A few months ago, we featured Sunny and Elizabeth—two women who formed a close friendship after being connected through Vegan Outreach’s Vegan Mentor Program (VMP).

Today, we bring you a story of two families who, similar to Sunny and Elizabeth, became good friends after being introduced through the VMP. In this interview, we’ll meet both families, hear about their paths to veganism and the role the VMP played in bringing them together. Most importantly, we’ll see pictures and get the tasty details about their Thanksgiving holiday, which they celebrated together in sunny Florida!

Tell us about yourselves and your families.

Natalie Mindrum: My name is Natalie Mindrum. I work in the airline industry overseeing a real estate portfolio that includes the New York City region. My husband, Adam, is a fellow vegan, and we have two vegan kids, ages 7 and 5, and two vegan rescued canine companions, Leyla, a beagle-mix, and Stuart, a Rhodesian Ridgeback/Pitbull mix.

Kristine Casart: My name is Kristine Casart, and I’m a full-time mom of three vegan kids, ages 9, 6, and 2. My husband, Tim, and I also take care of our vegan beagles Leif and Lars. I’m also very excited about this project that I just started called Mom Vegan Love. So far I have a Facebook page and Instagram. I try to show people how fun it is to be vegan.

What were your respective vegan journeys like?

Natalie: I became vegan back in 2007. I read a book by E.O. Wilson called The Diversity of Life, which got me thinking about how similar humans are to the animals on our plates. Then I saw Earthlings and the rest was history. My boyfriend, now husband, was a bit resistant in the beginning, but now he’s been vegan for nearly a decade, too—for the animals. I decided to become a mentor for Vegan Outreach’s VMP because I wanted to meet fellow vegans and I was interested in helping people who were trying to go vegan.

Being matched with Kristine and her family, who lived just a few minutes away from us, was more than what I could have hoped for from the program! It’s led to what I hope will be a life-long friendship!

Kristine: I first watched Forks Over Knives about four years ago and wanted to go vegan overnight for health reasons. My husband was not quite ready at the time, and we started by transitioning to a vegetarian diet. About 2 ½ years ago we watched Earthlings together. We completely made the connection and went vegan for the animals that day.

I absolutely love us as vegans! Getting rid of asthma, allergies, low immune systems, and stomach issues has led us to enjoy life to the fullest. Opening our hearts to live according to our core values and letting love and compassion be our guide is just amazing. Our only regret is not having gone vegan sooner.

We do feel like the odd couple on the block sometimes though, ha ha. After a trip to California 1 ½ years ago, where vegan felt so much like the norm, I felt the need to find like-minded people closer to home. Meeting Natalie and her amazing vegan family has been just what we needed. We definitely feel like this is the beginning of a life-long friendship, and we’re so grateful to Vegan Outreach for setting us up.

Kristine, you just moved from Illinois—where you and Natalie met—to Florida. Have you two been able to spend time together since relocating?

Kristine: Yes! We all celebrated Thanksgiving together last year back in Illinois. Natalie and her family cooked an absolutely amazing meal for all of us, which I still dream about. We were thrilled when they could come down to Florida this year so we could return the favor. We had so much fun!

Give us the scoop on your Thanksgiving!

Natalie: Tim and Kristine are amazing cooks! I’m always telling them that they need to open a restaurant. We felt so excited to get to hang out with them in sunny Florida and eat their incredible food. I’m still thinking about the carrot lox and blueberry cheezecake.

Kristine: We had so much fun during their stay. Feels like a dream, truly something to be thankful for!

If you could offer one piece of advice to an aspiring or new vegan, what would it be?

Natalie: Remember that veganism isn’t about your own personal purity—it’s about reducing animal suffering. In the beginning, just do your best and don’t beat yourself up if you make a mistake. Remember to be compassionate to your fellow humans too, including yourself!

Kristine: Make the connection to where your food comes from—watch documentaries. Finding out that plants have plenty of protein and the health benefits of a plant-based diet made it possible for me to finally pull down the veil and make more compassionate choices.

Just take it one meal at a time and have fun! We love Pinterest for recipes—just type in whatever you’d like to eat and add the word Vegan. There are so many delicious options at your fingertips. Sign up for a mentor through Vegan Outreach, the support and companionship is amazing.

Last month, Vegan Outreach’s Community Events team organized some amazing events—cooking demos, dairy-free food samplings, iAnimal virtual reality viewings, presentations, and discussions. Read on for all the exciting details!

Victor Flores, VO’s Greater New Mexico Community Events Coordinator, organized an event at the U.S. Army White Sands Missile Range military base, located in the Tularosa Basin of south-central NM. During Victor’s presentation, the soldiers, staff, and a few children watched the video, Draw My Life: A Cow in Today’s Dairy Industry, which was followed by a Q & A session. “We had interesting conversations and the audience was very engaged!” said Victor.

Everyone enjoyed samples of dairy-free products from companies including Daiya Foods, Miyoko’s Kitchen, Follow Your Heart, and several more! Victor and the awesome volunteers will definitely be back soon!

Roopashree Rao, VO’s Indian American Community Events Coordinator, and volunteers, took part in the 2017 Dallas Diwali Mela festival, which celebrates the Hindu Festival of Lights. This is one of the largest Hindu festivals in the U.S., drawing over 60,000 people, most of whom are Indian Americans.

Roopashree handed out VO booklets, food samples, and participated in many conversations about a compassionate lifestyle. Commenting on the event, Roopashree said, “It was BIG, and I just wish I had had even more volunteers!”

VO’s Greater NYC Community Events Coordinator, Nzinga Young, teamed up with Chef Naliaka Wakhisi, founder of NYC Vegans of Color Meetup group, and organized several hands-on cooking classes at the Brownsville Recreation Center in Brooklyn, NY. Several elementary and middle school students attended.

Nzinga stated, “The curried kale and chickpea tacos were a huge hit among students and staff alike. Kids who were wary about cooking kale were eating it raw midway through class.” Nzinga plans to continue her cooking classes at the Brownsville Recreation Center after the holiday break.

Gwenna Hunter, VO’s Greater Los Angeles Community Events Coordinator, teamed up with VO’s Director of Outreach, Vic Sjodin, inviting pedestrians at Venice Beach to take a peek into the lives of factory farm animals via iAnimal virtual reality.

Gwenna re-told a particularly moving interaction from this day of outreach—“It was so powerful. One of our viewers, Corey (pictured below, middle), was initially laughing. I could see his demeanor and energy shifting after a couple of minutes into the experience. After he was done, Corey explained how he had no awareness of the cruelty these animals had to endure.”

The Community Events team certainly had a jam-packed outreach schedule in November, and the team is looking forward to December as we hit the ground running with more outreach opportunities!

As the Outreach Coordinators’ leafleting tours come to an end, we’d like to acknowledge this semester’s most prolific leafleters of Vegan Outreach’s Adopt a College Program.

We’ve asked each of the top leafleters to share their favorite memory from this past semester—their stories will surely leave you feeling inspired!

If you missed Part I of this two-part series, get caught up here.

Alexis Clark, Outreach Coordinator

“The memory that really sticks out for me this semester was leafleting Onondaga Community College in Syracuse, NY. Not only was everyone incredibly friendly, but they were so interested in learning more about speciesism and veganism in general.

I had several engaging and unforgettable conversations with students, including one student I’m still in contact with today. I’ve given him a ton of resources, social media pages to follow, recipes, etc. He’s working on his full transition to vegan living!”

Alexis leafleted at 63 schools this semester and distributed 41,685 leaflets.

Jevranne Martel, Outreach Coordinator

“One memory that stands out was an interaction I recently had on Prince Edward Island. When I arrived in Charlottetown, I headed downtown to do outreach. I handed information to two younger gentlemen who quickly turned around to ask for more information. They were really excited to see activism happening on the island because they’d been learning more about these issues.

One of them not only wanted to go fully vegan but also wanted to get more involved and do activism. We had a wonderful, detailed conversation. I’m certain he will be an amazing activist for the animals!”

Jevranne leafleted at 58 schools this semester and distributed 32,695 leaflets.

Rachel Shippee, Outreach Coordinator

“My favorite memory is from the first day of the semester when I leafleted at the University of Iowa. I met a student, Breanna, who stopped to let me know she went vegan after receiving a Vegan Outreach booklet last year. We also had a great team of volunteers that day and handed out over 4,000 leaflets! It was a great start to the semester.”

Rachel leafleted at 33 schools this semester and distributed 39,499 leaflets.

Sam Tucker, Australia Outreach Coordinator

“My favorite day of outreach this semester was at Victoria University, in Melbourne, Australia. Vegan Outreach, Animal Activist Collective, and Truth Riders all worked together to support the launch of the Victoria University Vegans club.

We handed out 1,100 leaflets and about 30 people watched Animal Equality’s iAnimal Virtual Reality. We showed videos on TV screens, wrote chalk messages, plastered the campus with posters, fed countless students delicious vegan food, had in-depth conversations about reducing consumption of animal foods, and nearly 100 people signed up to join the new vegan club on campus!”

Sam leafleted at 34 schools this semester and distributed 55,723 leaflets.

A huge congratulations to these Outreach Coordinators and those highlighted in Part I.

And a big thank you to all of Vegan Outreach’s supporters—who directly fuel our work—Outreach Coordinators, and volunteers! Because of you, many animals will be spared a life of suffering.

Donate in honor of a leafleter today to keep their work going.

 

Review by Lori Stultz, Communications Manager

If you were a kid in the late 90s and early 2000s—or a parent to young children during this time period—you probably remember when Yoplait’s Go-Gurt made its way into grocery stores and quickly became all the craze and hype. As a kid who didn’t know what goes on in the dairy industry, I thought tubed yogurt was pretty darn cool. It required no utensils, and it gave kids a perfectly valid excuse to slurp their food.

I admittedly ate this kid-marketed snack all the way through high school. And even as a five-year vegan, I still feel a sense of nostalgia whenever I see tubed yogurt. Not nostalgic for the taste, but for the memories of childhood it brings to mind.

I didn’t anticipate eating a tubed yogurt again simply because there wasn’t a vegan version. But last week, as I was scanning the non-dairy yogurt section at a nearby natural food store, I laid eyes on one of Kite Hill’s newest products, Almond Milk Yogurt Tubes. Yes, you read that right. Vegan tubed yogurt.

After picking up the remaining items on my list, I gleefully drove myself home, marched my adult self up to my apartment, and enjoyed a delicious Wild Berry yogurt tube. The yogurt was deliciously creamy, but not-too-sweet. I finished with a smile and a slurp, of course.

If you want to join me in the happiness of eating vegan tubed yogurt, head on over to Kite Hill’s website to see where you can buy a box. And while you’re there, check out the other new products Kite Hill has recently released, including Greek-Style and drinkable yogurts.

Attention vegan parents! In just a few short days, you’ll have access to a great new resource on vegan parenting—a free digital magazine!

This project was initiated by our friends behind the website Raise Vegan and will cover everything from planning for children, conception, how to handle skeptical family members, delicious recipes, and printable charts with nutritional information.

The first issue of the Raise Vegan magazine is set to release on December 15 and will be published in Spanish and English. By the end of 2018, the magazine will be in multiple languages.

Sign-up to receive the magazine by subscribing here.

If you’re a vegan parent raising vegan children and you’re interested in contributing to the magazine, email Tianna to see how you can get involved!

What’s cuter than pigs at Christmastime?

Help promote peace for animals by sharing this adorable and impactful video!

Produced by LivelyDays.