By Devlyn Perugini, VRG Intern

Over the weekend, May 31st to June 1st, The Vegetarian Resource Group held a booth at the 18th annual Charles Village Festival in Baltimore, Maryland. This is a yearly festival filled with live music, vendors, crafts, a 5K race, and the Charles Village Garden Walk.

On Saturday, we worked with Mark Rifkin, a vegan dietitian. Mark was able to give professional opinions to people with health concerns. Mark was a reliable source who was taken seriously. Chris Dietrich worked with us on Sunday. Chris is an animal rights activist. He was very passionate about promoting vegetarianism and it showed through his enthusiastic conversations. Chris suggested an alternative to meat, called, Beyond Meat, which a lot of people seemed to be interested in. Miss Mason Dixon, Cara Marrero, also helped us on Sunday. See:
https://www.facebook.com/MissMasonDixon2014
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152917442672942&set=a.10151415705102942.577937.535707941&type=1&theater

Volunteers: Matt Baker, Cara Marrero and Chris Dietrich and Co-Director, Charles Stahler, working the VRG table at the Charles Village Festival.

My experience with working at the booth was truly amazing. I realized that I love talking about vegetarianism and could do it all day long! I felt like I truly made a difference for a good amount of people visiting the booth.

For example: There was an older man who was hesitantly approaching us. I offered him one of our Journals and asked if he had any questions. He told me that he had tried to be vegetarian but had a difficult time. He was hungry and couldn’t make it affordable. I showed him the My Vegan Plate informational paper and pointed to the protein section. I explained to him that he could buy beans and rice in bulk and experiment with different types of tofu and alternatives. He didn’t know that there were different types of tofu and seemed excited when I told him that they’re easily found in grocery stores. I had an in-depth conversation with him and his wife. They both were pleased and seemed relieved that they had new information to assist them. Before they left, the man thanked me and told me that he was going to try being vegetarian again. He was happy and it was rewarding to see that. In short, I really enjoyed working at the booth. I felt so proud to stand with The Vegetarian Resource Group.

If you would like to volunteer at VRG booths, contact Nina at [email protected]
If you would like to intern at VRG go to http://www.vrg.org/student/index.php
If you would like to support VRG outreach, donate at www.vrg.org/donate
To join VRG go to http://www.vrg.org/member/2013sv.php