VegWorcester Blog

Boston-based filmmaker and activist Eric Prescott is raising money for a new film called “I’m Vegan”. Maybe you know Eric from the Boston Vegan Association or his blog, An Animal-Friendly Life.

In any case, the film sounds like a neat idea. This is how he describes it in his own words:

“I’m Vegan” is a series of short documentary profiles featuring vegans from all walks of life, produced with an eye toward addressing preconceived notions about vegans and veganism.
…
The various profile subjects are followed by a camera as they go about their daily business, all of which is edited around the central narrative of an interview that provides the structure and the context to counter negative stereotypes of vegans and veganism, and to promote veganism by portraying it as healthy and positive.

To maximize variety and diversity, interviews will be conducted with vegans around the country to meet a goal of capturing a few dozen profiles. These profiles will stand alone on the internet, but the director and cinematographer will also capture “b roll” footage to add to a feature-length documentary that weaves all the profiles together as part of a road trip to meet vegans around the U.S. With contacts at PBS and other potential avenues for distribution, it makes sense to take the footage we have and try to reach a less web-focused audience as well.

I hope he can get the dough!

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First New York City had a Dunkin Donuts offering soymilk, then 2 DC area Dunkin Donuts added it as an option too. Now let’s put Worcester on the map and get some of our local DD’s to start stocking the good stuff.

We have somewhere around 15 Dunkin Donuts stores in Worcester and a bunch more in the surrounding towns and cities. We can definitely get a few to start offering soymilk. Hopefully Dunkin Donuts will see how much demand there is for soymilk and add it to all of theie 5,500 stores.

So how about this, look at the list below and pick a location that’s close to where you live. Or if there isn’t one close to you, just pick any one. Give them a call or stop by the store and ask to talk to the manager. Ask him or her if they would start offering soymilk. Make sure you mention that there are other Dunkin Donuts that already offer soymilk. It’s that simple. Whaddya say?

Here are 15 Dunkin Donuts in Worcester:

100 Institute Rd Worcester, MA 01609
508-831-5693
340 Grove St Worcester, MA 01605
508-363-4901
67 W. Boylston St Worcester, MA 01606
508-854-8011
211 Chandler St Worcester, MA 01609
508-798-8354
421-427 Main St Worcester, MA 01608
508-791-5053
104 Belmont St Worcester, MA 01605
508-756-3274
123 Summer St Worcester, MA 01608
508-797-1329
845 Main St Worcester, MA 01610
617-753-9555
648 Chandler St Worcester, MA 01602
508-767-0341
185 Madison St Worcester, MA 01610
508-757-3991
295 Shrewsbury St Worcester, MA 01604
508-757-6168
263 Grafton St Worcester, MA 01604
508-754-0541
610 Park Ave Worcester, MA 01605
508-753-9696
107 Ward St Worcester, MA 01610
508-752-3350
490 Lincoln St Worcester, MA 01605
508-852-0953

Let me know how it goes!

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The fine folks at Compassion Over Killing in Washington DC have successfully convinced 2 DC-area Dunkin Donuts to offer soymilk. Hooray!

Dunkin Donuts is the world’s largest coffee and baked good chain. Just imagine if they were to offer soymilk at each of their 5,500 stores. Actually, that’s exactly what Compassion Over Killing is trying to get DD to do. They’re calling on people across the country to meet with Dunkin Donuts store managers in their area to request soymilk at all of the 5,500 locations.

We definitely need to get some Worcester DD’s to sell soymilk. We have over a dozen in our little city.

Want to help get soymilk at a local Dunkin Donuts? Here are some tips from the COK feature:

• Contact your local Dunkin’ Donuts store. Click here for store locations and phone numbers. Or, better yet, stop in to your local Dunkin’ Donuts and ask to speak to the manager about adding soy milk. Be sure to let him or her know that there are other Dunkin’ Donuts stores already making this option available to customers.
• Email Dunkin Donuts’ Consumer Care Office and thank them for adding soy milk to two DC-area locations, and ask them to make soy milk available in all locations, like most national coffee chains already do.
• Call Dunkin’ Donuts’ Consumer Care hotline at 1-800-859-5339.
• Write to Dunkin’ Donuts. Express your concerns in a letter and send it to:
  Dunkin’ Donuts Consumer Care
  130 Royall Street
  Canton, MA 02021

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Rumor has it that the Bean Counter may be adding a new line of vegan pastries and cakes soon. Sweet!

Drop in to one of their two locations: 113 Highland Street in Worcester or 288 Boston Turnpike in Shrewsbury.

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Erik from Vegan.com just published his Top 10 Recipes of 2008. Check it out! Impress your friends with some fancy Chickpea Curry from The Asian Vegan Kitchen or with some tasty Root Beer Float Cupcakes from Hannah Kaminsky’s My Sweet Vegan.

Here we go:

Entrees:

1) Plantain Omelet - From Mark Reinfeld and Bo Rinaldi’s Vegan Fusion World Cuisine.

2) Thai Coconut Corn Soup - From Nava Atlas’ Vegan Express.

3) Indonesian Coconut Rice - From Robin Robertson’s Vegan Fire & Spice.

4) Baked Ziti - From Beverly Lynn Bennett’s Vegan Bites.

5) Moroccan Phyllo Rolls - From Dreena Burton’s Eat, Drink, & Be Vegan.

6) Italian Stuffed Crepes - From Bryanna Clark Grogan’s Nonna’s Italian Kitchen.

7) Chickpea Curry - From Hema Parekh’s The Asian Vegan Kitchen.

Desserts:

8) Banana Chocolate Bread Pudding - From Isa Chandra Moskowtiz and Terry Hope Romano’s Veganomicon.

9) Root Beer Float Cupcakes - From Hannah Kaminsky’s My Sweet Vegan.

10) Fresh Mango Cobler - From Ani Phyo’s Ani’s Raw Food Kitchen.

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Rumor has it that some Starbucks offer vegan scones. I wonder if this an anomaly or if it is spreading throughout their corporate-coffee-empire. In any case, it’s pretty awesome!

But if you’re in Worcester and want some really stellar vegan baked goods, why not swing by the Bean Counter at 113 Highland Street? Or you can get some vegan baked tastiness from Worcester’s underground vegan bakery: Barely Legal Baked Goods. Barely Legal provides cupcakes and other small sweet things to The Q Cafe at 362 Chandler Street.

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Ingrid Newkirk, the president and a co-founder of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, is a big fan of lab-grown meat. She is such a big of a fan of it that she has convinced her organization to pledge one million dollars to the “first person to come up with a method to produce commercially viable quantities of in vitro meat at competitive prices by 2012.”

From the New York Times:

The idea of getting the next Chicken McNugget out of a test tube is not new. For several years, scientists have worked to develop technologies to grow tissue cultures that could be consumed like meat without the expense of land or feed and the disease potential of real meat. An international symposium on the topic was held this month in Norway. The tissue, once grown, could be shaped and given texture with the kinds of additives and structural agents that are now used to give products like soy burgers a more meaty texture.

Definitely read the whole New York Times article.

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Still haven’t entered the VegWorcester poster design competition? If you’re in need of inspiration, check out this poster Paul K just sent in:

Download a PDF of his entry.

It is, of course, a take-off on the “Worcester is the Paris of the 80s” shirt sold at HBML.

Sweet entry! Thanks, Paul.

For the rest of you, there are still a week and a half left to enter the competition. There is a free t-shirt in the mix.

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Jeff D. just left me a voice mail about my pipe-dream of having a vegan diner in Worcester. He’s psyched about the idea and knows just what we should call it.

You’ll have to listen to his voice mail to hear what it is.

Download the mp3

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Yesterday we sent out copies of the Spring 2008 Veg Dining Guide to the 20 or so businesses that were listed in the guide. Just making sure they know that people are noticing all their great veg options!

Thanks for all the help, Cody.

Comment below if you want to order copies of the guide to distribute.

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