By Jack Norris, RD, VO Executive Director

When I saw that Tofurky had made all of their pizzas gluten-free I got very sad. I had loved Tofurky pizza in the past, but my experience has been that gluten-free pizza crusts were soggy with an aftertaste—almost inedible.

Nevertheless, I mustered the courage to go gluten-free for a meal. I’m happy to report that I was very pleasantly surprised—I didn’t even notice a difference!

In fact, I found myself back in that old familiar state of wondering if I really would finish the entire pizza at one sitting. I was thankful the next day when I remembered that I hadn’t given in to temptation and there were still a few slices left!

I’m sorry I doubted you, Tofurky. Will you forgive me?

VO’s Maryland/DC Events and Outreach Coordinator, Jamila Alfred, is looking for housing while touring throughout the southern U.S. in the coming weeks. She’ll need places to stay in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and North Carolina.

Jamila’s leafleting schedule and dates for her tour are listed below. If you live in or near one of these cities and/or schools and are willing to house Jamila, please send an email to [email protected].

Thank you!

10/4: North Carolina Central University (Durham, NC)
10/6: North Carolina A&T State University (Greensboro, NC)
10/7: Winston-Salem State University (Winston-Salem, NC)
10/13: Savannah State University (Savannah, GA)
10/14: Edward Waters College (Jacksonville, FL)
10/18: Florida A&M University (Tallahassee, FL)
10/19: Albany State University (Albany, GA)
10/20: Fort Valley State University (Fort Valley, GA)
10/25: Tuskegee University (Tuskegee, AL)
10/26: Alabama State University (Montgomery, AL)
10/27: Troy University (Troy, AL)
11/1: Alcorn State University (Lorman, MS)
11/2: Jackson State University (Jackson, MS)
11/3: Grambling State University (Grambling, LA)

By Alex Bury, VO Organizational Development Consultant

Example #382 That It’s Very Hard To Be Vegan—Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream

Last weekend I discovered Sub Zero Ice Cream.

Sub Zero Ice Cream is a chain of cute little ice cream shops where you not only create your own ice cream, but it’s made by injecting liquid nitrogen.

I’m not even kidding.

First, you toss your chosen liquid base into a bowl with flavorings and extras—like pecans or strawberries. For a minute everything seems normal, but then WHOOOSH! The ice cream maker is enveloped with gas like a smoke machine from the theater!

It’s a little off-putting—did your order just disappear forever?—yes, but also fun!

I assumed that, as a vegan, I’d have to once again suffer and skip this chemistry miracle because all of their bases were milk and cream. Five minutes before finding the store I didn’t know I was suffering, but as soon as I saw that fluffy cloud explosion I knew it was unfair I couldn’t have any.

That’s when my friend, Janet, pointed out the menu. They had a long list of vegan options! You could get vegan almond yogurt as your base, coconut milk, almond milk, and more! Better yet, all the servers knew exactly which toppings were vegan.

Three minutes later I was eating an espresso ice cream made with the vegan yogurt base, filled with chocolate chips and almonds. And nitrogen. Can’t forget the nitrogen. It was delicious!

I’m just kidding. All I could taste was creamy cold ice cream, coffee, and chocolate.

Check out their website to see if there’s a location near you and grab one before summer fades!

By Lisa Rimmert, VO Director of Development

I’m a vegan, and I love eating meat and cheese.

I don’t mean the kind that comes from animals, but the delicious vegan versions that are becoming so widely available all over the world. The kind sold at the 100% vegan online store—Vegan Essentials—which you can now order with our 10% off coupon code!

Vegan Essentials has vegan meats like Gardein’s Crispy Chick’n Sliders, Match Meat’s vegan Ground Beef, and of course Tofurky’s delicious Deli Slices.

They also sell vegan cheeses such as Field Roast’s Vegan Chao Cheese Slices and Kite Hill’s Artisan Vegan Cream Cheese Style Spreads.

Get these products and more at Vegan Essentials, and use the discount code “VO” to save 10%.

Offer good through Wednesday, August 31.

By Katia Rodríguez, VO Mexico Campaigns and Spanish Media Coordinator

Vegan grilled cheese competition? Count Us In!

The First Annual Vegan Grilled Cheese Competition took place mid-July in the Los Angeles area at Culver City’s Sage Organic Vegan Bistro—the restaurant’s owner, Mollie Engelhart, and her husband, Elias Sosa, organized it.

Ten amazing vegan chefs came together to see who could come up with the most delicious grilled cheese sandwich recipe. VO’s Emmanuel Márquez and I were lucky enough to be in L.A. at the time of this event to partake in the judging! All of the judges were given a ballot with each chef’s name, which was how we voted for our favorite sandwich.

There were also special guest judges, including our amazing VO coworker, David Carter—The 300 Pound Vegan—and TV host Marco Antonio Regil, television journalist and author Jane Velez-Mitchell, Al and Dee Borja of Vegan Food Share, and Asher Brown of Pollution Studios, who’s also the producer of Vegan Food Share’s videos.

The event was a huge success! The place was very crowded and everyone was having fun—chatting, enjoying amazing grilled cheese sandwiches, but having a hard time choosing their favorite.

Now what you’ve been waiting for: The Winners!

People’s choice: Chef Ayindé Howell, author of The Lusty Vegan.
Grilled cheese: Mac and Cheese Grilled Cheese Sandwich.

Judges’ favorite: Vinny Blanco, AKA “Gangster Vegan.”
Grilled cheese: Philly Sweet Potato Cheesesteak Grilled Cheese Sandwich.

Vinny told us that he’s going to use his cash award to buy vegan meals to give to hungry inner-city kids!

Needles to say, we had a great time during the event!

Vegan Outreach is a proud sponsor of this year’s Vegan Soul Sunday!

Please note that this event will no longer be held on June 5, 2016. The new date and location will be announced soon!

Vegan Soul Sunday will include cooking demonstrations, music, and health screenings. Presentations will be given by David Carter (The 300 Pound Vegan), Ayinde Howell (executive chef and founder of ieatgrass.com), and Seba Johnson (Olympic athlete).

Registration is free.

If you live in or near Oakland, we hope to see you there!

By Lisa Rimmert, VO Director of Development

If you’re like me, you love wearing shirts with vegan messages on them.

They are great conversation starters, inspiring discussions about vegan eating with people you wouldn’t otherwise meet. I’ve had plenty of positive interactions, as well as a few funny ones—like when an airport TSA agent tried to convince me that fish are vegetables.

Now, for a very limited time, you can start your own conversations with this unique design that states “Eat plants, love animals.” And the best news is that every purchase supports VO’s work to end violence toward animals!

These shirts are only available for one more week—from now until Tuesday, August 16. Buy now and be one of the only people to sport this one-of-a-kind design!  Thank you!

By Brenda Sanders, VO Community Engagement Coordinator

A few weekends ago, I ventured out into the 90+ degree weather to attend Artscape—Baltimore, Maryland’s largest free arts festival—to engage with other attendees about the benefits of veganism.

Artscape brings out more that 350,000 people over the course of three days, and I’m pretty sure I talked to at least half of those people. Okay, I didn’t talk to nearly that many people, the unrelenting heat just made it feel like I did.

I actually spoke with a couple hundred people over the course of the day, and with very few exceptions I got extremely positive responses from folks!

I was pleasantly surprised by the interactions I had during the festival. First off, every single person I spoke to had heard of veganism. That was certainly not the case just a few years ago. I can remember a time when I had to give a long introduction about what veganism meant before I could even talk to people about the benefits of the lifestyle.

This time, however, when I asked the question, “Have you ever heard of veganism?” people were genuinely happy to talk about what they thought it was —“That’s the one where you don’t eat anything, right?” For the most part folks were pretty well-informed.

A few people seemed concerned that I was about to take them on a guilt trip, but once they realized I just wanted to discuss how awesome veganism is, they relaxed and enjoyed the conversation.

I was also encouraged to find that about one third of the people I spoke to were already seriously considering going vegan. This is such a huge thing! The fact that I met so many people in one day who had learned enough about veganism to be considering making such an important life change was just amazing.

Even the folks who hadn’t considered going vegan were very open to receiving information about how veganism can benefit their health, the earth, and the animals with which we share the planet.

After only a brief conversation, the majority of the people I talked to expressed a definite interest in learning how they could start making kinder, healthier choices in their everyday lives.

The Compassionate Athlete booklet was a huge hit—shout-out to David Carter, Seba Johnson, and all the other amazing athletes who were featured—and a lot of the people I met expressed a desire to connect with the growing vegan community in Baltimore.

Overall, I would say that, despite the irrationally hot temperatures, my day of outreach at Artscape was a roaring success!

I’m especially thankful to Vegan Outreach for being so supportive of community-based projects that are aimed at engaging people in marginalized communities. Baltimore has a strong base of local groups and activists. If it weren’t for this kind of support from groups like VO, we wouldn’t be able to reach so many people with such vital, life-saving information.

By Melissa Li, MD, VO Board of Directors Vice-Chair

Kathy Freston does it again! Vegan Outreach is thrilled to have received an advance copy of her new book, The Book of Veganish. Freston is the author of numerous books on health and wellness, including most recently Veganist: Lose Weight, Get Healthy, Change the World. Her latest work, co-authored with Rachel Cohn, is aimed at teens and college students, people who might just be beginning to learn about the vegan lifestyle.

Even though I’m decades beyond my adolescent years, I found this book very enjoyable. Kathy Freston writes in an easygoing, conversational style, and she appropriately cites statistics and data in a way that won’t discourage the casual reader. She provides just enough nutritional facts to persuade readers to abandon a standard American diet in favor of a vegan one, without hitting hard on the studies themselves.

It’s great to have a book that targets a young audience because this is a crucial period of time when young adults are becoming invested in social media and finding the peers with whom they want to associate. They may be learning independence and finding out how animals are raised for consumption and what impact they as individuals have on the environment.

It’s a time when self-esteem is also an issue, and it may be scary to stand alone in pursuing an unconventional lifestyle. In each chapter, Freston includes comments from other young adults from all over: small towns such as Mukilteo, Washington; established vegan-friendly cities such as Portland, Oregon; and venturing beyond the U.S., less-established outposts of veganism such as Scotland.

These young people form the community that can become peers, and they offer suggestions, tips, and stories about their processes of becoming vegan. Freston coins the term “veganish” to emphasize that turning away from animal products is a process, and that it’s all about doing the best one can, without judgment.

The book has a lot of frequently asked questions and great answers to help young adults navigate their way, and also to provide them answers to the questions that will be commonly asked of them. The recipes provided towards the end of the book are easy and delicious, and just right for college students’ tight budgets. Freston also offers helpful suggestions for grocery shopping, veganizing dishes, and meal plans.

Lastly, the book includes interviews with some young people about their diet and activism for animals, and it’s a pleasure to learn about the new generation of animal rights activists. I believe more people, at younger ages, are learning about the way animals are treated on factory farms and want to do something about it.