Can you make a donation to Compassionate Action to Animals?

As the holidays get closer and we draw our family and friends near we are reminded that most animals are not as fortunate. On today's factory farms animals often spend their lives alone in bare cages after being separated from their families. At Compassionate Action for Animals (CAA) we recognize their hardships and want to help make the world a more compassionate place by encouraging people to embrace their empathy. Could you please help us help animals by donating $10, $25, or $50 today?

We recently hosted our biggest event to date, the 2013 Twin Cities Veg Fest. This free festival showcased nearly 50 exhibitors and food vendors for over 2,000 attendees. Vegans, vegetarians, and omnivores alike were able to indulge in free vegan food samples, enjoy a concert, get body art, and learn about the motivations and virtues of veganism from nationally renowned speakers like Nathan Runkle, founder of Mercy for Animals. Twin Cities Veg Fest also featured local speakers from Minnesota Voters for Animal Protection, Move2Veg Nutrition Counseling, and Compassionate Action for Animals. At CAA's Paid Per View we paid people $1 to watch video footage depicting the suffering that animals endure on the modern farm. We're looking forward to next year already and so are the attendees. Here are a few survey responses:

"We never realized that vegan food could be so delicious."

"Awesome event! Very nice people!"

"I thought that it was SUPER inspiring and exciting to see so many people at a veg event in MN!"

"Being away from the veg-scene while continuing to eat vegetarian, you stop thinking about why you're doing what you're doing as much, so it was re-invigorating being 'in the culture' again. It's motivated me to transition to a vegan diet, too."

Exhibitors have also told us how happy they were with the event. Our exhibitors offered samples of delicacies such as vegan honey, gourmet nut milk cheeses, and marshmallows made without the gelatin. Other exhibitors came to share information about animals, sell products, and show off their arts and crafts.

The food vendors were nearly sold out by the end of the day and after trying some of the dishes it was easy to see why. With more than 20 options, attendees had a lot of choices. Asase Yaa served Tofu Khebab Masala and power smoothies. Seward Cafe offered a wide variety of vegan baked goods. Flamingo Restaurant provided delicious Ethiopian lentil and vegetable dishes in generous portions. For a unique dessert Kitty Corner Caf

Delicious food, great speakers, and fantastic music! What more could you want?

Twin Cities Veg Fest is for anyone and everyone – from omnivores to vegetarians and vegans! If you've ever thought about becoming vegetarian or are interested in reducing animal suffering, you'll love Twin Cities Veg Fest. Here are the details:

Date: Saturday, October 26, 2013
Time: 10 am to 4 pm
Location: Coffman Memorial Union, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, 300 Washington Ave Southeast, Minneapolis, MN 55455
Cost: Free!

Learn where your food comes from, how to be a healthy vegetarian or vegan, and why being compassionate benefits everyone. Plus you'll enjoy tons of free vegan food samples and delicious vegan cuisine. We also have a great lineup of speakers, and this year we've added a concert! Everyone who came to our 2012 festival had a great time, and this year will be even better.

If you're already vegetarian or vegan, please invite your non-veg friends and family. This is a fun, friendly event where they can learn about the animal-friendly community in the Twin Cities. Join our event on Facebook so they see that you're going, and please invite them yourself. For your music-loving friends, we also have a Facebook event for the concert.

Can you help make the Twin Cities Veg Fest a success? We need help at the festival and before and after as well. Thanks!

Compassionate Action for Animals is hosting the second annual Twin Cities Veg Fest on October 26, 2013. We need your help to make it a success. It will be a lot of fun, you'll get to meet other volunteers, and you'll be an integral part of this huge festival!

Here are the available positions:

• U-Haul Loading (the evening before the festival)
• Set-up
• Speaker Monitor
• Maintenance
• CAA Table
• Veg Fest Table
• Paid Per View Table
• Food Giveaway Table
• Greeters
• Floater
• Tech Support
• Concert Helpers
• Kids Area Helpers
• Clean-up
• Evening Transport

See more details at the Twin Cities Veg Fest website, and let us know what you're interested in helping with by emailing [email protected]. Feel free to volunteer all day, if you're available. We'll provide fellowship and an amazing, fun-filled veggie experience! Hope to see you there!

Their Lives, Our Voices gathers activists from around the country for an inclusive, high-quality, hands-on conference focused on empowering advocates in their efforts to help farmed animals.

Please register today! This event is accessible to all animal advocates, showcasing diverse topics and perspectives within our movement. Networking and attendee participation are vital to TLOV's success, so please come and help make our fourth TLOV conference an exceptional event.

This year's TLOV will be a one day event on Sunday, October 27 from 9:45am to 5:20pm in the Science Teaching & Student Services Building on the University of Minnesota Minneapolis Campus.

The event features Nathan Runkle of Mercy for Animals as our keynote speaker. We have a great set of speakers lined up for the rest of the day too. They will provide a full day of presentations and workshops that will help you become a better advocate for animals.

Registration is $20, with a $10 registration level available for students and low income individuals. You can register online right now. All paid attendees will receive a vegan lunch as part of their registration fee.

Of course, you'll also want to come a day before to visit the Twin Cities Veg Fest on Saturday, October 26.

TLOV is hosted by Compassionate Action for Animals.

Want an easy way to help animals, while sharing good food and reaching new audiences? Help us distribute posters and flyers to get the word out about the second ever Twin Cities Veg Fest!

The October 26 Twin Cities Veg Fest is rapidly approaching, and we need your help to distribute posters and flyers around the community and at the University of Minnesota campus. We are postering/flyering during the following dates and times:

• On-campus: Thursday, October 3, from 4:00 to 8:00 pm
• Off-campus: Wednesday, October 9, from 1:00 to 5:00 pm
• Off-campus: Sunday, October 13, from 1:00 to 5:00 pm
• On-campus: Wednesday, October 16, from 1:00 to 5:00 pm

We especially could use your help for the off-campus postering sessions on October 9 and 13!

For the off-campus dates we will meet at the CAA Community Office, and for the on-campus dates we will meet in the central area on the 2nd floor of the U of M's Coffman Memorial Union.

We'll be serving food at each of these events, so RSVP to [email protected] so we know how much to provide! We will distribute posters/flyers on each date for about 3 hours, then reconvene to eat.

If you can't attend any of these sessions but want to put up posters on your own schedule, email [email protected] and we'll make arrangements to get you some posters!

After last year's festival we got a lot of positive feedback. We were told that we should "have one ever year". Ok, done. One person said that it was "very informative and educational". Great, that's our goal!

But of course, the love wasn't universal. For example, one person wanted "speakers geared towards more experienced vegans/vegetarians". But here's what we wish someone had told us: "I'm already vegan and I came to this event but I didn't learn anything new."

If you're vegan, that's great! Thank you for making compassionate choices. You've already done a great deal to help reduce the number of animals suffering needlessly in factory farms. But when we consider who the festival is for, we have to ask ourselves how we can reduce that suffering even more.

So who is the Twin Cities Veg Fest for? It's for people who are still eating animal products, of course. If we want to make a further change beyond our own diet, we need to reach out to people who are in the best position to help animals, the people still eating them. The goal of the Twin Cities Veg Fest is to showcase the thriving, warm, fun community of people who care about animals in the region. We also want to provide powerful information on the realities of factory farming and how each individual can help animals simply by moving towards a vegan diet. That is the thinking that drives every decision we make about the festival. We want to make this an event for everyone, but especially for people who aren't yet vegan.

If you're reading this, it's likely that you already know a lot of the information we'll present at the festival. The speakers' presentations may seem too basic, the products we present may not be new to you. But for people who are new to these issues, these presentations and products could be just the thing that convinces them to make a change in their lives.

While many vegetarians and vegans heard about the festival from us last year, many of the people who still eat animals heard about this event from a vegetarian or vegan friend. It's people just like you who made the festival a success last year. If you can come to the event this year with three of your non-veg friends, think of the impact that could have!

While the festival is targeted at the veg-curious, we also have an event for those who are already convinced. This year we're bringing back our Their Lives, Our Voices animal advocacy conference. This conference will take place on Sunday, October 27, the day after the festival. The conference will feature two tracks of great speakers including nationally recognized leaders in the animal advocacy movement, including Nathan Runkle from Mercy for Animals and Nick Cooney from Farm Sanctuary. We also have a great lineup of locals including speakers from Compassionate Action for Animals, Minnesota Voters for Animal Protection, and experienced organizers from the Sierra Club. If you want to take the next step to help animals, this conference will empower you with the skills and motivation you need to take your advocacy to the next level. Registration is just $20, so please buy your ticket today.

Compassionate Action for Animals is pleased to announce our Their Lives, Our Voices Scholarship Program!

CAA will provide scholarships to five individuals for the Their Lives, Our Voices animal advocacy conference on Sunday, October 27th at the University of Minnesota.

If you are interested in this scholarship opportunity, please write a short (300 words or less) essay on how attending TLOV will help you develop and advance your animal advocacy.

Please note that this scholarship is only open to students or low-income individuals. The application deadline is Friday, October 4th. To apply, please send your essay in an email to [email protected].

Meet Erica Sherwood, our new Event Coordinator! Cyrus Wolff left this position, recognizing that did not have the time to do this work. He will continue to volunteer with us.

Erica is new to CAA's outreach and events, but has been a long-term secret admirer of the organization. She joins their work this year part time as an event coordinator and looks forward to connecting with people in the coming months. She enjoys time in the grass with a good book, herbal tea in giant mugs, practicing yoga and experiencing life in other parts of the world.

Erica has joined Compassionate Action for Animals part time to work on coordinating events throughout the 2013 school year.