Cowspiracy, Vegan Potluck, Semester Recap

In mid-December, Veg Club hosted a free screening of the animal rights documentary Cowspiracy, which focuses on the environmental reasons behind veganism. The film was well-received and we had a thoughtful discussion afterward.

Later that week, Veg Club and S.A.V.E. teamed up for an end-of-the-semester party in the form of a vegan potluck! Foods included tator tots, spaghetti with faux ground meat, sloppy joe's, pakoras, hummus, pretzels, chips, chocolate chip cookies, Oreos, bread, and a Tofurky roast! We had a blast hanging out with cats, a turtle and a snail. We also played some games (i.e. truth or dare and never have I ever). Dares included licking the floor, crawling on the floor with a chair balanced on the back, pouring water over the head, and eating strange food creations (you don't even want to know). We also shared our favorite restaurants and our favorite events from the semester. The most popular ones seemed to be our rice and cage demos, as well as our volunteer trip to SASHA. We noted that we felt like a community this semester more so than any other so far.

This semester has been an impactful one! In September, we gave away coffee at Campus Fest, hugged people and danced in a chicken costume for Hug A Vegan Day, and squeezed two people into a dog cage to demonstrate the way factory farmed animals live. In October, we walked in the homecoming parade carrying an environmental-animal rights message, scooped poop and visited animals at SASHA, and put 740 pounds of rice on display to show how many animals are killed for food per day in the U.S. alone. In November, we gave away vegan Thanksgiving food and held our annual Adopt-A-Turkey Bake Sale. In December, we screened Cowspiracy and celebrated together at our potluck. Though at times members were swamped with their own lives and couldn't attend meetings, we still always pulled together as an efficient team for our events. We are proud to have such a dedicated group of activists who fight for animals.

Holly, Veg Club's president for the last three years, will be graduating in the spring, so elections were in order! Congratulations to Paige and Torrey, our co-presidents for spring and fall 2016! We also awarded superlatives to our regular members as follows:

• Holly: Best Dictator
• Paige: Most Dedicated Member
• Torrey: Most Entertaining Check-Ins
• Scott: Longest Running Member + Most Tardy
• Emily: Best Leafleter
• Katey: Biggest Heart for Animals 
• Reanna: Best Cat-Facts Prankster
• Chris: Best Honorary Member +  Rice Hauler
• Bill: Most Spirited Wolf

Thanksgiving Food Giveaway, Bake Sale

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!

Homecoming Parade, SASHA, A Grain for Every Animal

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. :)

Campus Fest + Coffee Giveaway, Hug A Vegan Day, Cage Demo

To kick off the school year, Veg Club gave away 2 carriers of coffee with Silk brand vegan creamer at BGSU's annual Campus Fest (Sept. 3rd) and recruited 2 pages of new e-mail subscribers!

For our next event, we spread the love at Hug a Vegan Day (Sept. 22nd), giving away vegan candy and free chicken hugs. The chicken did a lot of awkward dancing. Participants responded with smiles and positivity. :)



After such a happy event, we had to take a turn for the dark side... with an eye-catching cage demonstration (September 29th). Members squeezed into a dog cage to create a visual representation of how egg-laying chickens live for 2 years, crammed with 4-9 other chickens in a space the size of a newspaper. Students responded strongly, reacting facially and verbally as they walked by, and engaging in conversations with us as well.

Tarp Demo, Party, Eco Fair, Hot Dog Giveaway

On April 15th, we attempted to do a "How Much Rainforest?" demonstration, setting up a 20x30 foot red tarp in the Union Oval to show the amount of Amazon Rainforest cut down for animal agriculture every 1/10th of a second. However, it wasn't up for long, because we live in 'Blowing' Green (aka the wind defeated us). Apparently sticks cannot replace metal stakes. Better luck next year!

On April 18th, Veg Club and S.A.V.E. members got together for an awesome end-of-the-year party! We ate yummy potluck food, including spaghetti, green bean casserole, lentils and carrots, fruit, cookies, cookie dough balls, chips and guac/hummus, etc. Then we played Cards Against Humanity. Finally, we ventured outside to a nearby park, demonstrating our vegan strength on the monkey bars, chalking the top of a tall rock with vegan messages, and playing duck-duck-goose (the random animal-random animal-turkey version we made up) and telephone. It was a blast and we had lots of laughs!

On April 22nd, Veg Club participated in BGSU's annual Eco Fair, leafleting and talking to people about the devastating environmental impact that animal agriculture has on our planet.

On April 27th and 28th, our PETA campus rep handed out 56 free vegan hot dogs, with overwhelmingly positive response and great conversations with people! This is definitely an event to repeat on a larger scale next year.

We unforunately were unable to go to SASHA this semester, but we can't wait to try again in September! It's been an AMAZING school year with wonderful involvement and a LOT of new events. Thank you to our incredible members and everyone who supports us. This school year, we had 15 outreach events, 2 potlucks, 2 eat-togethers, 2 bake sales (one for us, one for turkey adoption), and 1 volunteer day!!

See you in the fall, at our new meeting location Olscamp 219, still Tuesdays at 9pm! :)

Food Giveaway, Stump A Vegan, Alma Screening

On March 20th, Veg Club handed out over 120 food samples in the Union, including vegan chicken, turkey, cheese, and yogurt. The response was overwhelmingly positive, with people pleasantly surprised at the products' taste and ease of access. This event was quite a hit and everyone loved the food--some said even better than real animal products!

On March 26th, we held a "Stump A Vegan" event, inviting people to ask us a question and to answer one in return. Traffic was slow, but we had great conversations with those who participated. Most questions were about health and nutrition, and a few about dairy and eggs. We were stumped by one question: "where does hominy from?" Apparently, it's corn. At the end of the event, a student union film group approached us with questions about April Fool's day, and had us quiz them on animal rights. While our questions didn't get featured in the final video, our appearance in the video is still free promo!


On March 31st, Veg Club hosted a screening of the documentary Alma, a unique film that tells the story of the destruction of the Amazon rainforest and the raising of cows for various products... solely through imagery rather than narration. While no non-vegans attended, we all agreed that it was a very eye-opening and extremely well-executed documentary, and we discussed what we felt were the most powerful images and moments. The film can be accessed for free online at almathefilm.com.

Hot Chocolate Giveaway, Fishing Challenge

On February 10th, Veg Club worked with PETA and Starbucks to give away 50 cups of vegan hot chocolate. We ran out in about an hour and a half, and people were very interested in what made it vegan. In addition to the giveaway, we tabled and leafleted about the dairy industry, displaying faux dairy products and inviting people to hug our cow!



On February 24th, we tabled about the fishing industry, asking people to play our fishing challenge--a game where the participant closes their eyes and tries to catch only one color of plastic fish in a tub of water while avoiding other colors, using a wire net. This serves as analogy to one type of fishing method used by the industry, where a giant net collects all the creatures in its destructive path, killing non-target species. About 10-20 people participated in the game, and seemed positive and intrigued about the information they learned. Our table also displayed an empty package of faux fish by Gardein, and we gave away Swedish fish (the candy!).

Get Involved Fair, Broiler Chicken Demo, Raffle

On January 20th, Veg Club participated in BGSU's annual Get Involved Fair, hosting a table about our awesome organization! We handed out vegan candy and talked to those who inquired about what we do. We also got a handful of new e-mail
subscribers!

On January 26th, Veg Club held a demonstration in the Union about chickens raised for meat. Our catch-phrase for the day: "Bred to grow too big too fast, our bones and organs cannot last." We had a person in a chicken costume on crutches to visually demonstrate this fact. We handed out 200 "Not a Nugget" leaflets, had some good conversations, and got a lot of attention for the cause. One of our members got really into it, even having a mock conversation about poop contained in meat. Hilarious, fun and successful day!

On January 27th and 28th, Veg Club attempted to hold a cash prize raffle to fundraise for our club. We didn't make as much as we thought we would, so we will be extending our fundraiser to this Thursday and Friday, February 5th and 6th, so come and show your support!

Meeting Notes for Jan. 13

At Tuesday's meeting, we ate peanut butter chocolate bars, talked about life, and outlined events for the semester, tentatively as follows:

January

• Get Involved Fair (Jan. 20th from 11am-3pm in BTSU Ballroom)
• Broiler Chicken Demo (Jan. 26th from 11am-3pm at Union tables)
• Fundraiser/Raffle (Jan. 27th and 28th from 11am-3pm at Union tables)

February

• Ditch Dairy Day
• Vegan Hot Chocolate Giveaway (possibly combine with DDD)
• Fish Demo

March

• Veg Myth vs. Fact Demo
• Documentary Screening?
• Rally for Change OR Pay Per View?

April

• Eco Fair
• Chalk the Sidewalks
• Paint the Rock
• Volunteer at SASHA
• Vegan Potluck/End of Year Party

Recipe for Peanut Butter Chocolate Bars

These. Are. AMAZING. And EASY! And involve chocolate and peanut butter. So this is obviously a perfect recipe for a Veg Club meeting! :D

Ingredients

• 2.5 cups graham cracker or animal cracker crumbs
• 1 cup peanut butter
• 1 cup vegan butter, melted
• 2.75 cups powdered sugar
•  2 cups semisweet vegan chocolate chips, melted

Instructions

1.  In a bowl, stir together cracker crumbs (very finely ground in a food processor), powdered sugar, peanut butter, and melted butter.
2.  Press the mix into a 9x13 pan (we used a 9" pie pan instead).
3.  Melt chocolate and spread it on top of the peanut butter in the pan. (If you want less chocolate, use 1 cup instead.)
4. Chill for 5 minutes in the refrigerator so chocolate can set. (Chocolate can get a little hard being cold, so allow enough time for chocolate to soften a little before serving.)