CAA's 2005 in Brief - By Unny Nambudiripad

Recent successes

Recently, designer and volunteer Jen Gehlhar and Campaign Coordinator Gil Schwartz teamed up with University Dining Services to make these informative placards, which now appear on University vending machines alerting them to which products are vegan.

More than 50 people attended our Valentine's Potluck where a wide variety of vegan foods were sampled and diners were serenaded by piano music.

Over 600 people pledged to be vegetarian for our second Veg Week, which included a showing of “Peaceable Kingdom,” a cooking demo, and an amazing potluck and presentation!

The continued commitment of our supporters has enabled Compassionate Action for Animals to make its mark in the Twin Cities this past year, building a wide community of allies and bringing attention to animal issues. We have educated the broader community about the plight of farmed animals and have grown the community of vegetarians.

Perhaps the most exciting event of 2005 was CAA's hire of Campaign Coordinator Gil Schwartz. Gil's primary responsibilities are to empower volunteers and help them organize the group's activities. Gil brings with him extensive experience as a volunteer with CAA and several animal advocacy groups, and began as an employee in August of 2005. Gil's hire will ensure CAA's continued success for years to come.

This past year we also launched our No Battery Eggs campaign, urging the University of Minnesota’s food services to discontinue their use of cruel battery-cage eggs and join the more than 80 other colleges that purchase only Certified-Humane cage-free eggs.

2005 By the Numbers

• Introduced tens of thousands of students to our message of compassion through leafleting, displays, posters, and tabling.
• Organized over twenty events to build a vegetarian and vegan community in the Twin Cities, including dine-outs, book groups, cooking demonstrations, potlucks, and a camping trip.
• Handed out over 60,000 pamphlets on factoring farming and vegetarianism, by leafleting at over 90 events and 15 colleges and high schools throughout Minnesota. (Note: Peter Singer donated his entire $15,000 honorarium to Vegan Outreach, the producer of these important pamphlets!)
• 600 students signed our pledge to go vegetarian or vegan during Veg Week.
• Provided 3,000 students and community members with samples of vegan food at four food giveaways.
• Had nine news and opinion pieces published on our No Battery Eggs campaign in the Minnesota Daily, including an official endorsement by the newspaper's editorial board, along with the publication of seven other op-ed pieces and five letters.
• Hosted five notable speakers, including philosopher Peter Singer, Bizarro cartoonist Dan Piraro, author Erik Marcus, and Harold Brown, the farmer featured in Peaceable Kingdom.
• More than 1,400 people attended the talk by Peter Singer!
• Mailed out over 900 Vegetarian Starter Kits upon request—nearly doubling last year’s figure.

We are committed to educating the broader community–focusing mainly on youth–and are committed to creating a community of vegetarians. Our outreach is conducted using a variety of methods, including leafleting, hosting speakers, and providing free and tasty vegan food to the public at giveaways. The key in this work is to treat everybody with respect so that they are open to our methods. We do this by having humility in our work and by being non-judgmental.

We understand that creating an effective movement to reduce animal suffering requires that we nurture ourselves, learn from each other, and have a sense of belonging in something bigger. Dine-outs, potlucks, and numerous social events help create a feeling of connectedness and sustain our work.

See the full annual review here: www.ExploreVeg.org/feat/2005-annual-review