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!

We’ve accomplished a lot for animals together in 2016!

Get these stories and more—and a bonus Pumpkin Pie Bagel Spread recipe—online now! Thank you for making this work possible with your donations to Vegan Outreach!

By Lori Stultz, VO Rocky Mountain Outreach Coordinator

I’d like to introduce you to this unique sounding band—Moon Hooch—that’s growing in popularity. If their music doesn’t draw you in immediately, then maybe knowing that the three band members are vegan and very environmentally conscious will do the trick.

I first became aware of them a few months ago and have listened to their music while pouring over articles and interviews—

When I looked up their tour schedule and saw that they were going to be playing in October at the Fox Theatre in Boulder, CO—where I live—I knew that this interview had to happen. I recommend cranking up their latest album, Red Sky, while you get familiar with the band.

Lori Stultz: Where are you from? I notice that you [Wenzl] have an accent, whereas you two [Mike and James] don’t.

Mike Wilbur: I was born and raised in Boston, MA. I lived in Brooklyn, NY for 8 years, and went to school in Manhattan, NY.

Wenzl McGowen: I was born in Spain, and I’ve lived in Germany, Austria, and Portugal. I lived for 9 years in New York. My mom is from Chicago, IL and my dad is Austrian. They decided not to raise me bilingual, so my first language is German.

James Muschler: I am from Cleveland, OH. I lived there for 18 years and then I moved to New York. And that’s where I met Mike and Wenzl, at The New School.

Lori: How did Moon Hooch come to be? Did you intentionally come together to form a band?

Mike: We definitely did not decide to intentionally form a band!

Wenzl: We were all living in this house together with a bunch of musicians. James and I started to have this thing where we played house music on the streets of New York because both of us were in this band called the A-Typicals, which was an electronic dance music band.

I was playing sax lines that were based on repetitive, simple kind of stuff that you’d find in electronic dance music. And James was playing house beat. And then Mike ran into us and joined us.

We just started going out together and playing, and I started writing simple songs that were based on electronic dance music with blues-based melodies. And from there it kind of grew into what it is now.

Lori: When did it become a goal to travel and do tours?

Mike: We never really had plans to do anything but make money playing in the subway in New York. We were broke college students. Then Mike Doughty saw us down there and offered us a national tour. And then we had a small national following over a period of a month after that.

We’ve just been building on that for six years, slowly. And now here we are at the Fox Theatre.

Lori: Tell me about your collective vegan journey. Was it a group decision?

Wenzl: Yes, it slowly became that. My ex-girlfriend is very health conscious and conscious of the impact she has on the environment. She just kept informing us of what was actually going on in the animal industry, but it took years for that to sink in and for us to give up our desire to eat meat. It’s been about five years since we all went vegan.

Lori: What kind of advocacy/promotion do you do on tour? Do you try to make it known to your audience that the band is vegan?

Wenzl: We post videos, James keeps a food blog, and when we’re in vegan restaurants we post photos of food. We also give out flyers about veganism at our shows.

Lori: I read that you try to cook your own meals on the road. How do you do that?

James: We carry a toaster oven and that thing [pointing to a portable camp fire stove]. We also carry our own utensils.

Mike: [Laughing] James is on a squash bender right now, it’s ridiculous. We’re traveling with like five squashes.

We try to buy only local at co-ops and stuff in the different cities we go to.

Lori: Do you all also try to check out a lot of vegan restaurants while you’re on the road?

Mike: We checked out WaterCourse Foods while we were in Denver, CO—that was amazing. If we know it’s going to be worth it, we’ll check it out. But we’ve been trying to eliminate waste this tour. We bought a water filter and we’ve been using reusable bottles.

Lori: Do you try to make issues about waste known to your audience as well?

James: Yes, but we try not to make it overkill and shove it in people’s faces. We like to lead by example.

Lori: What’s your favorite part about living on the road? And what’s your least favorite part?

Mike: [Laughing] My favorite part is that our parents don’t tell us what to do anymore!

No, just kidding. My favorite part is that I get to play music everyday. My least favorite part is everything else, especially sitting in the car for 4 to 6 hours everyday between cities.

Wenzl: I think my favorite part is to give this kind of experience to people every night. And to have this kind of experience for ourselves, too. Doing shows…it sorts of breaks all these layers of perception that you build up during the day.

Sometimes you take reality so seriously. You know? And then in the end you’re on stage pouring out your soul and you just feel this insane energy of love and understanding. It transcends all these tools we have to communicate with each other.

James: Ditto!

Wenzl: And I think my least favorite part is having no privacy. It’s like we have to hang out with each other 24/7 and then sleep in the same bed at night.

Mike: [Laughing] Ditto!

Lori: Is there anything I haven’t asked you that you want people to know?

Wenzl: Whenever we’re having this moment of transcendence, whether it’s through music, through nature, through meditation, through yoga, or whatever it is, it’s important to remember that that’s out there. When it gets really tough in life, this complete bliss and acceptance is something that’s attainable. Even if it gets really dark and frustrating and sad and angry and all of those things, there is this other level of being within all of us.

Mike: Every time someone eats meat, something was murdered and tortured so that they could eat that meat. People’s actions matter.

James: Mushrooms are way better than meat—they’re easier to eat and they take way less time to cook! They’re very tasty.

Lori: Thank you, James, Mike, and Wenzl, for taking the time while busy on tour for me to spend time with and interview you! We sincerely appreciate all that you do to spread the vegan message of compassion.

And as the timing may have it, VO’s newly published Everyone Loves Music booklet even features quotes from the band members.

Vegan Outreach’s Executive Director, Jack Norris, RD, has written an update about Vegan Outreach’s attempts to assess the effectiveness of leafleting: Leafleting Effectiveness Study – Fall 2016 Update.

To summarize the state of the project, we are in the midst of our third pilot test to determine how best to go about measuring direct diet change created by leafleting and we are optimistic that we’ve found a method that can provide a reasonable amount of statistical certainty. The drawback is that it comes with a price tag of about $40,000. For this reason, we are likely to conduct it in waves over the course of a few semesters.

Excerpts from the Full Article

People have always asked us at Vegan Outreach how we know whether leafleting makes a difference.

We have mainly had anecdotal evidence to provide them, such as the Lives Changed and Recent Feedback pages on our website, which list some of the feedback we receive from people who have changed their diets due to receiving a booklet.

The impact that can be palpably felt on college campuses when leafleting—by talking to interested students, seeing people reading the booklets, and overhearing people discuss the issue—typically leaves an activist with a strong sense that they have just done a lot of good. These feelings are what keep so many leafleters going out day after day.

Nonetheless, it would be great to have more precise information about the impact of leafleting. This is no easy task, since there are at least four scenarios where leafleting is likely to make a positive difference.

• Direct Diet Change: A person receiving a booklet is moved emotionally or intellectually by the suffering of farmed animals and adopts a vegan diet.
• Word of Mouth: The original booklet recipient shares that information with others either through conversation or passing along the booklet.
• Touchpoint: A person is made aware of the suffering of farmed animals by a booklet, which makes them more likely to change their diet when presented with a future outreach activity.
• Animal Protection Community-Building: Leafleting is a low barrier-to-entry activity for new and experienced animal activists alike. Taking part in leafleting outings builds important connections between people and organizations in the animal protection community.

Historically, studies on leafleting have focused on the first scenario (direct diet change). Vegan Outreach’s current efforts are also focused on determining how likely people are to change their diet after receiving a booklet. However, to get a full understanding of the benefits of leafleting, these other dimensions have to be taken into consideration, and may themselves be subjects for future investigations.

A 2016 Harris Poll commissioned by the VRG found that “Approximately 3.7 million U.S. adults are vegan; 4.3 million are vegetarian but not vegan.”

To my knowledge, these polls are the best information we have on how many U.S. adults are vegan, and they show that over 22 years—and a great deal of activism—we have increased the number of vegans by about 3 million.

Click here for full article.

This year’s issue of Vegan Outreach News is now available.

Inside: Record-Setting Outreach • Measuring Effectiveness • Keeping Vegans Vegan • Doubling Your Impact for Animals, and much more!

Thank you for all you’ve made possible this year – and here’s to even more success in 2016!

(click to image to play video)

Vic Sjodin, VO’s Director of International Outreach, recently spoke at the International Animal Rights Conference in Esch, Luxembourg on effective activism, leafleting and staying inspired. The talk was very well received, you can see it here!

 

By Vic Sjodin, VO Director of Outreach

The fall semester has officially started at many colleges and universities across the country, which means ample opportunity for animal advocates to get out there and do outreach to an open-minded crowd of people.

Whether you’re new to leafleting or you’ve been leafleting for years, we want to give you a few easy-to-implement, time-tested tips that are guaranteed to help you leaflet like a pro.

Smile and Say Hello

A warm greeting and a friendly smile will undoubtedly increase the number of booklets you hand out. You can also try saying statements like, “Info on helping animals.” or “Help stop suffering.”

People who are new to leafleting will often say these statements as questions—”Would you like some info on how to help animals?” Doing this will actually decrease the number of booklets people take from you. Tweaking something so little can increase your take rate dramatically.

Extend Arm Fully

You’ll want to lean a little towards the receiver and extend your arm fully, locking your arm straight out when handing off the booklet. Do your best to pass the booklet right into the receiver’s hand.

If you have your arm close to your body and bent at 90 degrees, you won’t appear as confident. This is another small change that will make a huge difference!

For a bonus tip—make sure to square your shoulders and face the person walking toward you. Hand the booklet forward, slightly to the left or the right of your body. Be mindful not to hand out booklets with your arm to the side of your body.

Thank People Who Take a Booklet

Saying “Thank you!” or “Have a nice day!” or even “You’re the best!” with a little enthusiasm will have a profound cumulative effect by keeping the momentum of leaflet takers going. The person who took your booklet will appreciate the kindness, and, more importantly, the next person approaching will take note of your kindness and likely grab the booklet you’re offering.

Once a few people start taking booklets, more and more people will take them as they see others doing it. This simple act can often double or triple your take rate when done with warmth and sincerity.

Watch a Demonstration

Want to see these tips in action? Check out this video—a recording of Vegan Outreach’s first Facebook Live leafleting demonstration.

Have more questions about leafleting? Check out our detailed Helpful Tips page on the Adopt A College Website.

Want to get involved and start leafleting? This is how to get started.

Good luck and happy leafleting!

by Jack Norris, Executive Director

Vegan Outreach recently joined with ReadingRewards to do a pilot study to determine the effectiveness of paying people to read our booklets. Participants were given a small reward as part of a rewards program.

We tested the booklets Your Choice (YC), Even If You Like Meat (EI), and a control pamphlet about immigration. Participants were then surveyed to see if they intended to change their diet. All participants were surveyed a month later to see how they changed.

You can see the basline report by clicking here and the follow-up by clicking here. As of this writing, I didn’t have an official study design report yet, but will add that as soon as I receive it. [Added Dec 18, 2014; click here.]

For the initial study, 223 people read YC, 181 read EI, and 213 read the control pamphlet. For the follow-up, 167 of the YC, 134 of the EI, and 158 of the control readers took part.

The takeaway messages were as follows.

EI was the stronger pamphlet in terms of getting people to change. Compared to YC, EI has more text, citations, and more graphic images. It doesn’t focus as much on trying to convince people based on the fact that others are also going veg.

The finding that people were more persuaded by EI goes somewhat against the social research that suggests that seeing other people like you doing something is the most powerful motivator for change. On the other hand, older people were more likely to change in this survey (which was a surprise), and YC shows pictures of college students, not older people.

Speaking of the age of people who changed, among those over 50 years old, 14.3% reported changing their diet due to the pamphlet. The rates were 5.5% for readers between 40-50 years old, 2.9% for readers between 30-40 years old, and 1.9% for readers between 18-30 years old. These differences were statistically significant.

Predictably, women were more likely to change than men as 6.8% of female respondents who read a VO pamphlet reported changing their diet due to reading the pamphlet, compared to only 1.4% of male readers.

In terms of how much change the pamphlets created, the results suggested that 1 out of every 60-100 readers may have become pescetarian, vegetarian, or vegan due to reading the pamphlet. These results are highly uncertain due to lack of statistical significance. If true, then at a cost of $0.44 per read, it would be $26.50-$44.15 per major diet change.

Some of these results were surprising. We had been planning to make all our booklets more like YC, but this has given us a strong reason to continue having a couple booklets with more graphic photos and more text and citations.

The fact that older women were more likely to change their diet than younger women or men was also surprising. It’s hard to believe that this finding isn’t an anomaly, but definitely worth paying attention to more for the future.

In the meantime, I don’t think this survey should necessarily be taken as the final word on which booklet to use. The fact is, for most leafleters, YC is a lot easier to hand out and possibly handing out more could overcome the fact that if someone reads the entire booklet, they are more likely to change from an EI. And we don’t really know the differences between the booklets among a large number of college students.

The benefits of this Pay Per Read model for studying our booklets is that it solves some of the significant logistical problems of going onto college campuses and surveying people over time (especially finding the people to re-survey over time). In the not-too-distant future, I am interested in testing:

• Larger groups of people to possibly achieve statistical significance
• Longer time periods
• Reading pamphlets versus watching videos
• Incremental approaches versus a harder sell for veganism
• Environmental, health, and animal arguments compared to each other

That should keep us busy for a while.

By Josie Moody, VO Office Manager

If you’re looking for vegan shoes, you’ve come to the right place—my husband Mitch and I have compiled a list of vegan shoes below!

First, there are a number of sites that sell only vegan shoes. Wills is one of Mitch’s favorites for buying professional work shoes.

Other vegan companies are MooShoes, Vegan Essentials, and The Vegetarian Site.

If you aren’t buying from one of the great sites listed above, one invaluable resource we discovered is Vegan Kicks. Vegan Kicks is dedicated to helping you find vegan shoes, avoid ones that aren’t, and contact companies to ask them to include vegan options.

Vegan Kicks includes information about the workers’ conditions in their yearly reports—Vegan Shoe Policies 2015.

After discovering fashionable options from all-vegan companies such as Native Shoes, Newton Running, Unstitched Utilities, Vegan Chic, and Xero Shoes—where you can make your own sandals!—I’ll be spending my money at businesses whose values align closely with mine.

A special shout out to Vans, who, as of this writing, has dozens of vegan options for toddlers, kids, and adults alike!

Are there any vegan shoe companies you didn’t see in the Vegan Shoe Policies 2015 list? Let us know in the comments below!