacing eggs in baking—online now! Thank you for making this work possible with your donations to Vegan Outreach!

In the past few months, people from all over the US have been telling California Pizza Kitchen (CPK) that they’d love to support a vegan cheese pizza option. Our campaign was so successful, we were able to get one CPK location—in Tukwila, WA—to add Daiya cheese as a dairy-free alternative.

It’s created such a buzz online that our petition has now got over 30,000 signatures! Your signatures and comments on CPK’s social media pages are vital in making sure they know what their customers want—to roll out vegan cheese pizza to all of their locations!

Let’s keep the momentum going! Here are three easy things you can do to help:

SIGN THE PETITION

Sign the petition asking CPK to join countless other pizza chains who’ve added vegan cheese to their menus.

SHARE A SELFIE

Print out this sign, snap a quick photo, and post it on Facebook. Make sure to tag California Pizza Kitchen and Vegan Outreach, and include a link to the petition.

TELL CPK ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Politely comment on CPK’s social media pages telling them you’d love to be a customer if they add vegan cheese pizza.

Talk to them here:

Thank you for helping us make this CPK campaign a success!

Vegan Outreach has joined animal advocacy group Farm Animal Rights Movement (FARM) in asking one of the world’s largest pizza chains to add a dairy-free cheese! Pizza Hut has 13,000 restaurants in 130 countries, yet hasn’t joined the countless pizza chains who have added options for vegan and dairy-intolerant customers.

Here’s what you can do to help.

1. Sign the petition.

Take 30 seconds and sign FARM’s petition to show the national support for a vegan cheese!

2. Fill out a Pizza Hut postcard.

Order postcards here, and on May 14, join the national day of action by delivering them to the manager at your local Pizza Hut. Make sure to snap a photo to share on social media, tagging @Pizzahut and ending your post the #pizzahut hashtag!

3. Take a selfie!

Print out this sign that reads “I want dairy-free cheese because…” and write in why Pizza Hut should carry vegan cheese. Snap a selfie with the sign and share on social media tagging @farmusa and @veganoutreach with the #DemandDairyFree hashtag.

4. Send a quick email or make an easy call.

Take two minutes and fill out the Pizza Hut customer feedback form asking them to offer vegan cheese. Follow up by calling your local Pizza Hut and asking to speak with a manager—tell them you’d love a vegan cheese at their location.

5. Reach out to Pizza Hut online.

Comment on Pizza Hut’s Facebook page telling them you would love to support a vegan option. Do the same on Twitter and Instagram to triple your impact!

These steps only take a few minutes and could convince one of the largest pizza companies in the world to invest in an option that doesn’t harm animals and makes vegan eating more accessible. Thank you!

Welcome to the last installment of our three-part series featuring this semester’s most prolific leafleters of Vegan Outreach’s Adopt a College Program.

If you haven’t had a chance to check out the other top leafleters, be sure to see Part I and Part II!

This week we’ll introduce you to the top 5 leafleters—who’ve all reached a mind-blowing number of people, and, as a result, helped a countless number of animals!

Kimberly Moffatt, VO Outreach Coordinator

“My favorite leafleting experience this semester was at Radford University in Radford, VA. Not only did I meet many vegetarians and vegans, but also I had a few conversations with people about the leaflets. Everyone, including staff, was super friendly and even started cheering me on throughout the day!”

Kimberly leafleted at 77 college campuses this semester and distributed 61,692 leaflets.

Emmanuel Márquez, VO Mexico Outreach Coordinator

“One of my favorite moments during my leafleting tour in Mexico was when I visited the city of Guadalajara. I was invited to give a presentation at Jalisco Vegan Fest on the effectiveness of leafleting and to set up a table. The presentation went very well—the audience was engaged and was asking a lot of questions. One of the students, Lucía, later told me that she wasn’t very interested in the beginning, but ended up enjoying it.

“After the talk, Lucía went to our table and bought a Vegan Outreach t-shirt. She also signed up as a volunteer. Three days later, Katia Rodríguez—VO Mexico Campaigns & Spanish Media Coordinator—and I were visiting a nearby high school and Lucía woke up at 5:00 am to help leaflet. Lucía is super shy, but she overcame that very fast. She told me she was inspired by what I shared in my presentation on how one person can spare many lives by doing this simple and effective activity.”

Emmanuel leafleted at 65 college campuses this semester and distributed 40,949 leaflets.

Sam Tucker, VO Australia & New Zealand Outreach Coordinator

“While I was leafleting at Swinburne University of Technology near Melbourne, Australia a student stopped and asked me why I was vegan. I told him I was vegan because I was against animal cruelty. Then I asked him why he ate meat. He said he hadn’t really thought about it before. We talked for a while about how animals are treated on factory farms and how you can get all the nutrients you need without eating animals.

“After talking for 15 minutes or so he decided he would try going vegan! He took a Guide to Cruelty-Free Eating and he also took some more leaflets to give to his friends!”

Sam leafleted at 50 college campuses this semester and distributed 41,183 leaflets.

Yuri Mitzkewich, VO Southeast Outreach Coordinator

“My favorite day of the fall semester was when I leafleted at the University of Alabama’s main campus in Tuscaloosa, AL in mid-September. Within a short amount of time, I met not only one, but three, vegans! What was great was that the third vegan who passed by, Stephanie, was an officer for the new student animal rights club, Vegan Alliance. Stephanie told me that they had five members when the group started in August and that the group had grown to an astounding 36 members in just a few short weeks! This is a great sign of a growing awareness and compassion for animals at this major southern university!

“Thanks to Vegan Outreach being on campus that day, we helped sign up three new members for the student group, and now I’m making plans to team up with Vegan Alliance during the spring semester. Just one of many great developments I saw taking place across Alabama this fall!”

Yuri leafleted at 88 college campuses this semester and distributed 66,522 leaflets.

Steve Erlsten, VO Northern California Outreach Coordinator

“One highlight of this semester was meeting a student named James at Cal State San Bernardino. He had been vegetarian since receiving a booklet from Vegan Outreach last year. We spoke for a few minutes, and he told me he was excited to try to go vegan with the help from the Guide to Cruelty-Free Eating booklet I gave him.”

Steve leafleted at 82 college campuses and high schools this semester and distributed 58,886 leaflets.

A big round of applause to these 5 leafleters, as well as to every other member of the Adopt a College Program.

The time and dedication everyone put into doing outreach is time well spent for the animals! We look forward to seeing you all next spring!

As the fall semester winds down, we’d like to acknowledge this semester’s most prolific leafleters of Vegan Outreach’s Adopt a College Program.

We’ve got so many dedicated leafleters that we want to recognize we have to split this blog post up into three parts! See the next Part II and Part III as well.

Let’s meet the first round of activists as they recall their favorite leafleting moment from the fall semester!

Houston Wong — Kirkland, WA

“My favorite leafleting experience this semester was going on the Canada (British Columbia) leafleting tour with Heather Bolint, the Seattle Grassroots Director of The Humane League. We met many inspiring animal advocates along the way, and I was able to hand out leaflets to 1,045 people at the University of British Columbia, the college from which I graduated. This world has hope, and I thank all animal advocates for what they do.”

Houston leafleted at 26 college campuses this semester and distributed 13,477 leaflets.

Lana Smithson, VO New England Outreach Coordinator

“The interaction that stands out the most is when the first student I spoke with at the State University of New York in Canton, NY (SUNY Canton) informed me she hasn’t eaten animals since receiving a leaflet from me the previous year. She then said, ‘Your outreach works!’ ”

Lana leafleted at 33 college campuses this semester and distributed 13,528 leaflets.

Pooja Rathor, VO India Outreach Coordinator

“I met this man—pictured below—who acknowledged cruelty happening towards animals, but he wasn’t aware of the dairy industry. He said, ‘You people are like a blessing at such a young age. You are having such good intentions, and I had no idea that I’ve been part of such cruelty. I will surely try dairy alternatives.’ ”

Pooja leafleted at 19 college campuses this semester and distributed 10,087 leaflets.

Jamila Alfred, VO Maryland/DC Events & Outreach Coordinator

“I was very excited being assigned to leaflet at Fayetteville State University in Fayetteville, NC. FSU is my mom’s alma mater and Fayetteville is my second hometown! Being there automatically felt great and the students were absolutely warm and wonderful—not to my surprise. I was ecstatic with how many students were interested in hearing what I had to say about the relation between speciesism and racism. I am still talking to some of them today!”

Jamila leafleted at 31 college campuses this semester and distributed 9,439 leaflets.

Sean Hennessy, VO Greater Ohio Outreach Coordinator

“When I was leafleting at Western Michigan University, I met Mark, a senior studying English and Spanish. He told me that during his freshman year he received a Vegan Outreach leaflet with moving pictures and information about animal cruelty in the meat industry. The leaflet was one of the main reasons he went vegetarian. Mark is now working on going vegan—he was excited to see the non-dairy yogurt recommended in Your Choice—and he likes that Vegan Outreach has a strong campus presence because students are still developing their worldviews.”

Sean leafleted at 50 college campuses this semester and distributed 35,361 leaflets.

A huge thank you to these wonderful activists! Be sure to tune in next week to meet the next round of this semester’s most dedicated leafleters!

Continuing our three-part series of highlighting this semester’s most notable leafleters of Vegan Outreach’s Adopt a College Program, let’s turn our attention to these four hard-working Vegan Outreach employees and volunteers as they tell us about their favorite interactions of the semester! Be certain to see the earlier Part I and the next Part III as well.

Jevranne Martel, VO Canada Outreach Coordinator

“I recently had a conversation with a hunter who started off aggressive and defensive when he heard I was handing out vegan information. I turned the conversation around instantly by letting him know I was aware most hunters hunt because they are against factory farming and the cruelty in the large agricultural businesses. He said, ‘We need meat to survive.’ Then we had a great conversation about the negative health aspects of eating meat, dairy, and eggs. He left the conversation by taking VO’s Your Choice booklet and a Guide to Cruelty-Free Eating.

“When he saw me later on he told me that he wanted to know more information and that he was interested in making the shift. He said he wanted to cause the least amount of harm possible.”

Jevranne leafleted at 60 college campuses this semester and distributed 43,825 leaflets.

Katia Rodríguez, VO Mexico Campaigns & Spanish Media Coordinator

“My favorite leafleting experience was at the Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas, where I met Rubén, an economics student. After receiving a leaflet from me he came back to ask a few questions. I answered all of his questions nicely and respectfully. What I loved about his response was that he was surprised and happy to meet a friendly vegan who was willing to having an open dialogue without attacking him. He has had bad experiences with talking to vegans in the past. He even told me that he’d give it a shot and transition to a vegan diet.”

Katia leafleted at 56 college campuses this semester and distributed 32,711 leaflets.

Rachel Shippee, VO Outreach Coordinator — Wauconda, IL

“My favorite leafleting experience this semester was at the University of Nebraska Omaha in Omaha, NE. I had numerous conversations with people who said they had been thinking about the issue or wanted to get involved. One conversation that sticks out was with a hunter who was skeptical at first, but left agreeing with our message and told me he would look further into plant-based eating.”

Rachel leafleted at 37 college campuses this semester and distributed 30,096 leaflets.

John Deetjen — Grayslake, IL

“I would have to say my favorite leafleting of the semester was in October at Macalester College. Macalester is a small school in St. Paul, MN, and the reception here was fantastic! My friend Rachel Shippee and I dropped 340 booklets in only an hour. And during that short hour we had numerous fantastic conversations with students who were interested in moving towards veganism.

“I had many great conversations with students about the ethics of eating animals, and with the help of the Guide to Cruelty-Free Eating we chatted about how they could move towards a plant-based diet in a sustainable way. Great use of an hour!”

John leafleted at 32 college campuses this semester and distributed 14,201 leaflets.

Thank you, Leafleting Rockstars! Your hard work is appreciated by a lot of people and animals!

Next week we’ll wrap up this three-part series by featuring this semester’s top 5 leafleters! You’re not going to want to miss it!