Veg Week 2009 Wrap-Up

Compassionate Action for Animals' annual Veg Week began on Tuesday, September 29th with the Kick-Off Event, featuring a talk by prominent researcher and author Jonathan Balcombe. Delivered in an accessible yet credible manner, Dr. Balcombe's presentation informed a receptive audience of the scientific evidence supporting the conclusion that many animals feel pleasure. Highlighted by animal anecdotes and beautiful photographs, the presentation both educated and entertained. After the ensuing Q and A session, everyone headed out to the reception room to enjoy a vegan feast, highlighted by food from two of the Twin Cities vegetarian community's favorite restaurants--Galactic Pizza and Evergreen Chinese.

On Wednesday, Veg Week continued with a showing of the film The Emotional World of Farm Animals at the Matthews Park Rec Center, followed by snacks and a discussion of the film.

The next day included a vegan cooking class taught by the accomplished chef and caterer Michele Licata at the Powderhorn Park Rec Center, which taught attendees to make (and sample, of course) a variety of easy, delicious, and nutritious vegan dishes.

On Sunday Veg Week started early with a brunch dine-out at Triple Rock and then continued with a guided tour at Chicken Run Rescue chicken sanctuary. Finally, later in the day another showing of The Emotional World of Farm Animals took place at the University of Minnesota.

Veg Week wrapped up on Monday with a dine-out and then Vegan After Dark at the Blue Nile restaurant and bar in the Seward neighborhood. The Twin Cities animal advocates gathered one last time to eat wonderful East African food and relax over drinks and live music as Veg Week 2009 drew to a close. The event was a big success, with over 500 people taking the Pledge to Be Veg. With any luck, many of those 500 will be joining us again next year for the Veg Week festivities.