By Casey Brown, VRG Volunteer

Vegan Awareness Week took place from August 28 to September 3, 2017 in Asheville, NC. Throughout the week, the Asheville Vegan Society hosted many events with speakers, food, and screenings at The Block off Biltmore. The week culminated with the main event: Asheville Vegfest. Vegfest took place on Pack Square Park in downtown Asheville and featured many vendors, organizations, speakers, and musicians.

While staffing The Vegetarian Resource Group booth, the other volunteer and I were able to interact with many individuals living in or visiting Asheville, and we were also able to connect with many other like-minded organizations in the area. We met a lot of people who were already vegan or interested in going vegan and came specifically for the event, but we also met quite a few people who were exploring downtown and just happened upon the event. This was a great way to educate individuals who may not have known a lot about a vegan lifestyle previously. Many people expressed interest in learning more about veganism since they wanted to choose healthier alternatives for their meals.

The most common concern people had was that they were having trouble finding vegan recipes. We were able to show them our cookbook options, give them a copy of the Vegetarian Journal which contains vegan recipes, give them a recipe card for a veggie burger, and suggest some of our favorite recipes! Many individuals were interested in learning more about vegan pregnancy, so we were able to give them a copy of our “Vegan Nutrition in Pregnancy and Childhood” brochures and suggest The Everything Vegan Pregnancy Book by Reed Mangels, which can be found in the book catalog on our website.

Our “My Vegan Plate” handouts and “Veganism in a Nutshell” brochures were very popular among the crowd, especially those who were interested in learning more about transitioning to a vegan diet. One lady we met expressed that her relatives do not understand veganism. She said that her immediate family is vegan, but family get-togethers were hard for them. She took a copy of our Vegetarian Journal to get recipe ideas and more information to share with her relatives. Another lady we met told us that her new neighbors expressed an interest in veganism. She was interested in gathering a variety of materials to make their transition easier.

We met multiple people who were interested in using The VRG’s handouts within their careers. A middle school teacher wanted to use some of our resources for her nutrition class and another organization wanted to use our “I Love Animals and Broccoli Coloring Books” for children that come to her events. We also met a lady who wanted to use some of our materials to start a vegan meetup group in her area. One person visited our booth stating that it “seemed like the perfect first stop to learn more about veganism.” She was hoping to better understand the basics of veganism and took home a handful of our resources, so she could learn more.

This was the first Vegan Awareness Week that I have ever experienced, and it was amazing! I loved being able to attend many of the events throughout the week, interact with people in the community, and educate others on veganism. Thank you to everyone who visited our booth at Asheville Vegfest! The VRG will be at the University of Buffalo’s Sustainability Event in New York next.

To volunteer at booths, contact Brigette at [email protected]
To support The Vegetarian Resource Group outreach, donate at www.vrg.org/donate
Or join at http://www.vrg.org/member/cabdacae.php