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What Happened at the November Board Meeting
For CAA’s November Board Meeting, we decided to gather remotely. Our hope was to explore this as an option so that we can recruit board members who may not be able to make it to the CAA community space.
We began with a discussion of the incredible success of our fourth annual Twin Cities Veg Fest. The event attracted about 2,500 people and more food vendors than ever before. We’re looking forward to moving the event to a new venue next year as a way to make room for the festival to grow.
We really like the idea of offering an event like the Twin Cities Veg Fest on the U of M campus, though, so we discussed the possibility of holding a small scale version of the festival at the U of M campus during spring semesters. We thought we could encourage U of M students to plan the event during the school year and the event itself could be held outside of Coffman Union, for example, where food trucks could park. Holding the event outside could attract lots of passersby as well.
CAA is working with a new bookkeeper who has transitioned us to new web-based bookkeeping software. This will make the business of keeping up with the finances much easier, since those who need access will be able to log in to the online site rather than make their way into the office.
We ended the meeting by discussing how it went to meet remotely. In the beginning, it was difficult to iron out some minor technological difficulties, but in the end things seemed to go pretty smoothly. We tried using video chat for the first part of the meeting and then we transitioned to a conference call for the second part of the meeting. We found video chat was best.
We’ve decided that we’ll continue with remote board meetings. Our next meeting will take place on Google Hangouts on Monday, January 21 at 6:00pm. Be sure to let us know if you’d like to join in. If interested, email Unny Nambudiripad at [email protected].
Twin Cities Veg Fest 2015: Truly Amazing!
Our fourth annual Twin Cities Veg Fest happened just a couple days ago, and we’re still feeling the excitement. We hope you were able to join us for this event, which was our biggest one yet with an estimate of more than 2,500 attendees.
Check out the slideshow below to get an idea of what the festival included. It’s just a glimpse of the many exhibitors, vendors, sponsors, speakers, chefs, volunteers, and attendees who made this year’s Twin Cities Veg Fest truly amazing. All of us at Compassionate Action for Animals are grateful to everyone involved. Thank you!
That Kooky Twin Cities Veg Fest Planning Committee
It’s no secret: The team behind Twin Cities Veg Fest is a kooky bunch. I mean, they have to be kooky to take on the challenge of putting together a mammoth festival that draws thousands and shows them how freaking awesome vegan food can be. But they do it because they love it. And they do it for the animals. So maybe they’re not so kooky as they are extraordinarily compassionate. Here’s a bit more about them and why they love Twin Cities Veg Fest so freaking much:
What are you most looking forward to at this year’s Twin Cities Veg Fest?
- More space! We can accommodate more people in the exhibitor halls (now we’ll have two!) and we have a ton of room for people to come to our cooking demonstrations!
- Working with the exhibitors
- Food, food, and more food. And maybe some food to go with the food. Also, I’m looking forward to seeing people show up and enjoy themselves. And food.
- Every year I look forward to new and interesting food vendors. Word is getting out that Twin Cities Veg Fest is a great place to showcase delicious vegan food (and sell out!) so I hope our food court grows even more.
- Introducing very skeptical omnivores to the wonderfulness that is vegan food. Hearing “Hey, this is good!” is music to my ears.
Can you tell us a little-known fact about another committee member?
- I think Sal looks like the pop star Robyn.
- Unny used to have incredibly long hair, super hippie-style.
- Unny pledged to not read any Harry Potter for ten years, and that kind of makes me want to start reading Harry Potter.
- Dave loves vegan food but not fruit. Weird.
If you could help rescue any animal, who would it be and why?
- I’d like a nonhuman animal to rescue humans from ourselves! I think I’ll have a Kneazle rescue us; my friends would appreciate that.
- Any animal is worth rescuing.
- Definitely a pig. Pigs are just too darn cute. On the other hand, I like pretty much all animals, so I’m not picky.
- A chicken! Because I think I could probably care for her or him at home.
- A horse! Or a cow. Or a lamb. Or a goat. Okay, I want to rescue them all.
Who is on the Twin Cities Veg Fest Planning Committee?
Not pictured: Annette Gaudreau – Speaks to Speakers (Speaker Coordinator)
Twin Cities Veg Fest will take place on Sunday, November 1, from 10am to 4pm at Coffman Memorial Union. RSVP on the Facebook event page and let us know if you’d like to volunteer for the event.
Share the News: Twin Cities Veg Fest Is Coming!
If you love Twin Cities Veg Fest and want to see it grow, one important way that you can help out is to spread the word, letting others know about it. There’s lots of ways you can do this. Here are just a few options:
Use Social Media
Follow and share our Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, and Pinterest pages. Also, RSVP and then invite your friends to our Facebook event.
Make Original Social Media Posts
- Use photos whenever possible.
- @tag “TCVegFest” on Instagram and Twitter, and tag our Facebook page.
- If your post also highlights another business or organization such as one of our exhibitors or a business you would like to be an exhibitor, @tag them too!
- Use hashtags #TCVegFest and #CelebrateCompassion
- If you have room, mention the date, location, and time: Sunday, November 1, 2015, 10am – 4pm at Coffman Memorial Union, Minneapolis MN.
- Topics for posting:
- Post about our sponsors and exhibitors.
- If you know of a product or local food vendor that you would like to see participate in Twin Cities Veg Fest, let them know. Tell them how 2014 food vendors such as Glam Doll Donuts were wildly successful and sold out by early afternoon. Then, post a picture of their product, tag them with @tcvegfest or with our Facebook page, and include the hashtag #TCVegFest.
- Post about our speakers and cooking demos.
- Post a #ThrowbackThursday (#TBT, #WBW, or #FBF) of a photo from last year’s Twin Cities Veg Fest.
Why should I post about #TCVegFest?
In addition to being a part of the team that makes Twin Cities Veg Fest a success, you have the opportunity to get a little extra swag. The top 20 social media posts on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook are guaranteed a swag bag on the day of our event (no need to get up early to wait in line), and those swag bags will include one extra special item! To participate for your chance to win, your social media posts must be public and will be judged by quality as well as popularity.
Other Ways to Share
- Post Images on Your Blog or Website
- If you have a blog or website of your own, here are two images you can use to link to our site (click on the images for larger versions that you can download):
- Share the Weekly Update
- Subscribe to Compassionate Action for Animals’ Weekly Update and forward emails about the festival to your friends. We’ll have a lot of exciting news about the festival coming up in the months leading up to the festival.
However you choose to share the news, be sure to reach out to your friends who are not vegan or vegetarian. Over the years, we’ve learned that the most common way for non-vegetarians to hear about the festival is from their vegetarian friends. We’d love to have even more non-vegetarians come to the festival to learn about why and how to make more compassionate food choices. Your help getting them there is crucial.
In addition to sharing the festival online, you’re welcome to help us promote the festival by distributing posters and flyers around town. Check out our event page for postering opportunities.
Do you know of another way that we can get the word out? Let us know!
Join us and help make Twin Cities Veg Fest even better!
Eat Like a Million Bucks: Roberto Martin’s New Vegan Cooking
If you want to eat like a vegan superstar but can’t afford takeout, much less your own personal chef, Roberto’s New Vegan Cooking: 125 Easy, Delicious, Real Food Recipes is the book for you. Roberto Martin’s collection of recipes spans the gamut from quick and easy to super fancy and dispels the myth that vegans can’t eat well on a budget.
Rather than relying on convenience foods like mock meat and dairy, Roberto shows that, with the proper technique and seasonings, wholesome, affordable ingredients such as beans, lentils, tofu, nuts, and mushrooms can be turned into culinary masterpieces. His Eggplant Parm can be perfectly battered and fried up to be crisp and tender with surprisingly no fuss. He shares with the world the magic of besan (garbanzo) flour, a lesser-known vegan wonder food. He uses this for his “lobster” quiche, which was hearty and packed with flavor. Martin graces the reader with treats stemming from his Mexican heritage, such as his tofu soyrizo and a showpiece: Albondigas (the Spanish word for “meatballs”) Soup.
Martin does all of this with little to no assistance from pre-packaged, processed foods. He even offers up some of his own recipes for all those little ingredients we love to eat but often hate paying for, like ketchup, sour cream, pickles and other condiments. While some of Martin’s recipes may be a bit advanced for the novice plant-based eater, he eases the reader into trying out new things by beginning the book with a chapter of DIY basics, staples, and starters. His fast, cheap, simple recipes for condiments such as vegan mayo and barbecue sauce (which is great since honey-free versions are increasingly hard to find) make these foods suddenly within reach for novices and those with processed-food phobias.
On top of all that, he provides detailed instructions on how to make the perfect flaky, crisp vegan croissants, which could probably convince just about any veg-inclined individual to pick up a copy of Roberto’s Vegan Cooking post-haste.
EG Nelson is a community funding coordinator by day and a bicycle enthusiast, competitive baker, and advocate for queers and animals at all other times. She is a co-founder of Queer Bike Gang and can be found riding around Minneapolis where she lives with a cute boi and three cats. Learn more at haygurlhaycafe.com.
Kenny Feldman Animal Advocate Award
We’re pleased to announce the Kenny Feldman Animal Advocate Award!
We’ve created this award to recognize a person, organization, or business in our community whose amazing work is pushing the ball forward for animals. This year, we’re giving the award to The Herbivorous Butcher, our local meat-free butcher shop.
After a few short years of selling their vegan goods at farmer’s markets and pop-up events, The Herbivorous Butcher is about to open their own storefront in Northeast Minneapolis. They’ve already made headlines around the country and world. Here’s why: they make incredibly tasty and interesting plant-based “meats,” they’re opening the first vegan butcher shop on the continent, and they have a fun, creative, and positive approach to their business.
This is exactly what our movement needs: energetic advocates who are creating solutions. As people replace their animal-based foods with Herbivorous Butcher’s delectable vegan foods, fewer animals are killed for food. Hooray!
This award honors the memory of animal lover Kenny Feldman. He thought animals should be cared for and allowed to a live a life with freedom. Kenny was a close friend of mine and inspired me to become an activist. Sadly, we lost him to suicide 16 years ago. From that tragic loss, we are moved to establish this annual award to acknowledge the contributions of individuals who strive to create a more compassionate world.
We will present the award at the Twin Cities Veg Fest Pre-Festival Party on October 30.
What Happened at the August Board Meeting
CAA’s August board meeting began with a report from our Executive Director, Unny Nambudiripad, about some recent successful outreach events CAA has been engaged in. We leafleted at the Warped Tour and ran a pay-per-view event at Twin Cities Pride. Unny also reported on CAA’s presence at the national Animal Rights Conference in Washington D.C..
As we transition to a new internal website used to plan events and projects, a lingering worry has to do with whether we will be able to export content from this site if we find ourselves needing to make a change down he road. While there is no built in option to do this, it appears that Dave Rolsky (our treasurer) will be able to write a software program that can do this for us. Good thing we have someone with computer programming skills on the board!
We next turned our attention to the complex business of evaluating the effectiveness of our programs. Unny and Justin (our Communications and Events Coordinator) had discussions around these issues with leaders in this area at the Animal Rights Conference. One of the suggestions we look forward taking up was the idea of engaging in dialogue with members of our target audience about how to help them make more compassionate food choices. Once we have good information about those needs, we can tailor our programs to meet them. We also decided to continue making use of existing research (for example, Nick Cooney’s excellent book Change of Heart) to inform our outreach and communication efforts.
We revisited the question of board member recruitment and we decided that we will announce opportunities for volunteer board members through the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits. We also decided to explore the possibility of recruiting folks from across the country who work successfully on the kinds of issues that are central to CAA’s mission.
Our next board meeting is tentatively scheduled for Thursday, November 5 at 6pm. You should consider being a part of that meeting if you’re interested. If you’d like to participate, contact Unny Nambudiripad at [email protected].
Compassionate Times, August 2015
Opening Hearts, Changing Minds
written by Linda Pope, CAA Volunteer at Twin Cities Pride 2015
My 13 year old son and I were among the many CAA volunteers and staff working the pay-per-view table this June at the Twin Cities Pride Festival. We offered attendees one dollar to watch a short segment of the documentary, Farm to Fridge.
It was a very successful event in that 540 attendees watched the video. One reason we were able to reach so many people was because volunteers had multiple tablets set up for viewing, and they were continuously in use.
In between viewings, we had many heartfelt conversations with viewers and other attendees who were curious or wanted to learn more about the disconnect between what happens on factory farms and industry’s heavily funded efforts to manipulate the public’s understanding of factory farming. Others were eager to share that they were vegetarian or vegan too. Some people simply thanked us for what we were doing.
Animal Rights National Conference 2015: Inspiration and Fun
Two staff members and four volunteers from Compassionate Action for Animals (CAA) traveled to Washington D.C. earlier this month for the Animal Rights National Conference. Over the course of four days, we got to experience all that this annual conference has to offer, including a variety of inspiring presentations, lots of delicious vegan food, dozens of exhibitors, and the opportunity to network with others who advocate for animals.
As CAA’s Executive Director, I gave a talk about how to plan a veg fest. Referring to our guide to plan a festival, I showed others how they can start a festival in their own city. I also helped organize a lunch for veg fest planners from around the continent. Dozens of festivals were represented, and we were able to share our experiences so that we can improve the quality of festivals everywhere. We’re undertaking this collaboration to ensure that our own Twin Cities Veg Fest can have the biggest impact for the animals. It’s also great to share what we’ve learned, to help other festivals overcome their obstacles. Collectively, these festivals can make a big difference for animals, reaching hundreds of thousands of people and showing them how fun and meaningful compassionate living can be.
CAA volunteer and co-founder Dave Rolsky gave a talk about how to use collaborative technology to run an animal advocacy organization. Dave is a professional software developer, and his experience includes making user-friendly websites. He’s an expert on the variety of simple and useful online tools to get our work done, and he was able to share his technical know-how at the conference.
While our participation in the conference was exciting, so was witnessing the state of the Animal Rights movement. This year’s conference was the largest one yet, with more than 1,600 attendees. It’s also exciting to see how strategic, results-oriented farmed animal advocacy organizations are growing, and we were able to develop meaningful relationships with activists around the country that will help us do our work. These activists are creating videos about factory farming, publishing leaflets, and conducting research on how to make our movement more effective.
Following the conference, I took a trip to Poplar Spring Animal Sanctuary where I got to spend the day meeting rescued animals. It was perhaps the most inspiring part of my trip, getting to see the life behind the eyes of these animals, my reason for being on this path and for speaking up for their right to be free. I’ve returned to Minnesota feeling motivated to bring what I’ve learned to our Twin Cities community, to strengthen our group, to get our message out there, and to make a difference for the animals that still need our help.
Vegan Main Dish Competition at the State Fair
The Minnesota State Fair is coming up soon, and they’re hosting their 4th annual Vegan Main Dish Competition. Your favorite original vegan recipe could be the winner. This is a fun way to participate in the fair while sharing how awesome vegan food can be. Register to enter the competition by tomorrow, August 11 at 4:30pm.
The judges are looking for tasty, easy-to-prepare dishes that supply a complete protein. The entries will be on display in the Creative Activities Building, and the winner will receive a ribbon, a check, and vegan cookbook.
The category is listed as lot #1110 on page 39 in the Creative Activities Booklet. Check it out and enter to win!