On October 16th, Veg Club participated in BGSU's annual homecoming parade, recruiting members from S.A.V.E., the Environmental Service Club, and the Environmental Action Group. Led by a cow and trailed by a bike, we carried a large tarp representing the amount of rain forest cut down every 1/10th of a second for animal agriculture. We also handed out leaflets. The crowd reacted with interest and picture-taking! Afterward, some members ate together at El Zarape.
On the 25th, Veg Club and S.A.V.E. volunteered at SASHA, a farm sanctuary in Michigan. We shoveled poop, cleaned the cat barn, toured around,fed the goats,
and hung out with the animals! Afterward, some members ate together at Tandoor Cuisine of India in Toledo. Seriously, YUM!
October ended with a bang, and one of the highlights of the year so far. On the 29th and 30th, we held a striking visual demonstration of the number of animals killed for food in the U.S. per day by representing every animal with a grain of rice. Lots of planning, funding and back-breaking (aka 740 pounds of rice) later, this event came together AMAZINGLY thanks to our dedicated and incredible members!! Seeing over 27 million grains of rice in one place was extremely shocking. We had a glass filled with the number of animals killed per minute as our hook, asking those who passed by to guess how many grains of rice it contained. We also asked people to guess what % of the animals killed are chickens (95.5%). Most people who talked to us had more in-depth conversations than usual, and were very receptive to the idea of meatless Mondays, too. We will be donating the rice to a food bank in Toledo. :)
November was a pretty chill month for Veg Club. On the 11th, we set out for our annual Adopt-a-Turkey Bake Sale, with vegan brownies, cupcakes and sugar cookies. Unfortunately, the sale was not very successful this year, but we'll try again soon! On the flip side, our Thanksgiving Food Giveaway on the 17th was a huge hit and we gave out 1.5 Tofurky roasts and a tub of mashed potatoes with vegan butter. Participants were skeptical at first, but pleasantly surprised once they tried the food! Finally, Veg Club helped provide supplies for S.A.V.E's Anti-Fur event, where people watched an animal cruelty video and received informational flyers in exchange for candy.
As a side note, one of our members had the opportunity to be in a conference call with Ingrid Newkirk, the founder of PETA. Newkirk answered questions about her experience as a woman in a position of power, about culturally responsive activism, about PETA's contribution to medical research, about whether veganism is a movement of privileged people, about what makes an effective activist, and more!
