Tuesday, November 9, 2010

World Vegan Month Activity Report

Being World Vegan Month, Friends of Animals in Victoria organized several activities to celebrate and promote veganism, and we got busy with it!

First off was a vegan feed-out, in downtown Victoria in front of Bastion Square. A feed-out is a fun event where you give out vegan food and info, demonstrating on the spot that you can have tasty food, and not hurt animals.

From 2010 - World Vegan Day

Mary and I gave out dozens of cupcakes, brownies, and pumpkin chocolate-chip cookies (thanks to Diana for the latter!) and had some good conversations with people, who were genuinely interested in finding out more about veganism.

Next up was a screening of Peaceable Kingdom at Green Cuisine on Sunday. A dozen people turned up, half of whom I haven't met before, so nice to get some new faces out. As expected, the film was well received, and during the discussion period afterward one person commented they would be now committing to being 100% vegan. Declarations we like to hear!

Afterward most people stuck around to enjoy dinner with the group. Green Cuisine kindly offered a discounted special, and people took advantage of this, filling up on delicious vegan food. We also had a small draw, and further thanks to Green Cuisine for donating a couple $15 gift certificates and their cookbook, and Friends of Animals also chipped in a tote bag, and copies of Dining With Friends and Capers in the Churchyard.

From 2010 - World Vegan Day

On Monday, the UVic Friends of Animals club got busy on campus with a fundraiser vegan bakesale for Primarily Primates, an amazing sanctuary for chimpanzees and other animal refugees. Lots of amazing goodies were prepared, and a big thank you goes out to Mary, Meghan and Jenn for baking and helping with the table, and to Katrina, Diana, Kyla and Jess for filling out the rest of the table with vegan goodness. (And more brownies from me of course. ;)

Despite it being a slower reading break crowd, we still managed to raise nearly $200 - thanks, UVic FoA Club, perhaps there's another watermelon party in the near future for the residents of Primarily Primates.

From 2010 - World Vegan Day

An extra-special thank-you goes out to Mary, who's been an amazing, inspiring and dedicated volunteer. Sadly for us, she'll be moving away in a week, first to travel South America for six months, and then moving permanently to Australia. There, I'm sure the vegan community will benefit from her exceptional out-going and engaging activism. We'll miss you Mary!

A few more photos from the day can be found here; it's up to you to continue to celebrating the rest of World Vegan Month! =)

Dave Shishkoff
Canadian Correspondent
Friends of Animals
Web Site: http://FriendsofAnimals.org
Victoria: http://TheVictoriaVegan.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2496490922
Twitter: http://Twitter.com/FoA_Victoria
FoA Vegan Starter Guide PDF: http://bit.ly/foa-vsg

Friday, November 5, 2010

World Vegan Month Activities in Victoria

November 1st was World Vegan Day, happy belated World Vegan Day! =)

It's been 66 years now since the term 'vegan' was coined, and the Vegan Society founded, and we've progress fairly well! Let's try and encourage more to go vegan for the rest of 2010, and into 2011.

To accomplish this, Friends of Animals has a few events planned in the immediate future. On Sunday, November 7th, we'll be organizing a Feed-Out (giving out yummy vegan food to prove you can have tasty food and not hurt animals), as well as a screening of Peaceable Kingdom, followed by a Dine-Out at Green Cuisine.

On Monday, November 8th, we'll be up at UVic to have a vegan bakesale fundraiser for Primarily Primates, the FoA sanctuary in Texas.

For all the details, visit The Victoria Vegan's World Vegan Day page. Hope to see you there, and have a wonderful World Vegan Month!

Dave Shishkoff
Canadian Correspondent
Friends of Animals
Web Site: http://FriendsofAnimals.org
Victoria: http://TheVictoriaVegan.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2496490922
Twitter: http://Twitter.com/FoA_Victoria
FoA Vegan Starter Guide PDF: http://bit.ly/foa-vsg