With the 2012 VegFest coming up on April 15, our facebook page is a great way to stay up-to-date on developments. Yeah, we’ll post the big news here on this blog, but there are always small updates that are exciting but Manda I don’t always write a whole blog post about it. So check the fb and you’ll stay in the loop.

So, the new year is already in full force and you’ve likely started your new year’s resolution of cutting cheese out of your diet or turning your Meatless Mondays into Meatless Everyday. Heck, maybe you’re already vegan and your goal is to finally make that taco recipe from Terry Hope Romero’s Viva Vegan or spend some time volunteering at Maple Farm Sanctuary.

VegWorcester is setting our goals for the new year as well and we’re getting psyched to make some big announcements soon about our upcoming VegFest. It got us thinking; maybe we should briefly pause to reflect on the kick ass things that happened during the last 12 months in the microcosm of Worcester from a veg-head point of view. So, here goes…

In 2011…

• VegWorcester started the year off strong by hosting our second Mac Daddy Mac N’ Cheeze Cook-off, and the winner was WooDaddy Waffles!
• Duck Yao, the formerly underground vegan eatery made a comeback in Worcester, opening a small sit-in and take-out restaurant on Main Street in Worcester.
• VegWorcester members took trips to view veg-themed films such as Forks Over Knives in Boston and a showing of Bold Native at WPI in Worcester.
• In April, VegWorcester hosted the 2nd annual Worcester VegFest. We estimate that approximately 3,000 attendees came to the event at Worcester State University that included speakers Bruce Friedrich, Tracye McQuirter, Will Potter, and an awesome cooking demo by Terry Hope Romero. We had family-friendly performances, 40+ ethical and cruelty-free exhibitors, coverage in a variety of online/print/news media, and feedback was overwhelmingly positive.
• After a city-wide crackdown on curiously tasty vegan cupcakes (Okay, we’re exaggerating there,)VegWorcester’s vegan bake sale fundraiser was shut down. In response, we took it upon ourselves to legalize bake sales in the city of Worcester.
• VegWorcester started a more regular monthly general volunteer meeting where we discuss ideas for vegan outreach and invite anyone who is interested to join us and get involved.
• VegWorcester raised money with your help and created a snazzy updated Summer version of the Worcester Vegetarian Dining Guide. 5,000 copies were distributed over the summer around Worcester County. 5,000 more copies of a newly updated Fall version of the guide have also now been distributed in the thousands! …..Wow!
• Volunteers leafleted at local universities and events, and did a ton of tabling outreach at just about every summer and fall festival in out city including the 3th Annual Pet Rock Festival, Start on The Street: Spring Edition, 2011 Fall StART On The Street, King St. Block Party, Open Road Festival, 21st Century Worcester Pride, Main Street Celebrates, and more.
• As a community with many animal activists, we joined with other local groups and protested Ringling Circus, Fur as “fashion,” McDonalds cruelty, and other animal abuses.
• Local animal rights defenders such as Michael Budkie of SAEN and Alexis Fox of The Humane Society came to Worcester to educate about abuses in our own state and what we can do as a community to have the most impact.
• In the fall many of us enjoyed vegan “Thanks-living” celebrations such as the free SAVVY Vegan Thanksgiving at Clark University.
• Loving Hut celebrated 2 years of Loving Hut Buffet fundraisers, and continued to donate 10% of buffet profits to VegWorcester to support our outreach to help animals.
• Finally, to close out the year with a bang, VegWorcester hosted its 1st annual Holiday Vegan Cookie Swap complete with a vegan Santa. We had 24 entrants with bakers swapping over 1,500 vegan cookies!

If you’re interested in getting involved with VegWorcester or the 3rd annual Worcester VegFest, come to our General – Volunteer Meeting this Tuesday, January 17th @ WPI (Taylor Room – Campus Ctr) from 7pm~8:30pm and we’ll get you up to speed on what we have planned for 2012!

From Harvard’s press release:

Nutrition experts at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) in conjunction with colleagues at Harvard Health Publications have unveiled the Healthy Eating Plate, a visual guide that provides a blueprint for eating a healthy meal. Like the U.S. government’s MyPlate, the Healthy Eating Plate is simple and easy to understand—and it addresses important deficiencies in the MyPlate icon.

…

[USDA] “recommends dairy at every meal, even though there is little evidence that high dairy intake protects against osteoporosis but substantial evidence that high intake can be harmful;”

Check out Harvard’s healthy eating plate (pdf).

via Care2.com

Coooooooookies!!! If some of you are still in a sugar-induced coma following the  Sugar Mama Vegan Cookie Swap we won’t blame you. We asked entrants to bake 6 dozen vegan cookies each. There were a few entrants with less than 6 dozen and a few with more than 6 dozen, but with 24 entries, the Sugar Mama Cookie Swappers swapped at least 1,500 vegan cookies last Thursday!

About 50 people attended the holiday-themed swap, and many brought all types of vegan goodies, including Coconut Macaroons, Chunky Peanut Butter & Banana Oatmeal, Chewy Chocolate-Raspberry, Almond Cranberry, Wood Stove Baked Mint-Chocolate-Chip cookies, Oatmeal-Raisin, Gingerbread Hanukkah cookies, Gluten-Free Gingerbread, Cookies & Cream truffles, Chocolate-Peppermint Graham Cracker, Oatmeal Pumpkin Walnut, Magik Bars, Peanut Butter Cookie Sandwiches, Oatmeal Jam, Espresso Chip, Snickerdoodles and many more! Vegan cookies do not contain any nasty animal products such as milk, butter, eggs, or gelatin. There are plenty of vegan alternatives to animal products and the cookie swap showed just how tasty they can be! There were also vegan snacks, apple cider, soy milk and other vegan “milks” to try.

Contestants voted for the first prize award of “Sugar Mama” for best tasting cookie overall. Jennifer Kunz took home the prize for Sugar Mama with a vegan handbag donated by Bello Iris. Her prize-winning cookies were the delicious Princess Squares.

RECIPE for Vegan Princess Squares
Cream together:
1 ¼ cups Vegan Margarine
1 ¼ cups Sugar
1 ½ tsp. Vanilla Extract
Egg Substitute for 2 eggs (such as ¼ cup Tofu or Ener-G Egg Replacer, etc.)
Combine:
4 ½ cups Flour
¾ tsp. Salt
12 oz. Shredded Coconut
Directions:
• Mix all together until crumbly.
• Press ½ of mixture onto a large baking tray (11 ½ x 16 ½)
• Flatten with hands or rolling pin.
• Spread a layer of fruit jam (10 – 12 oz.).
• Top with remaining crumb mix.
• Pat down lightly.
• Bake @ 375 for 20 – 25 minutes, or until lightly browned

Second prize was “Cute Cookie” for the most attractive or interesting looking cookie or display. The prize was a copy of the book My Sweet Vegan. Cute Cookie was won by Elena Cruz for her creative Calvin and Hobbes – inspired vegan cookies.

RECIPE for Gingerbread Snowmen Cookies

Ingredients:
1/2 cup earth balance
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup molasses
1/4 cup water
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon allspice
Directions:
Cream margerine and sugar. Blend in molasses, water, flour, salt, baking soda, ginger, nutmeg and allspice.
Heat oven to 375F. Roll dough into small balls and place on ungreased baking sheet.
Bake 10 to 12 minutes. Immediately remove from baking sheet and press slightly with a spatula. Cool.

Icing:
1 tablespoon organic extract: almond, vanilla, lemon, coconut, etc.
1 16-ounce bag of confection powdered sugar, sifted
8 tablespoons soy milk
1 tablespoon Karo Syrup, light

Decoration:
Add a vegan marshmallow and decorate with gel frosting and silly toothpick signs!

The prize for most ugly sweater or best holiday attire was won by Anne Lewenberg for her sweeeeeet holiday sweater! Her prize was also a copy of My Sweet Vegan.

 

 

Although there were several fantastical holiday outfits and ugly sweaters, Anne’s sweater won by a spirited show of hands for its mom-inspired style.

 

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The event was held at Worcester Photo Studios and featured a holiday photo booth where participants took photos with vegan Santa. Check them out at UnityMike Photography’s Facebook . Please support his work by purchasing a high res print of your cookies and santa photo from UnityMike’s SmugMug.

Also check out Kaitlyn’s awesome review of the Sugar Mama Cookie Swap on The Tie Dye Files Blog.

The widely popular MacDaddy Vegan Mac N’ Cheeze Cookoff was the inspiration for the Sugar Mama, and it will be returning in early 2012. Keep an ear out for news of the MacDaddy. The title and belt is sought from all over Worcester County, the competition is fierce and the cheeze is bubbly. Be ready!

Post a comment with your tastyyy vegan cookie recipes from the swap!

I don’t know how this slipped by me, but the Telegram & Gazette recently ran this AP story about celebrities taking veganism to a more mainstream audience. The story’s called, “The New Face of Veganism”. Isn’t veganism already mainstream?

Veganism is already mainstream

The Washington Post even proclaimed this back in July 2011. It’s no surprise either. Books like Tal Ronnen’s cookbook, The Conscious Cook, was a top seller on Amazon.com and Jonathan Safron Foer’s book, Eating Animals, made a huge splash. Mercy for Animals’ recent investigation into the egg industry got headlines and Ebert gave Forks Over Knives a solid review. For god’s sake, Bill Clinton even went vegan. Why are people talking about veganism now? Because it’s relevant. We’re facing a global ecological crisis that was largely caused by animal agriculture and the US has an obesity epidemic which is correlated to a diet high in animal products and low in plant-based foods. Everyone knows that factory farms are bad for animals, but now people are also starting to realize that eating animals is bad for us too.

Anyway, veganism is now mainstream and it’s not going anywhere. Check out this AP article that the Telegram & Gazette published last week.

From “The new face of veganism” on Telegram.com:

NEW YORK —  Walk into Pure Food and Wine on Manhattan’s chic Irving Place and back into its spacious, luxurious garden, and you might spot actress Katie Holmes. Or Alec Baldwin and his new girlfriend, whom he met at the restaurant.

Or football player Tom Brady. Or radio host Howard Stern. Or Bill Clinton and daughter Chelsea, who’ve made a number of visits together, enjoying the sweet corn and cashew tamales with portabella or a mint sundae for dessert. Or any number of Wall Street moguls.

It could be any trendy New York eatery, but Pure serves only vegan and raw food, with nary an egg nor an oven in sight. Its upscale clientele is a mix of vegans, vegetarians and just plain foodies, but clearly a sign of how the image of veganism has changed in recent years.

Call them the big-time vegans: The celebrity standard-bearers for a vegan lifestyle aren’t just wispy young actresses. They include talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres, along with wife Portia de Rossi. (Or Oprah Winfrey, who isn’t vegan but led her staff on a public 21-day vegan cleanse.) Or men like Ozzy Osbourne and Russell Brand, who in recent weeks both declared themselves vegans. Athletes like Carl Lewis and Mike Tyson. Even NFL player Tony Gonzalez, tight end for the Atlanta Falcons and 245-plus pounds — attributes his longevity to a largely vegan diet.

…

The question is, of course, how much those changes have influenced ordinary Americans. “All the exposure is absolutely having an influence,” says advocate Joseph Connelly, editor and publisher of VegNews. “People can pronounce the word ‘vegan’ now! Five, 10 years ago they couldn’t. It’s nothing but positive.”

…Read the rest of the story

Please watch this investigation. It can be tough to watch, but you should spend 4 minutes and watch it. These conditions are the industry-norm. 99.99% of all eggs come from places like this. Whether the eggs come from Price Chopper, Shaws, Stop-n-shop, or Wegmans, Whole Foods, or the Living Earth, they most likely come from a factory farm like the one shown in this video.

See the video investigation for yourself:

Hidden-camera footage taken at Sparboe facilities in Iowa, Minnesota and Colorado reveals:

• Hens crammed into filthy wire cages with less space for each bird than a standard-sized sheet of paper to live her entire miserable life, unable to fully stretch her wings or engage in most other natural behaviors
• Workers burning off the beaks of young chicks without any painkillers and callously throwing them into cages, some missing the cage doors and hitting the floor
• Workers grabbing hens by their throats and ramming them into battery cages
• Rotted hens, decomposed beyond recognition as birds, left in cages with hens still laying eggs for human consumption
• A worker tormenting a bird by swinging her around in the air while her legs were caught in a grabbing device – violence described as “torture” by another worker
• A worker shoving a bird into the pocket of another employee without any regard for the animal’s fear and suffering
• Chicks trapped and mangled in cage wire – others suffering from open wounds and torn beaks
• Live chicks thrown into plastic bags to be suffocated

Read more about the investigation on: McDonaldsCruelty.com

WHAT: Massachusetts Animal Rights Coalition (MARC) is hosting the Ringling Bros Circus Protest in Worcester again this weekend. VegWorcester members have participated in this demonstration in previous years and will be joining again to send the message that animals used in circus entertainment is cruel and unnecessary.

WHY: The Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey circus is currently facing a federal investigation because it allowed a young lion to die in a sweltering animal train crossing the Mojave desert and then tried to keep key information from the government. Soon after the investigation was launched, a recently fired Ringling Brothers lion handler delivered an affidavit to Agriculture Department officials contending that the lion died because the boxcar he was riding in was extremely hot and the animal needed water. He said circus officials would not stop the train to cool the animal off despite reports by him and another handler that the 2-year-old lion, named Clyde, and other animals were suffering from intense heat. Frank Hagan, the veteran Ringling Brothers employee who wrote the
affidavit, also said that circus lawyers told him and others familiar with the incident not to talk with Agriculture Department officials who were coming to the circus train to ask questions. Hagan said in the affidavit that the circus fired him soon after on what he contends was a pretext.

Ringling has failed to meet minimal federal standards for the care of animals used in exhibition as established by the Animal Welfare Act (AWA). Since 2000, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has cited Ringling numerous times for serious AWA noncompliances, including the following: improper handling of dangerous animals;
failure to provide adequate veterinary care to animals including an elephant with a stiff leg, an elephant with a large swelling on herleg, elephants with abrasions, a camel with bloody wounds, and a camel injured on train tracks; causing trauma, behavioral stress, physical harm, and unnecessary discomfort to two elephants who sustained injuries when they ran amok during a performance; endangering tigers who were nearly baked alive in a boxcar because of poor maintenance of their enclosures; failure to test elephants for tuberculosis; and unsanitary feeding practices. The USDA has at least three open investigations of potential violations of the AWA by Ringling.

This is just the latest in Ringling’s long history of animal abuse. Ringling has been sued for alleged mistreatment, including beating its Asian elephants with bull hooks, constant chaining, and forcible separation of babies from their mothers. Evidence includes undercover video, testimony from former circus workers who have come forward
about the abuse, and USDA documents.

 

Blog posts about Circus demonstrations from VegWorcester.com
http://vegworcester.com/2010/10/07/circus-protests-this-weekend-in-worcester/
http://vegworcester.com/2010/10/11/vegworcester-members-join-with-marc-for-ringling-circus-protest-2010/
http://vegworcester.com/2009/10/08/photos-from-circus-protest/
http://vegworcester.com/2009/10/08/animal-activists-protest-the-circus-in-worcester-starting-today/

FACEBOOK EVENT

Loving Hut’s monthly vegan buffet is this coming up again tomorrow – Saturday, September 10th, from noon-5pm

Facebook Event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=133812386711636

Meetup.com Event: http://www.meetup.com/vegan-365/events/24200161

 Festival season is here, and VegWorcester will be at as many as we can fit in- Keep an eye out for us! After the Loving Hut buffet Saturday, come visit VegWorcester’s table at Open Road Festival at Institute Park in Worcester, MA.

Then, on Sunday September 11th, VegWorcester will be at the 13th Annual Pet Rock Festival, sharing the message that ALL species of animals deserve compassion. We’ll have stickers, buttons, books, VegWorcester t-shirts and more.

We will also be at the King St. Block Party on Sunday with Veg Dining Guides and outreach booklets!

VegWorcester has been busy this year and we thought we’d share some of the projects we’ve been workin on…

WINTER/SPRING 2011: Last winter we had a small awesome group putting together the entire 2011 WorcesterVegFest. Our group met weekly, organizing everything to do with a kick-ass vegan festival for about 3,000 people. We had several fundraising events, including the wildly popular Mac Daddy Vegan Mac n Cheeze Cook-off. A bunch of volunteers stepped up to help as the event crept closer. VegFest was a lot of work but a huge success with tons of positive feedback and we surely made an impact on the city.  After the VegFest, VegWorcester members kept meeting weekly and talked about using the VegFest momentum to focus our ideas into action! Oh yeah, and we legalized bake sales in Worcester.

SUMMER 2011: We started a monthly general meeting as a way to connect our super volunteers and also as a way to get fresh ideas from the vegetarian community around us. We focused our efforts on creating and editing the 2011 Worcester Veg Dining Guide and fundraising for the summer printing. We raised $500 thanks to our friends and supporters who gave generously to get the word out about veg eats in our city!  At our monthly meetings, we decided to combine various outreach methods into one tool, (the guide.) Our plan: By leafleting the dining guide along with outreach pamphlets (like these), we’d promote & support local veg-friendly businesses,  inform people about animal cruelty horrors like factory farming, provide ideas for vegan meals, and spread the word about our group. In August we printed 5,000 copies and started distribution of the dining guide!  We also took part in veg-related movie showings and other Worcester events like the monthly Loving Hut buffet fundraisers.

UPCOMING FALL 2011 FOCUS: VegWorcester is gearing up for some major fall festival outreach, college campus outreach, and a second printing of the dining guide. Its gonna be sweet. We’re also planning events like veg movie showings, potlucks, a tasty holiday cookie swap, and even getting ready to start brainstorming for next year’s VegFest! Yes, we said it. But more about all that soon!

WANT TO HELP?  LOVE BEING VEG? ARE YOU AWESOME? Join us September 20th for our monthly general meeting! Keep up to date with events by joining our email list, subscribing to our blog, and “liking” our Facebook page. Thank you for the continued community support and for all the amazing work our volunteers are doing to get the word out about compassion for ALL animals.