At Vegan Outreach, we believe it’s important to provide a variety of veg resources for aspiring and new vegans and vegetarians. One of the resources we provide to help people transition to a veg lifestyle is the Vegan Mentor Program (VMP).
Our VMP connects new vegans, vegetarians, and veg-curious people via email with a volunteer mentor who can help with anything from navigating the grocery store aisles to figuring out how to respond to friends and family members’ questions or concerns.
We absolutely love hearing from the mentors and mentees who’ve benefited from the program. Two of our program participants, Elizabeth and Sunny, wrote to us a few weeks back, detailing their experience, and it was simply too good not to share! Read on to hear this heartwarming story of a relationship that went from a mentorship to a new friendship!
Elizabeth
Sunny and I were first connected through the Vegan Outreach Mentorship program in mid-April. It was a really awesome match! We are the same age with similar interests and we live nearby! After a few email exchanges, Sunny and I met for a delicious vegan dinner. Since then we’ve kept in touch and gotten together a few times.
When she signed up for a mentor, Sunny was a long-time vegetarian who was interested in transitioning to a vegan diet, but was struggling with a few things. As of early August, Sunny is fully vegan! She’s been exploring new foods and enjoying the health benefits. And she may be interested in joining the program as a new mentor herself!
This has been a really wonderful experience for me—not only growing my own sense of vegan community, but also gaining a beautiful new friend.
Sunny
After celebrating my 25 year anniversary of being vegetarian, I wanted to make the leap and go vegan. Joining the VMP and meeting Elizabeth was all I needed to reach that goal. I wish I had gone vegan sooner, I absolutely love it!! A whole new world has opened up for me. I am so grateful to her and Vegan Outreach.
As of May 2017, VO’s Vegan Mentor Program (Programa Mentor Vegano en Español) has over 1,900 mentors located in 1,000 cities in 60 countries. We’re proud of the rapid growth of this program!
We’d love to hear from you if you’ve benefited from the program like Sunny and Elizabeth!
If you’re interested in becoming a mentor or mentee, please visit the VMP webpage.
