By Jevranne Martel, VO Canada Outreach Coordinator

Over the winter break I went out with a few friends and leafleted on a few different occasions. Being that it was the holiday shopping season, we took advantage of the busy shopping crowds and leafleted in Ottawa, ON. We leafleted at Hudson’s Bay—a Canadian department store—and at the Mackenzie King and South Keys transit stations.

The experiences were all very positive and we got a lot of support. The crowds were great and positive conversations were generated in multiple instances. The best part was seeing how many people were curious about making more compassionate changes in 2017!

By Jennifer Mennuti, VO Volunteer

Sometimes, it’s a little challenging to get into the holiday spirit in South Florida while it’s 80°F outside. People here do their best, though! They string lights around their palm trees and display inflatable snowmen in their yards.

Many cities in South Florida host holiday parades and other festive events, and Vegan Outreach volunteers had great success leafleting the festive crowds this year!

First, on November 29, a few volunteers and I attended an event in Fort Lauderdale called Christmas on Las Olas. At this event, snow is trucked in to create a small mountain for kids to play on, there are bands and choirs performing, and holiday movie screenings.

Christmas on Las Olas attracts 40,000 people—needles to say, it was a crowded event. Despite all the activity, we dispersed 250 pro-veg booklets!

Then, on December 7, we leafleted at a holiday parade in the city of Boca Raton. I met up with new and veteran leafleters, and we handed out 500 Compassionate Choices booklets!

This holiday parade was the ideal leafleting event. We arrived about an hour before the parade began and approached people from the street as they were sitting along the sidewalk waiting for the parade to begin. Once the parade started, the street was blocked, so we handed off booklets to the spectators from behind.

Both events were a lot of fun and offered great opportunities for a little activism!

And for those of you who leaflet college campuses regularly, this is a great way to supplement your activism in between semesters!

If leafleting at a holiday event interests you, I recommend arriving early, wearing festive attire, and smiling a lot! People will probably be more likely to take a leaflet if you say something related to the holiday. For example, at these events we said, “Happy Holidays!”

With many cities and towns worldwide hosting holiday-themed events—whether it’s the winter holidays or Independence Day festivities—it’s an effective way to spread compassion to a lot of people!

If you don’t have leaflets but are feeling inspired, don’t worry! Vegan Outreach has you covered! Place your order for booklets here. And for a few quick and easy leafleting tips, check this out—you’ll be leafleting like a pro in no time!

By Katia Rodríguez, Mexico Campaigns and Spanish Media Coordinator

In mid-November, Emmanuel Márquez, VO’s Mexico Outreach Coordinator, and I were invited to the first ever Vegan Fest Jalisco in the city of Zapopan in the state of Jalisco—located in western Mexico. Emmanuel and I set up a table where our amazing volunteer, Izcalli Fuentes, joined us during the entire two-day event.

Emmanuel gave a talk about the work we do for Vegan Outreach and the power of leafleting. The audience was very engaged and moved by the success stories Emmanuel shared. After Emmanuel spoke, the VO table was visited by a lot of people that heard Emmanuel and wanted to volunteer for VO.

Two new volunteers that had signed up that day joined us immediately and leafleted for the first time. They did great and followed the leafleting tips Emmanuel gave during his talk!

The vegfest event had pretty much everything going on—delicious vegan food, cruelty-free products to buy, other non-profit organizations tabling, many amazing talks, cat and dog adoptions, very interesting workshops, live music, and just a lot of people having a good time.

Even though it was raining both days, that didn’t stop people from coming out. A total of 1,200 people came to the event!

Our table was very often busy. We had many positive interactions with people wanting to make the transition to a vegan lifestyle and others wanting to get active and volunteer. Many people came by and thanked us for our work and asked for advice on going vegan. At the vegfest there were many of our Facebook page followers who told us that they enjoy our page. From this event alone, we have a lot of new volunteers for our Adopt a College Program and new mentors and mentees for our Spanish Vegan Mentor Program.

We’re very happy that the number of these vegfest events in Mexico keeps growing! We’d like to thank all the organizers of the Vegan Fest Jalisco for all the time and effort they invested in this event.

By Jamila Alfred, VO Maryland/DC Events and Outreach Coordinator

For those with a sweet tooth, we’ve got a treat for you today!

The face behind the California-based dessert business Charlie’s Brownies gave us the scoop on his successes and challenges as a young, vegan entrepreneur of color.

Charlie Fyffe, the company’s founder and CEO, had been making baked goods for quite some time before he started selling them. The many technicalities and obstacles were no match for a mid-20s Charlie when he finally built his brand and shared it with the world.

And although he didn’t start out as a vegan, the savvy businessman recently veganized his company and has been a hit in the Los Angeles vegan scene ever since!

In addition to running a business, Charlie recently volunteered with VO’s Community Engagement Initiative (CEI). He donated brownies at an informational session—organized by VO’s CEI Manager, Roxanne Hill—and he answered questions that attendees had about animal product substitutes in baking. He also allowed VO to purchase his brownies at a discounted rate for an information session the following week.

Want to learn more about the Brownie Man? Well, keep reading on!

Jamila Alfred: What brought about your entrepreneurial spirit?

Charlie Fyffe: My entrepreneurial spirit came from needing to pay for basic necessities while I was in high school—food, clothes, and gas for my car. I had to find creative ways to make money, so I started out selling candy and Gatorade, giving people rides home after school, providing weekly iPod music uploads, and later selling baked goods like brownies.

Jamila: What inspired you to sell brownies?

Charlie: In my senior year of high school, as a family bonding activity, my mother and I made brownies from a box mix to bring to my varsity basketball potluck. After packaging up the brownies nicely and seeing my teammates devour an entire box in minutes, the light bulb within me sparked. I decided to bring brownies to sell at school the next week. And sure enough, they were a top seller almost instantaneously.

In college, I continued to sell brownies to make side money. When a customer recognized the brownies I was selling as box mix brownies I decided to make my own recipe.

I joined the baking club, refined my recipe, and eventually got a contract with my college to sell my brownies in the coffee shop on campus.

Jamila: Why did you decide to veganize your business after selling non-vegan desserts?

Charlie: I veganized my business for the same reasons I went vegan personally. Supporting the dairy industry is an atrocity to this planet. Also, I personally believe that you cannot make “the best brownie” if a quarter of the world can’t eat it due to allergies or intolerances. Making the product dairy-free made it safer and more accessible while tasting even more delicious than the original non-vegan recipe.

Jamila: How did you begin your involvement with VO?

Charlie: My friend, Roxanne—VO’s CEI Manager—reached out to me to see if I’d like to help out. I’d heard about VO before, but never really looked into it. After conversing with Roxanne, I found that my deep-seated mission is not too far from that of VO’s, so naturally it’s a good fit for me.

Jamila: What are your challenges as a businessman of color?

Charlie: Luckily, I haven’t had any doors closed on me strictly because of my race, but the main challenge has been access to capital and resources to grow my business.

Starting a business means spending money and taking some losses in the beginning. I’ve watched some of my white and Jewish friends raise $150,000 easily in what they call a “friends and family round.” In many other cultures, it’s a tradition to support the growth of new ventures. The community provides investment, support, and a customer base that’s loyal. When money is spent, it circulates and everyone wins. I don’t have that same foundation and backing within the black community, although they have greatly supported me in my journey as customers.

Jamila: What’s your advice for young people of color who are up-and-coming entrepreneurs?

Charlie: My advice is to work harder than everyone around you, only take advice from people that are in the position you want to be in, and let failure only be defined as a lesson rather than a reason to slow down or quit.

Jamila: Thank you, Charlie, for getting involved with VO and providing vegans with their brownie fix!

For the sugar fiends out there, Charlie will be re-opening his company’s web store for online orders in 2017 and he’ll be placing packaged goods in stores in Los Angeles this March. In the meantime, follow him on Instagram @charliesbrownies and on Facebook to stay updated.

By Taylor Radig, VO Campaigns Manager

There’s no doubt that the treatment of animals is becoming a serious topic within the Christian Church in recent years. Pope Francis himself shocked the world when he released his encyclical Laudato Si last year expressing concern about climate change and the treatment of animals.

He even got on Twitter and said, “It is contrary to human dignity to cause animals to suffer or die needlessly.”

Yup—he really did say that and he really is on Twitter!

Inspired by the encyclical, St. Francis Alliance: Faithful Voices for Animals is hosting the very first American Catholic retreat focused on animal protection.

Featuring speakers like Bruce Friedrich and Dr. Alka Chandna, the three-day event will be held in Virginia over the weekend of February 17-19, with presentation and discussion sessions, time for individual prayer, and daily mass. The retreat is open to all people of faith, and delicious vegan food will be served all weekend. Registration closes December 31.

The St. Francis Alliance is a faith-based group of volunteers who work to improve the lives of animals. Additional details about the retreat may be found on the group’s website.

By Alex Bury, Organizational Development Consultant

Vegan Outreach staffers David Carter, Paige Carter, Lisa Rimmert and volunteer Brian Ottens recently helped with two amazing events in Washington, DC and Baltimore, MD.

Thanks to DC and Baltimore superstars Brenda Sanders, Naijha Wright-Brown, and Maureen Cohen Harrington, who worked closely with great teams of DC and Baltimore volunteers, more than 200 people learned about vegan eating. They didn’t just get a VO booklet or hear a talk—they got a booklet and heard great talks and ate delicious vegan food!

As part of the Green Dinner speaker series, David also spoke at Northwestern High School in Baltimore.

Vegan Outreach is concerned about veg recidivism (people who go vegan and then fall off the wagon due to lack of support). That’s one reason why we want to support more of these events.

A quick touch is important and we’re ramping up our fall plans for college leafleting—but we have to also offer quality over quantity at times. That means meeting non-vegetarians, sharing good vegan food so they get an idea of what they might eat, answering their questions, and offering a personal connection. These deeper touches are messier and harder to organize but if we want to work towards a vegan world we have to do them.

Vegan Outreach is also concerned about the lack of diversity in the mainstream animal movement and the damage that does both to people of color who are excluded, and to the work that is less effective when it’s mostly geared towards only one group of people.

So you can see why we love these dinners!

Brenda and Naijha offered welcoming spaces, filling comfort food, and great info about going vegan. They featured local speakers and David Carter also spoke. When he talks about being fit on a vegan diet it’s hard to ignore!

Superstar VO volunteer Brian Ottens and staffer Lisa Rimmert were on hand to answer questions about vegan eating and offer plenty of booklets with recipes, nutrition guidelines, and information about how animals suffer in slaughterhouses.

Brenda and Naijha have created a thriving community of vegan resources so that once people get that first nudge to go vegan, they can follow up with local events and people to stay vegan.

A new vegan can eat at Naijha’s restaurant, The Land of Kush, attend Brenda’s Vegan Living Program, or attend events like the Baltimore Vegan Mac ’n’ Cheese Smackdown.

I don’t know of any city that has successfully created a vegan support community like Baltimore has. Brenda and Naijha, we don’t know how you do all that you do, but we know we’re honored to support it.