December 16, 2024
Anna Larsson has been an active volunteer with Compassionate Action for Animals (CAA) for the past four years. A dedicated vegan for nearly 15 years, Anna’s passion for animals and community building has made her an outstanding volunteer.
Her journey into volunteering began when she saw promotions for CAA’s annual Vegan Chili Cook-Off and Twin Cities Veg Fest. As an introvert, attending events solo seemed daunting. To make sure she went, she decided to volunteer — and she’s been hooked ever since!
“It was so much fun, and everyone was so inclusive and welcoming, that I felt like I had found my people,” Anna shares about her first experience volunteering at the Vegan Chili Cook-Off. This sense of belonging kept her coming back for more.
Finding Community
That initial volunteer experience showed Anna just how welcoming the CAA community could be. Since then, she has volunteered at Twin Cities Veg Fest, Dr. Greger’s talk, writing postcards for animals, and helping prepare meals for residents at Simpson Housing Services. She enjoys roles where she can meet fellow volunteers and engage with the public. These experiences have allowed her to recognize familiar faces across different events and form lasting friendships.
Anna appreciates that CAA’s outreach efforts offer something for everyone, no matter where they are in their journey toward compassionate living. “CAA welcomes people wherever they are,” she says. “You don’t have to subscribe to a particular ideology to participate.”
Why CAA Stands Out
For Anna, CAA’s wide range of events and its mission to spread awareness about farm animal welfare make the organization unique. She shares: “I appreciate the wide variety of events and outreach that CAA does. There is more than just “something for everyone” – there is lots for everyone!’
She admires how CAA supports legislative changes and creates a sense of community for like-minded people. Anna believes that CAA’s work plays a crucial role in educating the public about the mistreatment of farmed animals in industrial agriculture and the importance of making compassionate food choices. And she appreciates that CAA’s work to “create community for the concerned folks like us is a huge service to the world.”
Life Beyond Volunteering
Outside of her work with CAA, Anna stays busy as a mom of two teenagers. Between managing her family and cooking the large amounts of food her teens consume, she still finds time to support environmental causes. She volunteers with climate organizations and, along with fellow CAA volunteer Nicola Philpott, gives talks about how food choices impact the climate. (Feel free to write her at [email protected] to let her know of any potential venues for future talks.)
In her free time, Anna enjoys hiking, biking, and discovering new plant-based recipes. She often turns to resources like Jackfruitful.com for fresh salads and RainbowPlantLife.com for family-friendly meals. One of her favorite experiences was a road trip to Omaha to visit Modern Love, the restaurant by vegan chef Isa Chandra Moskowitz. “The entire goal of the road trip was to eat in that restaurant. I was not disappointed — it was terrific!” she recalls.
Anna’s dedication to animals, community, and the environment makes her a valued part of the CAA family. Her story shows how volunteering can help create a more compassionate world while also building meaningful connections.
If you’re inspired by Anna’s journey, explore CAA’s volunteer opportunities and find your place in this welcoming community. You can learn more and sign up for future opportunities on our website.
Past Volunteer Spotlights
If you would like to get to know some other volunteers, check out other recent volunteer profiles:
Volunteer Spotlight on Alysia Nelson
Volunteer Spotlight on Tom Hoch
Volunteer Spotlight on Lexy Race
Volunteer Spotlight on Faustine Micheyls
Volunteer Spotlight on Grace Prins
Volunteer Spotlight on Kim Milligan
Volunteer Spotlight on Allison Gamble
The mutual benefits of volunteering for CAA
Volunteers are key to everything we do. They help us to accomplish far more than we can do with our small staff and amplify our impact for animals. In 2023, our staff engaged over 260 volunteers, contributing more than 740 hours, across 96 different activities — a savings of over $12,000 if we had hired them. Learn more about volunteer impact every year in our annual reports.
Equally important is that the volunteers themself benefit from enhanced skills in advocacy and leadership as well as a sense of community. This fits with our theory of change which includes the following cyclical steps: increasing awareness, building community, empowering advocates, and creating change. Volunteering touches on each of these areas.
See all volunteer opportunities here.
CAA’s Theory of Change
Our theory of change emphasizes a welcoming approach, which is recognized as most effective at creating change and models the empathy we want to promote.
The theory explains how we achieve our mission to encourage people to embrace their empathy for animals and move toward a plant-based diet. It also supports our vision of a world where all animals, human and nonhuman, can thrive.
This change theory reflects how we grow our movement. Through our CAA programs, events, and activities, we facilitate a cyclical process of increasing awareness, building community, empowering advocates, and creating change. This process focuses on both individual and institutional change.
What kind of change do we create? Our programs reduce consumption of animal products and improve the lives of farmed animals. In addition, they benefit the well-being of all Minnesotans.
Compassionate Action for Animals’ theory of change was initially developed in 2017 with an online survey sent to key stakeholders, two town hall meetings open to the community members, and a strategic planning meeting attended by staff, core volunteers, and board members.
Get Involved and Volunteer With CAA
If you believe in our mission and our theory of change, we encourage you to get involved too. Sign up for one of our upcoming volunteer opportunities. There are so many fun events and options to choose from. Whatever your talents may be, you can find a volunteer opportunity that’s right for you — from photography to cooking and serving food, helping with setup and cleanup at events, greeting guests, and so much more.
We thank you for all the ways that you speak up for animals and help our community!