Volunteer of the Month: EG Nelson

EG Nelson grew up and attended college in Wisconsin. She completed her undergrad at UW Madison, but also attended UW Milwaukee and Universidad de Malaga in Spain. She also lived in New York City before moving back to attend the U of M for grad school. Her undergrad majors are Women’s Studies, Spanish Language, and LGBT Studies. Her Master’s are Public and Nonprofit Management and Leadership, and Policies of Gender and Sexuality.

EG became vegetarian the summer before she started high school.  She says “I just looked at my roast beef dinner one night and it repulsed me.” She has been vegan for 13 years, after reading Old MacDonald’s Factory Farm.

EG first found out about Compassionate Action for Animals during on of their annual food giveaways.  She, “just about died from excitement that day.” EG had her own vegan food giveaway for the Cirque du SoGay Alleycat bike rice she participated in. CAA collaborated with her through a grant from VegFund. Currently, EG is collaborating with local businesses to get delicious vegan meals for people attending the upcoming Their Lives, Our Voices conference, which takes place June 11 through 13.

In addition to volunteering with CAA, EG is also active in Minneapolis’s biking community.  She’s working on a fundraising project for GreaseRag, a women’s ride and fix-it work shop, she planned a Queer bike race last October, and she is helping to plan the Minneapolis Bicycle Film Festival. EG also love’s to bake, and her dream job is to open a vegan bakery. EG say’s, “I think veganism would solve a lot of policy problems; environment, health care, etc.  We need to continue promote diet change, especially the impact the industrial farming industry has on the environment. … The revolution's a-coming; I can't wait.”