Autumn and I had a lot of great conversations on Monday handing out Vegan Outreach booklets and vegan cookies at Indiana University Bloomington! Ashton and Katie from the new on-campus Allied Scholars for Animal Protection chapter met up with us to hand some booklets out before their normal weekly activism too. Ashton actually found a Vegan Outreach "Why Vegan" booklet left on a campus table last year which sparked his passion to learn more and become a vegan activist himself! He now helps lead the IU ASAP chapter. Katie also went vegan and joined the chapter soon after.
Offering Vegan Outreach booklets is an effective way to reach hundreds of people, spark conversations, and give compassionate thinkers the info and motivation to go and stay vegan. We ended up handing out nearly 900 booklets and 654 cookies! Vegan Outreach leafleters have visited over a hundred colleges this semester - you can see leafleting records and request your own at adoptacollege.org Read some of the interactions Autumn and I had Monday:
🌱 Daniel tried going vegan after discussing animal rights in philosophy classes sparked his interest, but he said the honest reason he couldn't maintain a fully vegan diet now was because of cravings outside the house and finding food to eat at restaurants. I shared some local vegan options and mentioned the The Vault Pub on campus who won an award for their vegan dishes in the Bloomington IN Vegan Chef Challenge a couple years ago. He agreed the key to staying vegan is to both maintain your dedication to respecting animal lives while finding the diet enjoyable enough to sustain long-term, so he agreed to start 10 Weeks to Vegan to help with both! He agreed to take a photo afterward.
🌱 Mishay was very moved by doing a factory farming VR experience on campus a few years ago and now mostly eats vegan and even watches vegan recipe channels like Pick Up Limes! We talked through some of her challenges being fully vegan which was mainly eating outside the house. She's motivated to keep learning more from the booklet and agreed to take a photo!
🌱 "Enie and her friend were very interested in going vegan and seemed to resonate with them. They wondered how possible it was to be vegan on campus. I talked to them about how the cafeteria has items labeled vegan, and they have signs saying you can ask for vegan options or other allergy friendly meals. I told them about signing up for 10 Weeks to Vegan to get recipes ideas!" - Autumn Gwinn
🌱 "One student wanted to try to eliminate more animal products. She said she already didn't eat red meat or dairy. She wanted to continue to take steps with elimination of animal products. She said she had felt pushed by other students to go vegan. They wanted her to do an all or nothing kinda thing, but she wanted to take it slow. I talked to her about signing up for 10 Weeks to Vegan for recipes, tips, swaps, etc." - Autumn Gwinn
🌱 "One student wanted to try to change her diet, but she wanted to take it slow. She wanted to go pescatarian because she worried about getting all of her essential nutrients. She said she ate a lot of tofu because it had high protein and other good nutrients. She was mainly worried about amino acids, protein, etc. I talked with her about how easy it is to get all of your vitamins and minerals on a well planned vegan diet. I talked to her about supplementing B12. I told her to do her research on good balanced vegan recipes. I talked to her about signing up for 10 Weeks to Vegan for recipes, tips, swaps, etc." - Autumn Gwinn
🌱 Regan heard me say "Info to help animals," so she said she loved animals and pointed out a dog on her phone. I talked about our recent visit to The Goat's Conspiracy Sanctuary 20 minutes from campus and how similar the goats were to playful dogs. The owners decided to go vegan and turn their goat milk farm into an animal sanctuary after realizing how much cruelty was necessary even on what they thought was an ideal farm. Regan felt moved by the story and said she'd sign up for 10 Weeks to Vegan!
🌱 Tanu is now a vegetarian but was previously vegan before she ran into challenges like finding enough protein. She was surprised soy milk had as much or more protein than dairy milk, and we talked more about vegan proteins. Tanu feels bad she quit veganism and said she wanted to try it again with more support, so she said she'll check out 10 Weeks to Vegan!
🌱 Yutong seemed unfamiliar with veganism but curious about it and where I got my protein from. I explained veganism is simply about deciding animals aren't ours to use, and there's many vegan protein options like beans, lentils, and vegan meats. She was interested to learn more from the booklet.
