By Janet Kearney, Guest Contributor

Halloween is fast approaching, and if you’re the same kind of parent as me, you’ll be running around Party City in the wee hours of Hallows Eve, trying to convince your four-year-old that Superman was cool last year and the unknown, ”We aren’t really sure what that costume is, Ma’am,” is the one he really wants to wear.

And in the midst of costume planning, the candy is something that comes last in figuring out Halloween. Last year, we made it easy and opted for the Teal Pumpkin Project. We handed out sticker cards and coloring books, but I forgot that we’d have to swap the kids’ collected candy for something of equal value. For my four-year-old, one sticker book did not equate to an entire bucket of chocolate. Needless to say, the trade-off wasn’t as peaceful as we’d hoped.

This year, we’re a little more prepared because, never mind the kids’ disappointment, my partner and I realized that we won’t have any candy to eat when they go to bed. Raise Vegan has an extensive list of vegan candies that are readily available.

That being said, the real problem arises when you are sitting with a lot of candy that no one chooses to—or can’t—eat. Fortunately, there are some great programs out there, like Soldiers’ Angels Treats for Troops, where kids and parents can donate their unwanted candy to troops and veterans.

If you don’t want to take the candy in the first place, there are some great ideas that we picked up in the Vegan Parenting Facebook Group. A few ideas include holding your own ghostly ghouls block party and showing everyone that being vegan can be ladled with all kinds of great alternatives. Or you can give small packets of treats to households you’re familiar with and ask if they can give that candy to your Little Monsters when they come crashing down the door.

Final tip—make sure to have the Dandies vegan marshmallows on hand to roast on the fire and indulge in when after kids have crashed.

Happy Halloween, Everybody!

By Lori Stultz, VO Rocky Mountain Outreach Coordinator

Today I have the pleasure of introducing you to Kim Sujovolsky and Carlos Marrero, Vegan Outreach donors who I have gotten to know a little bit better over the past few weeks.

Among many other things, Kim and Carlos are the founders and directors of Brownble, an online program in which Kim and Carlos demonstrate how to make easy, delicious vegan food, encourage and offer advice on embracing a vegan lifestyle and developing lifelong healthy habits, and much, much more!

After learning that Kim and Carlos support Vegan Outreach, I spent some time on their website—finding out what Brownble was all about. I was so impressed by their program for a handful of reasons, but namely for their advocacy of a balanced approach to vegan nutrition. After talking a bit with Kim, I wasn’t surprised to find out that Brownble suggests resources from VO’s Executive Director and Registered Dietitian, Jack Norris, including the site VeganHealth.org, the book Vegan For Life, and his B12 recommendations for vegans.

I’m so excited for everyone to meet Kim and Carlos in the following interview, but first I have some exciting news to share! Starting July 5—mark your calendars!—we’ll be regularly posting short videos in which Kim demonstrates how to prepare an easy, tasty vegan meal or discusses helpful tips for people who are transitioning to a plant-based diet.

We’ll be posting these videos once a month! Kim brings a huge amount of enthusiasm to her work, so her videos will be fun and enjoyable to watch!

Without further ado, let’s meet Kim and Carlos, and, we wouldn’t forget, their pups Nala and Vega!

Lori: Tell us about yourself (work, hobbies, family, etc).

Kim: Both Carlos and I were born in Venezuela, and we’ve been together for 16 years! I was 18 when I met him, and 7 years into our relationship we tied the knot in a beautiful ceremony under a tree, surrounded by just a few friends and family. We’re both huge animal lovers (believe it or not I used to have dogs, cats, turtles, two sheep, and 5 ducks growing up because my mom was a huge animal rescuer). And we’re the proud mama and papa of our two cutie pies Nala and Vega, who you’ll see in the intros of all of our videos (they insisted…what can I tell you?!).

We’re huge movie and music lovers too, and we’ve traveled all over the place just to go to concerts and see our favorite bands live.

Although we lived in Venezuela for most of our lives, and I also lived a couple of times in New York City as a kid, we currently live in Madrid, Spain. We’re just in love with this city, and the vegan scene is really growing here!

Carlos is a musician (he’s even opened for the Red Hot Chili Peppers!), and he’s also a practicing doctor (an MD and an allergy specialist), and I’m a teacher. I love to teach. It’s truly my passion in life. It doesn’t matter what it is…I could teach plumbing and I’d be happy.

Cooking has always been one of my biggest passions in life, and although I call myself a total home cook and I’ve been cooking and learning since I was 15, I also have professional certification in plant-based cooking.

In late 2015 we decided to put all our passions together, roll up our sleeves, and create Brownble.com and the My Brownble online program, where we help vegans (and also people who are just dabbling their toes in the water) learn how to cook delicious vegan food, how to create amazing healthy habits that can last, leave dieting behind and become total vegan rockstars and embrace their journey.

Lori: Share with us the story of your “vegan journey.”

Kim: I first learned of what the word vegan meant a while before I took the plunge—thanks to the amazing book The Kind Diet, by Alicia Silverstone (yes, I’m a Clueless fan, don’t judge!). I flirted with it for a while, but I would fall off the wagon, then get back on. The seed had been planted though. A few years ago I watched the films Forks Over Knives and Vegucated. I will always be grateful to Marisa Miller Wolfson for making this incredible movie—Vegucated—which I completely give all the credit for my veganism to. I became vegan almost immediately. It’s funny because I started watching the film, paused it, ran out to our living room where Carlos was watching a soccer match and I said, “You need to see this!”

It was the first time either one of us had seen the truth about our food industry. I cried, a lot. I thought it was insane that this was even legal, but of course it is. I told Carlos, “That’s it, I’m going vegan, and you don’t have to if you don’t want to.” Carlos is not just a rockstar in real life, but in his heart too (he’ll kill me when he reads that!). He immediately told me he wouldn’t mind being vegan at home, and a few months later I came home to find him sitting on the couch with the strangest look of total shock. When I asked him what was wrong, he said, “I watched Earthlings.” If you’ve ever seen that movie you know that is no easy task. He needed that final push to go fully vegan, and he’s been vegan ever since!

Lori: How did you hear about Vegan Outreach?

Kim: We first heard about Vegan Outreach through the wonderful vegan podcast Our Hen House, and we’re such HUGE admirers of what Vegan Outreach does. So many activists, authors, and game changers went vegan because of a leaflet they got when they were just going on their merry way. It’s a powerful form of activism and how I wish someone had approached me in my late teens or early adult years with this information! I would have gone vegan long before I did.

Lori: You do so much for VO—from donating to now providing videos with meal prep demos and tips for transitioning and maintaining a vegan lifestyle! What inspires this?

Kim: When we created Brownble we knew that we didn’t want to do anything without giving back to all the organizations that are really doing the tough work out there. We made it a part of our business plan from day one that a portion of all our proceeds from our awesome members of the My Brownble online program would go to organizations such as Vegan Outreach. Our new collaboration through video is so exciting! Video is a powerful tool. It’s how I first learned to cook when I would run to the TV after school to watch cooking shows and started practicing. We love what VO does and all the support you give to new vegans. We’re honored to be a part of that process and help all of your readers and followers create this change deliciously and with ease!

Lori: What advice would you give to someone reading this who is considering adopting a vegan diet?

Kim: Try it! Don’t overthink it. Chances are you’re an amazing person that has overcome so much in your own personal life. You can do this!

Veganism is the opposite of deprivation! You can make any and all of your favorites in their vegan (and also healthier) version—from lasagna, to mac and cheese, burgers, BBQ, tacos, pizza, cupcakes, and sushi! The list goes on and on. That’s what we teach at Brownble and what we’re so excited to teach through Vegan Outreach.

I had to overcome some difficult life circumstances as a child (you can read more about that story in our blog) and going vegan years later helped so much of that pain heal. It allowed me to be my true authentic self…to be able to say I was vegan at a party or dinner was huge for me! For the first time I started to let go of that fear of what other people thought and that idea we all have that we need to be perfect and not cause trouble.

Veganism was the biggest confidence booster for me, and if a couple of Latin folks living in ham country can do it, you can do it too! The great news is you don’t need to do it alone. Find community (another reason why I love Vegan Outreach) and give it a try…you’ll be surprised with what you discover.

Lori: Finally, share with us your absolute favorite meal.

Kim: Oh boy! That’s such a tough question! Carlos loves to have a big vegan pizza with lots of veggie toppings, and I’m a total sushi nut, and yes…you can make pizza without dairy cheese and sushi without fish. There’s nothing you can’t make vegan!

Lori: Thank you, Kim and Carlos, for supporting VO, sharing more about yourselves, and for working with us to provide helpful and fun videos! We are looking forward to sharing your enthusiasm and advice!

And as a sneak peek, here are a few of the introduction topics that will be discussed and the yummy food Kim will be showing us how to make:

Topics of Discussion

Cooking Demos

Our good friends, Matt Ruscigno, MPH, RD, and Solomon Wolfson, recently founded a plant-based health program—Nutrinic—which is designed to compassionately guide people toward healthful habit changes.

The balanced and practical approach to plant-based nutrition is largely reflected in their program, and why we think it would be a great resource for anyone who’s looking to make realistic shifts in their dietary and other day-to-day self-care practices.

We had the pleasure of sitting down with one of Nutrinic’s founders, Matt, to ask him questions about Nutrinic—let’s get to it!

Vegan Outreach: What were you doing before Nutrinic?

Matt Ruscigno: The base of my professional work has been in public health nutrition. I taught community college and contracted for a federal program that worked with very low-income schools doing cooking and gardening. I worked with students, teachers, and parents not only on the benefits of eating more plant foods but how to shop for them cheaply and prepare them.

Additionally, I worked on some books like Appetite for Reduction with Isa Moskowitz and No Meat Athlete with Matt Frazier, along with public speaking at nutrition conferences and Vegfests. I also write for Today’s Dietitian.

Vegan Outreach: On your website, you explain that Nutrinic is different from other programs because the “…program combines empowerment, skill power, and problem-solving with evidence-based nutrition to set you up for a lifetime of good health.” Can you provide examples of what that looks like for participants?

Matt Ruscigno: Many programs make huge promises that would be impossible to deliver long-term. These programs bring in great speakers and brilliant doctors, but the everyday struggles people face aren’t discussed. It goes back to a lot of what I learned through my public health jobs.

Even the most motivated people burn out when they are told they can only use organic, non-GMO, fresh produce, and only eat dry beans that are made from scratch—it’s an impossible standard. In order to help people move forward, you have to understand where they are and then work with them to address real and perceived barriers.

Once I was on a panel with other nutrition and medical specialists and an audience member asked about good snacks. One of the panelists responded, “Don’t snack. Next question.” There’s no reason to be that strict. If you just got out of the hospital after a heart attack and you have a host of diagnoses, sure, but for your average person, they can see huge improvements by just eating more plant foods. That can be a frozen burrito, beans from a can, or a pre-made salad. That’s the philosophy at Nutrinic—it doesn’t need to be hard. And we show you how.

Vegan Outreach: What motivated you to create Nutrinic?

Matt Ruscigno: Doctors aren’t trained in nutrition and most dietitians don’t have enough counseling time to get people to make significant dietary changes.

It’s extremely difficult to eat well if you don’t know where to begin and don’t have the support you need. That’s why the program was established. It’s a 6-week program because we believe that habits can be solidified in that time. We teach the fundamentals of nutrition and disease development so our clients learn why they should eat certain foods. And then we guide them through the process of changing habits—everything from shopping to cooking, to dealing with unhelpful friends and family.

I often hear from vegans, both ethical and health-oriented, that eating plant-based is “easy.” It’s only easy if you are motivated, took time to learn how to do it, have strong convictions, and have a support system. Most people forget this after they’ve developed new habits. And telling potential new vegans that it’s “easy” while they are struggling to learn all of these new habits and ideas can be really discouraging. Healthcare and nutrition specialists need to be better about building a strong foundation, and Nutrinic is our attempt to help people build it.

Vegan Outreach: Any other details you want our readers to know about your program?

Matt Ruscigno: The goal is to expand to providers and work closely with doctors and insurance companies to make the program more accessible to more people. The catch is adherence—many doctors will agree that plant-based diets are best, but they don’t believe people will adhere to them long-term. That’s what we want to change.

I think the missing link that is often missing in our healthcare is empathy. Health care professionals should try to understand the limitations people face in their daily lives when they try to do better for themselves. It’s never going to be perfect, but switching to a predominantly plant-based diet can really help. What’s the saying? Don’t let perfection be the enemy of progress. That’s what we teach.

Thank you, Matt, for taking the time to talk to VO and for the work you and Solomon are doing at Nutrinic. We wish you the best of luck as your program continues to grow!

Southeast Outreach Coordinator, Yuri Mitzkewich, and intern, Carlos Yanez, will be doing Vegan Outreach’s first virtual reality college tour next spring!

They’ll be traveling throughout the eastern side of the US, letting students experience what it’s like to be inside a factory farm or slaughterhouse. This is a powerful experience, which has resulted in many students deciding to stop eating animals!

The states Yuri will be covering include—

If you’re connected with a college student group or can help Yuri get permission to table indoors at your school, next spring, please contact Vic Sjodin, Director of Outreach, at [email protected].

Thank you!

And thank you to Animal Equality for providing us with iAnimal headsets and videos!

Norfolk, VA just got a whole lot cheesier this week!

Our campaigns team reached out to Orapax—a local restaurant that puts a twist on Greek fare—and explained the growing demand for delicious vegan options. Orapax’s management team immediately started experimenting and were excited with the results.

General Manager, Nicole Seretis, said, “We’ve decided to add more vegan options for our consumers because of the growing requests to substitute certain things on our menu in order to make them vegan. Since we’re in the “Chelsea District” [a growing community of businesses in Ghent], we’re trying to stay ahead of the curve and current on what our customers want and need. We want there to be something for everyone to experience when dining at our restaurant.”

Patrons can now enjoy a blend of Follow Your Heart’s Mozzarella and Cheddar Cheese for any pizza, Greek spaghetti with vegan cheese and falafel meatballs, eggplant parmesan, the pasta bowl, rosemary fries topped with vegan parm, and more! To make the options easy to find, the restaurant added a “V” next to each menu item that can be made vegan.

Thanksgiving can be a challenging time for vegans, but one of the joys of the season can be the coming together of other like-minded people to celebrate what amazing animals turkeys are, as well as eating delicious vegan food. The Los Angeles Tofurky Trot and Vegan Food Fest offers a chance for people to do both!

This year, the LA Tofurky Trot will be held on Sunday, November 12th, in Griffith Park. There will be a 5K run/walk, with Tofurky swag bags for all runners, and prizes for the first finishers, best costume, and the cutest dog.

After the Trot, there will be a Vegan Food Fest featuring some of LA’s most beloved vegan food vendors, like Taqueria La Venganza, Charlie’s Brownies, and Cocobella Creamery.

As if the Tofurky Trot weren’t great enough, there’s also a chance to help animals and win amazing prizes! Anyone can register for a fundraising page on Crowdrise, and all of the funds raised will support vegan organizations working to help animals and promote plant-based diets, with 20% of the funds benefitting Vegan Outreach.

The top fundraiser will win a two-night stay at the legendary vegan eco-resort, Stanford Inn by the Sea. The prize includes two breakfasts and two dinners at the resort’s award-winning vegan restaurant, The Ravens. The runner-up will win a prize pack and a two-year subscription to VegNews magazine.

Register for the Tofurky Trot before it sells out, and start fundraising to help the animals.

Thank you, and happy trotting!