NOTE FROM THE COORDINATORS

Giant, a large Northeast regional supermarket chain, featured a Spinberry Smoothie in their Healthy Kids Ideas handout. Directions and ingredients: Blend strawberries and spinach with almond, coconut, or dairy milk. Add a banana to make it thick and creamy. It's amazing to us that this mainstream supermarket featured vegan options. A few years ago, they certainly would not have mentioned or carried almond or coconut milk. Times do change.

When Debra was on Giant's Consumer Advisory Committee about two decades ago, they started adding organic produce. However, these were wrapped in plastic. Debra tried to explain to them that people looking for organics didn't want items they couldn't see and that were covered in plastic, but Giant staff didn't quite get it. Twenty years forward, with the prevalence of Whole Foods nearby, Giant has quickly added many foods they weren't sure about back then. Of course, they still have to cater to many audiences: as shown by the page in their handout next to the vegan smoothie option that has a Strawberry Breakfast Sammie with an egg and Canadian Bacon. With your help and changing consumer demand, we hope that in 20 years, that page will no longer be necessary.

"Whoever Saves a Life, It Is Considered As If He Saved An Entire World." This saying is from the Talmud, an ancient Jewish tract. How many times has someone said that your vegetarian diet doesn't make a difference? Of course it does! Every little action brings about change, for good or bad. It seems we live in a 'Nothing Is Enough' world. It's interesting that the Internet society impacts this in both directions. On the one hand, everyone can have a say. On the other hand, because we are constantly bombarded by those 'more successful' and ongoing Internet attacks and criticism towards others, nothing ever seems enough. Yes, we always want to do more and better, but as the ancients realized, the route to a better world is the small, important, ongoing acts each of us performs. Congratulations to this year's Vegetarian Resource Group Scholarship winners (pages 6-7) and all the great students who entered our college scholarship contest.

This Vegetarian Journal issue is being mailed to more than 2,000 restaurants serving vegetarian food. Thank you to all of you for making a difference, as well as readers who support these establishments. If you want to share the Costa Rican recipes (pages 28-30) for Latino outreach, you can print these out in Spanish from www.vrg.org. Thank you, Priscilla. And you may want to share the centerfold poster in this issue with others. We greatly appreciate all our donors, members, and volunteers who support VRG's ongoing outreach. Thank you for your daily practice of vegetarianism/veganism (or working towards this goal) and your ongoing acts of kindness and support. Have a Happy New Year!