Date/Time
Saturday, May 6, 2017
7:45am - 7:00pm
Location
Parque Castillo
Location Update: We will be across the street from the park on the south side of Cesar Chavez Blvd. at booth number 268.
Help us make a difference for animals using our new virtual reality outreach technique during the Cinco de Mayo festival in St. Paul. We’ll also be passing out copies of La Guía Vegetariana Para Principantes (Vegetarian Starter Guide) produced by our friends at Mercy for Animals.
We’ll also need people to staff our table and transport materials to and from the event. Spanish speaking volunteers are especially encouraged to apply. This is our first year at the festival and we need your help to make it a success!
If you’d like to help with virtual reality, you’ll need to get training for it at our Virtual Reality Volunteer Orientation on Thursday, April 27 at 6pm or to have attended a previous virtual reality training.
Click here to sign up to volunteer for the event. If you have questions, contact Laura Matanah at laura@exploreveg.org.
Note: We have not yet received information on the exact location of our booth space, so more specific location information will be given to volunteers when it’s available.
Virtual reality outreach gives people the chance to experience life on a factory farm from a pig’s point of view. Wearing the special virtual reality equipment, participants can have a 360-degree view, and there’s also sound. The immersive virtual reality experience can be intense and has the capacity to evoke strong feelings of empathy for farmed animals, which is really what we want from our outreach efforts.
As a volunteer, you’ll invite people to try virtual reality, help set them up with the equipment, and then have a supportive conversation with them afterwards. The vast majority of participants express gratitude and the desire to help make a difference in farmed animals’ lives afterward. You’ll get to help them to do that.
Here are some of the things that you can expect to hear from participants, along with some of the best ways you can respond.
- I don’t think I can give up eating meat.
- Any step you can take makes a difference. It can be a gradual process. You could start off with a Meatless Monday and just incorporate a plant-based meal into your diet once a week.
- Why do they have to do it like that!? It doesn’t have to be done like that! (in response )
- Due to consumer demand for inexpensive meat, eggs, and dairy, suppliers are in constant competition to market their products at the lowest price, regardless of how the animals are treated. Whenever we choose not to buy animal products, we help shift demand away from factory farms and toward vegetarian foods.
- But I buy my meat from free range farms.
- Any choice that you can make to reduce animal suffering is great. However, be aware that labels such as “free range” may still involve cruelty. For example, the male chicks who are not valued by the egg industry are killed at birth through a grinder or suffocation, and the female chicks are debeaked.
- I lived on a farm, and they never did that.
- Unfortunately, the practices depicted in these videos are standard practices on factory farms. The vast majority of animals in our food system experience this treatment.
- Where will I get my protein?
- It’s easy to get enough protein on a plant-based diet. Beans, peas, lentils, nuts, seeds, and whole grains are all high in protein.
- I’m never going to eat meat again!
- Thanks for feeling so passionate about it. Please take a look at some of the tips for plant-based eating in this pamphlet.
See our Advocacy Etiquette and Frequently Asked Questions for more extensive answers to these questions, along with other tips.