By Brenda Sanders, VO Community Engagement Coordinator

It’s been more than a week since this year’s 3rd annual Vegan SoulFest and I’m finally starting to feel like myself again.

Organizing an event of this magnitude—even with the help of the amazing volunteers who worked with us this year—definitely takes a toll. After all the post-festival wrap-up, I’ve had a few days to recharge and reflect on the whirlwind that was Vegan SoulFest and I’ve come to a few realizations.

First, Vegan SoulFest is a pretty big deal, and not just because it takes a half of a year to plan and thousands of dollars to execute.

As the Vegan SoulFest co-founders and co-organizers, Naijha Wright-Brown and I have been able to bring together healthcare professionals, chefs, speakers, performers, businesses, and non-profits from all over Baltimore, Maryland and the surrounding areas to provide life-saving information, resources, and inspiration to motivate people to explore the vegan lifestyle.

As if that weren’t awesome enough, we bring all this to a community that’s been systematically ignored by the mainstream vegan movement.

By making information about better health, compassionate choices, and environmental awareness available to marginalized people in Baltimore, we’re creating an opportunity for a seismic shift in the way that an entire group of people see, experience, and engage with the rest of the planet.

Being from this community and having a vested interest in creating positive change for people in Baltimore, I realize how important this work is! I’m extremely excited about Vegan SoulFest’s potential to re-shape the current landscape of these communities.

In addition to reflecting on Vegan SoulFest, I’ve also had a chance to think about the recent decisions I’ve made regarding my activism.

Since I started doing food justice and animal advocacy work, I’ve gone from conducting a one-woman vegan cooking demo in any and every community center and church that would have me to organizing large programs and events with the support of individuals, businesses, and organizations who believe in and support our mission.

One particular organization—Vegan Outreach—has been on my mind a lot these last few days.

I was introduced to Vegan Outreach a few years ago when I first started doing animal rights work. All I really knew about them was that they did a lot of leafleting and seemed to focus much of their advocacy on college campuses. Since I work with a completely different demographic, I rarely crossed paths with VO folks.

That all changed in April of this year when I met Vegan Outreach’s Alex Bury and Lauren Sprang at the Intersectional Justice Conference in Washington State and I learned something remarkable—VO was planning a diversity initiative that sounded suspiciously like an actual diversity initiative.

They were talking about hiring people from diverse backgrounds, paying them salaries with benefits, offering people of color leadership positions in the organization, listening to the opinions and perspectives of people from diverse backgrounds, and, oh yeah, redirecting resources to those of us who are struggling to fund vegan advocacy in marginalized communities.

As I talked to Alex and Lauren, I became more and more convinced that this was real—that an overwhelmingly white animal rights organization was going to take a crack at a genuine diversity initiative.

After I’d spent years scraping by organizing programs and events on little or no budget and being pretty much ignored by the bigger animal rights groups, it seemed unreal that one of the more popular animal rights organizations was moving in this direction.

When I was offered a position with Vegan Outreach, I was happy to accept it and be a part of this wonderful thing that was happening. The VO employees, board members, and volunteers are such warm, thoughtful, and sincere people who are eager to take this organization into unfamiliar territory. They’re open to considering points of view they’d never thought about before, and willing to acknowledge missteps and make changes as they grow through this process.

I’m proud to be able to say that I’m involved in this exciting journey Vegan Outreach has set out on!

As I’ve contemplated the future of vegan advocacy, I can’t help but see an awesome opportunity to give a platform to diverse perspectives, experiences, and voices.

People from diverse backgrounds have such a wealth of lived experiences and accumulated knowledge to contribute to this movement. As the focus begins to shift away from the traditionally dominant perspectives and more room is made for the rest of our voices, the result will inevitably be a blossoming of new thoughts and ideas that will expand veganism forward for everyone.

I’m honored to be one of those voices and I’m thankful for the support from Vegan Outreach in helping me to bring information about the vegan lifestyle to my community!

By Lisa Rimmert, VO Director of Development

Last month, over 300 VO supporters ordered this limited-edition “Eat plants, love animals” shirt design, raising $2,801 dollars for our work to end violence towards animals. Thank you!

Since then I’ve heard from dozens of people who wanted to buy a shirt but didn’t make the deadline. So, we’ve decided to offer these shirts again—through Tuesday, September 13.

If you missed out last month, buy your shirt today!

Every purchase supports VO’s work! Thank you!

By Melissa Li, MD, Vegan Outreach Board Member

In 2012, I attended the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine Leadership Summit in Washington, DC. There, a mixture of health professionals and concerned animal advocates gathered to hear information on plant-based health and initiatives. When the audience members were asked what they did to further promote health, a physician stood up and declared that she often cooked with her patients.

I was stunned. What kind of physician does that? She explained that it was one thing to tell a patient what to do, but another to show them how to do it. The practical application reinforced the way to better health. The combination of teaching and immersion in cooking together as physician and patient forged a better relationship, a better understanding of healthy food, and ultimately solidified the habits for healthy eating.

I was delighted to encounter this book, recognizing author Dr. Ana M. Negron as the physician who stood up and talked about her unconventional method of treating her patients. In the book, Nourishing the Body and Recovering Health, she confirmed that she has been cooking with her patients since 2003. The book is comprehensive and thorough, covering the well-known illnesses (hypertension, diabetes, hypercholesterolemia) associated with the Standard American Diet, as well as the lesser known ones, or less life-threatening illnesses, all of which would be ameliorated by a plant-based diet.

She writes with a warm, enthusiastic and kind voice, going over the basics of nutrition, what is needed in a plant-based diet, and furthermore, addresses the challenges there are when changing one’s entrenched eating habits and lifestyle. She covers how the government promotes processed foods and meat, the misguidance of the current dietary guidelines, and how this further impairs people’s health. She acknowledges the difficult situations that many people face when changing eating habits, and offers solutions to overcome them.

The health data provided is substantiated by references that include the abstracts so that the studies can be understood. There are recipes with beautiful colorful photos depicting easy-to-make dishes. Another interesting and unique aspect to the book is Dr. Negron’s inclusion of her patient case studies towards the end of the book. These are interesting to read, because it highlights that everyone is on a different path to their road to health, with their own unique environments. Readers will find these stories inspiring, and will find it humbling to see that others encounter similar roadblocks.

By Lori Stultz, VO Rocky Mountain Outreach Coordinator

Kim Sujovolsky, founder of Brownble, is here today to offer a few tips on how to successfully transition to a plant-based diet.

If you or someone you know is in the process of cutting out animal food products, this short video will be a non-intimidating, and helpful resource!

And another big shout-out from VO to Kim for her ongoing support!

In this video, Kim references the earlier “Veggie Bowl Brownble Style!” video she made for VO, which can be viewed here.

Kim also speaks in this video of the vital importance of “Finding Community” as one of her tips. Another way to do so—not mentioned in the video—is through VO’s Vegan Mentor Program where you can get one-on-one support to make the transition to go vegetarian or vegan.

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

If you missed the 3rd annual Vegan SoulFest in Baltimore, Maryland, I’m sorry for your loss.

This popular festival combines the essence of veganism with African­-American culture—creating a sense of community and comfortability amongst vegans of color. Not only is it a wonderful concept, the event was as fun as can be!

The food was terrific, of course. There were several types of cuisines, including Indian, gourmet raw, and soul food. It took me an hour to figure out what to eat, and, after having to make some tough decisions, I decided to get a chili cheez dawg with mac n’ cheez and corn salsa. It was fantastic!

The vendors were outstanding as well. SoulFest had everything from fresh produce at a farmers market stand to crystal and jewelry shops. Needless to say, I can’t spend money for a while.

Congratulations and a huge thank you to the SoulFest organizers—Brenda Sanders, VO’s Community Engagement Coordinator, and Naijha Wright-Brown, Baltimore vegan restaurant owner who you’ll all get to meet in the coming weeks!

By Jack Norris, RD, VO Executive Director

This past August, I went to my hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio to visit family. During my week at home, I snuck off to Indianapolis, Indiana to give a talk on nutrition.

The talk was organized by Joel Kerr of the Indiana Animal Rights Alliance (IARA)—a very successful local group. I was so impressed by all the work IARA is doing that I’ve asked Joel to write a future blog post about their methods—stay tuned for that!

I always love visiting Indianapolis because the city is beautiful and Joel always takes me somewhere amazing to eat. This time, we visited The Sinking Ship where I had a delicious Seitan Gyro Wrap with a side of Mac and Teese.

About 50 people attended the talk. As always, I emphasized that while no vegan is going to come down with a clinical diagnosis of protein malnutrition, incorporating high-protein foods in meals can increase the satisfaction of a vegan diet. For an interesting read about this topic, see my article, Story from a Once-Failing, Now-Thriving Vegan.

Thank you, Joel and IARA!