MARCH IS VEGGIE MONTH

Each March, Animal Aid’s Veggie Month provides an opportunity to emphasise the positive benefits of a vegetarian lifestyle and diet and to encourage people to kick the meat habit. We need your help to reach those people who are perhaps meat-reducers or already thinking about going veggie and even those who have never thought about it before, to encourage them to drop bad meat habits completely. So please start thinking about how you or your group could promote the veggie/vegan diet in March.

Free Veggie Food Stalls

One of the most direct methods of encouraging people to eat more animal-free food is to allow them to try it for themselves, which is why free food street stalls are so successful. You don’t have to be part of a local group, as a stall only requires a couple of people and they’re very easy to set up. You’ll find that many people will be keen to try the samples and chat about eating more ethical products. Information about setting up a free food stall can be found in our campaigning guide (see the Get Active section of our website) or contact the office to be sent a hard copy. As the winter months have been particularly harsh, you might want to consider setting up an indoor stall. Southend Animal Aid recently held a free food stall with information in their local library, which is a great idea, so please do contact your library to see if you can do the same. Some shopping centres will also allow charity stands – contact Kelly for help with gaining permission. Other places you might like to approach include health food stores and local branches of LUSH. If you or your group could organise a free food stall for Veggie Month please contact Kelly on 01732 364546 ext 227 or email Kelly@animalaid.co.uk as Kelly can sort out free food samples for your stall from Redwood Wholefoods.

Hattie the Hen

Animal Aid’s giant chicken costume – Hattie the hen – would be delighted to visit your library, shopping centre or town to coincide with a free food stall and help hand out leaflets. Contact Kelly if you would like to arrange a visit from Hattie.

Funeral Tour

During March, Animal Aid will be visiting a few major towns and cities with giant poster boards depicting dead and diseased animals who we found on our numerous undercover visits to farms around the country. Presented in a funereal style, the stunts will remember those animals who endured painful and often drawn-out deaths in an attempt to highlight to the public, the disease and suffering that is rife on most farms. If you would like to replicate this demo in your town, please contact Kelly who can provide the photos.

Other ways in which you can promote Veggie Month include:

setting up a library display asking local shops including health food shops if they will display a poster in their window and/or ‘send for a veggie pack’ cards on the counter taking some Go Veggie bookmarks to your local library and book stores organising a meat-free buffet or dinner for your non-veggie family and friends getting in touch with local schools and offering them a veggie talk or cookery demonstration by one of our fully trained school speakers. Write a letter to the editor of your local paper and don’t forget to mention the Veggie Month website: www.veggiemonth.com Include a Veggie Month web banner (available from www.veggiemonth.com) on your email signature, website or Myspace page.

New Booklet!

Animal Aid’s new booklet, which will be published in time for Veggie Month, examines the diseases that threaten human health as a result of animal farming systems. This colourful, A5 booklet, succinctly uncovers the source, symptoms, treatment and risk factor for each major disease into 16 pages. It concludes that we need to think seriously about our relationship to farmed animals and whether eating meat is threatening our health. Copies can be ordered using the attached form or viewed on the Animal Aid website. Please see the attached form to order your resources for Veggie Month. As always, thank you for your continued support and hard work for the animals. Best wishes Kelly Slade Campaigns