By Alicia Hückmann, VRG intern visiting from Germany

On Saturday, July 30th, Heather Francis (another intern at The Vegetarian Resource Group) and I set up a booth at the 23rd Hamilton Street Festival (Baltimore) in order to promote veganism. Among others, we brought brochures and several copies of our Vegetarian Journal that we handed out for free, inexpensive books, DVDs, and stickers. Since Hamilton is known to be a neighborhood inhabited by people from diverse backgrounds, it was not very surprising that both children and adults, teenagers and elderly people would come to our booth to take some info material and have a chat with us. While some only stopped to let us know they could never live without meat, others were actually interested in learning more about veggie lifestyles. One lady especially appreciated the amount of free resources we provided, as she is currently making the transition to a meat-free diet. We even met an entire vegetarian family whose eldest daughter was interested in interning at our office.

Apart from the The VRG, Hamilton also welcomed other non-profits like the local Planned Parenthood and the Black Lives Matter group as well as representatives of political parties like the Republican and the Green party. The majority of the booths, however, belonged to artists and vendors advertising and selling their handmade or vintage products including jewelry made from cutlery, recycled t-shirts, or grotesque paintings. A broad variety of bands and musicians added to the atmosphere of this fantastic event. Last but not least, there was a vegan hot dog stand thanks to which no vegan had to starve amidst barbecue grills and burger vendors.

Even though the festival was planned to take place between 11am and 7 pm, many participants (including us) decided to leave after 4 hours due to very heavy rain. Nevertheless, Hamilton Street Festival was a great experience for both of us and we are already looking forward to having a booth at the Waverly Farmer’s Market (Baltimore) this coming Saturday on August 13, 2016.

To volunteer at future booths, in the office, or other ways, contact Brigette at [email protected]
To support The Vegetarian Resource Group outreach, donate at www.vrg.org/donate