Vegans and Vegetarians at OSU

I will be graduating next year and would like to train someone to become the new President of Vegans and Vegetarians at OSU.

Depending on how you separate the duties among officers, the time it takes to run the club could be very little to a lot. Currently, I spend about 4 hours a week on promoting the club and organizing the events. I don’t have any active officers, so it’s me doing all the work. It’s really not that time consuming at all.

This is a great opportunity to gain leadership skills and boost your resume!

If you would like to learn more about being the President, please contact Amanda at vegansandvegetarians@gmail.com

For the last two years VVOSU has been invited to participate in the National Nutrition Month Fair that the Nutrition and Dietetics Club has hosted. You can see me in the first few seconds of the video with a new member just telling folks how to be healthy on a vegetarian diet. It’s always fun to chat with new people as well as see old friends. Maybe we’ll see you next year!

Here’s a list of upcoming events throughout the year. The dates highlighted are sometimes before the actual holiday because they fall on a weekend, and the dates shown are for the activities that we will be doing on campus. Some of these have been done, but some are what I would like to do new starting this year. Anyone who has a little bit of time can help and the idea of divide and conquer is what I’m going for. If it’s just me trying to do all this I may not be able to accomplish it. If you would like to be involved, please email Amanda at vegansandvegetarians@gmail.com with the subject line that is the title of the event you would like to help with.

Fall Term

October
-13th
Fun Run
Health is more than just eating well, it’s about exercise too! For members that would like to do a run or walk I’d like to meet up with you and get our bodies moving!!!
The loop that I will take you on is pretty challenging and running it will take about 45 min to an hour.
Friends are welcome-I include dogs in this category!

-1st
World Vegan Day Bake Sale
You don’t have to bake if you would rather just represent and vice versa-bake and not table. Reply with Bake Sale in the subject line and what you would like to do if you want to participate.
I need at least 1 or 2 more people for one hour shifts from 11-12 Thursday November 1. I will be making a whoopie pie cookie, but would like others to make 1 savory item- for example a croissant with vegan cream cheese etc., and 2 different but chocolately items: for example, brownie or chocolate chip cookies.
I would like 1 or 2 people to distribute flyers the day before or the morning of.
Click here the Facebook event.

-22nd
Thanksgiving Potluck Dinner
3-6pm I still have yet to hear back about location, so keep a lookout for updates on Facebook or my blog.

December
-1st
Holiday Recipe Handout
I would like to put together some of people’s favorite recipes to get people through the holidays with their families. If anyone wants to help develop and handout just email with the title seen above.

Winter Term

January
-7-11th
New Year’s Resolution
Either recipes or tips to going vegetarian or vegan. I need people for development and distribution once again.

February
-14th
Love Campaign 2013!
Last year we took chalk and marked up campus with phrases like “Love animals, don’t eat them” etc. It was a lot of fun!
I need 3 or 4 people the night before or if it’s raining, on Valentine’s Day to hit up campus with some catchy phrases that will make people consider not eating meat.

-18-19th
PETA Visits OSU
On Monday we will be handing out food samples and Tuesday we will be having people sign a petition for more vegan stuff on campus! They have enough people to get the job done, but barely. It would be great to work with these awesome folks and reach more people.

March
-5-6th    
National Nutrition Month Tabling:
10-2pm MU Quad I would like to have people sign up for hour slots for both days. I need one or two people for each time slot that are willing to talk about vegetarianism. 

-15th  St. Patrick’s Day or
- 22nd   Easter/Passover Recipes -again with development and distribution, and passing out “Would Jesus Eat Meat Today?” pamphlets.

Spring Term

April
-23rd
Earth Day Fair
11-3pm in the MU Quad. A tabling event to inform the public why eating a veg diet is more earth-friendly.

May
-10th
Mother’s Day
We could let people know about the dairy industry: How mother cows get their babies taken away, and how they are worked into an early death etc. We could table inside the MU or outside in the quad or just hand out “What’s Wrong with Dairy?” pamphlets.

-27th

Memorial Day BBQ and Potluck
Do Memorial Day the right way-without dead things burning on your grill!!!  This will be the 3rd annual event for the club. The last two times it has been at my house, but I don’t have my grill anymore. I will update you on where and what time when it gets closer to that time.

Welcome or welcome back!

There will be three meetings this year on the following days: October 4th, November 1st and December 6th. They are Thursdays at 6pm in the Student Sustainability Center 738 sw 15th street. Map

If anyone would like a ride I am willing to pick you up, but I’d much rather have us all using something other than our cars to get to the meetings.. There is some parking around the SSC, but your best bet would be to walk or ride your bike.
**Be forewarned that the meetings can be canceled if the SSI needs the space for any reason. If they are cancelled I will host the meeting at my house. My address will be given to those who RSVP to vegansandvegetarians@gmail.com   Also, it would be great if you could RSVP by Monday before the meetings just to get an idea of how many will be coming so food can be made accordingly. In the past a dish that served 4 or 5 was sufficient.

We like to do potlucks to encourage you to try new recipes and learn that cooking is pretty darn fun and easy!!

I will be planning our second annual Vegan Thanksgiving to be held on Thanksgiving day from 3 to 6pm. Last year was a blast, and thank you to everyone who came. There was so much food and all of us left very full and very happy.

Please feel free to email me if you have any further questions. Address your messages for Amanda (or President or El Presidente) to vegansandvegetarians@gmail.com

Meetings will be Wednesdays at 5:30 at the Brick House 330 NW 23rd Street, between Van Buren and Harrison streets. They are not every Wednesday, so mark your calendars with next Wed the 11th, and the 25th of April. Next month is May 9th and 23rd. June will be the 6th. These are potluck style meetings meant to discover new recipes and to encourage you to cook for yourself. It’s totally cool if you don’t bring anything to share and it is fine if you bring some store bought stuff too. I know time is an issue for people. These meetings are meant to be fun! Have some food, kick back and hang out with awesome like minded people. You can even bring your favorite board game too.

Upcoming Events

• Wed April 11th-   First meeting of the term

• Fri    April 13th-  11-3pm in the Quad   Healthy Habits Day  I will have pamphlets with info and recipes

• Tue   April 24th-  11-3pm in the Quad   Earth Week Booth   I will share information about why veg*nism is great for the planet.  ****I still need one or two people for the 11-12 slot one person for the 12-1 spot and one person from the 1-2 spot.*****

• Wed  May 23rd(date and time are still not concrete yet)-   8-10pm Milam Auditorium  Earthlings movie showing with free food and info to the first 100 people. See the Facebook event for more details  https://www.facebook.com/events/185922561482984/   *****I still would like a little more help with handing out flyers in the quad one or two days before the event***

• Mon  May 28th- Memorial Day BBQ Second annual event for VVOSU. Last year it was at my house, but this year I want to see if I can get a venue where we can hand out free samples as well. If anyone has ideas for that, just drop me an email.

I hope you all had a great holiday break. Now it’s time to get back into the swing of things!

Turns out Sunday at 5pm worked best for the time for meetings this term. We will be meeting at the Student Sustainability Center again. The address is 738 SW 15th street.

*This *Sunday is unique and we will be in the Valley Library, Room 1420. The room can hold about 15 people so I would love to have some RSVPs if you will be attending. We will be showing Vegucated.

Please bring snacks.  If you have any awesome holiday recipes that you discovered over break, feel free to share them. The movie is about an hour and 15 min long and we will probably start around 5:20 because I do have a few opportunities for getting involved on campus that I will explain a little here. I would also like to brainstorm ideas for this term or next-don’t be shy, anything will be considered will respect.

One event that I need help for is the SDA and OSU’s Healthy Campus Initiative that will be hosting a three day event March 6-8th from 10-2pm. Set up starts at 9:30 each day. Potentially, I need 12 people to cover hour shifts for the 3 days. I can represent for Thursday all day, and you can come hang out with me. I will have a sign up sheet at the meeting. Basically, what you would be doing is telling people why a plant based diet is healthier for them. I can provide pamphlets to hand out. If this sounds like something you could do, but you can’t make it to our meetings just email me (vegansandvegetarians@gmail.com) with a time and day that you would be willing to represent VVOSU. Even if you have never spoken to anyone about why eating veggie is better for you, I promise that if you speak from the heart you will reach people.

The other event is a huge one! I will be advertising like mad and showing Earthlings for free at Milam Auditorium in April. If you click on the link provided here you can actually watch the movie for free online. It’s a bit graphic, so be warned.  Check out the FB event here.

I have a timeline and have done a bunch of research while writing the proposal last term on how to execute advertising. It looks like it would be good to have at least 4 more people to split up the work. We will have to have meetings with the Food Projects Coordinator for the Student Sustainability Center. They granted us the money for ads! Amazing! It would be work like creating, hanging and handing out flyers. I would also need a few people the night of to help collect email addresses and distribute veg friendly pamphlets. I know that it is still a way off, but I want to have a solid committed group as soon as I can.

We will be meeting every other week on Thursdays, starting on October 6th at 6pm at the Student Sustainability Center. The address is 738 SW 15th Street, on the corner of Western and 15th.

Meetings will be the following days: October 6th and 20th; November 3rd and 17th as well as a vegan Thanksgiving on November 24th from 3-6pm and here’s the FB link.; December 1st will be our last meeting of the term.

Our first meeting will be a discussion about books. Our topic will cover my favorites, but I would also like input from you!  Please let the group know about some that helped you make the transition to veg*nism or was informative on animal rights issues and so forth. Also we can talk about cookbooks that we love.

I will mention a book here that was a pretty easy read and covered all the bases in terms of why someone would/should be a vegan. It is called Vegan: The New Ethics of Eating by Erik Markus. The link is for Amazon and the book is available for about $5.00 including shipping for the cheapest ones.
If you aren’t able to make it to the meetings please email me at vegansandvegetarians@gmail.com for any further information.

Here’s some food for thought: Can you eradicate heart disease and cancer? There’s a movie that I saw that may change your life. When I switched from being a meat eater to a vegetarian here’s how my blood changed: My LDL went from 76 to 61. My cholesterol was 161 and in 2008 it was 133. Also my triglycerides went from 120 to 83. I’d be curious to know what my levels are now that I’ve been a vegan for almost a year. The movie is called Forks Over Knives. Check it out!!

YouTube DirectForks Over Knives Official Trailer

I also love the environment and I know a vegan diet uses 1/20 of the resources of a typical omnivorous diet. What I wasn’t too sure about was whether eating meat from local sources was better than a vegetarian diet that comes from all over. Well, the data is in: Eat vegetarian! I say local, organic and vegan, but that may be way more difficult. If you want to do something just eat less meat-even that helps!

http://eatdrinkbetter.com/2011/02/25/which-is-better-for-the-environment-local-or-vegetarian/

 Here’s a quote from Environmental Science and Technology that was referenced in the above article.

“Large reductions are more difficult in shifting away from only dairy products (at least on a calorie basis) but making some shifts in both red meat and dairy, on the order of 13?15% of expenditure or 11?19% of calories, would achieve the same GHG reduction as total localization. Shifting less than 1 day per week?s (i.e., 1/7 of total calories) consumption of red meat and/or dairy to other protein sources or a vegetable-based diet could have the same climate impact as buying all household food from local providers.”

http://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/es702969f

If you aren’t a vegetarian, please consider it, and if you are, take that extra step and become a vegan!

We’re actually a group now-Yaaay us!

If you want to contact me and get in on the fun here’s the email address: vegansandvegetarians@gmail.com

The next big thing is going to Portland this Friday, March 4th,  for a benefit for the farm sanctuaries here in Oregon. There will be delicious food, drinks and crafts. It’s free, but bring some money for donations please. 

It will be at the Artistery http://www.artistery.net/ starting at 7. I’m probably leaving town around 4:30 and I have room for 1 or 2 more. I hope to see you there!

Here’s the skinny: There’s a new kid on the block and it’s name is VVOSU.  We are anyone who is a vegan, vegetarian or curious about becoming one of those. What our goals are:

To bring together individuals who share common diet values, exchange vital knowledge and know-how pertaining to a Vegan or Vegetarian lifestyle.  Inform and raise awareness throughout the community about the source and production of our food, as well as the negative consequence it has on animals and the environment.  Expose the Corvallis community to alternative diet choices that could help their health and well being.  To be a reliable on-campus resource for students who would like to educate themselves on modern day food practices and what it could mean for them.  To aid students in achieving healthier lifestyles through diet choice.  To help improve the OSU and Corvallis community by becoming involved in various projects throughout the year. 

It’s a very informal and fun group of dedicated individuals. If you wanna come check us out you can contact Amanda Rhodes with your name and phone number at vegansandvegetarians@gmail.com or visit our Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/pages/Vegans-Vegetarians-at-OSU/161887133844777 to see what we’re up to.

Here’s a couple videos for your entertainment. The first one is from Dan Piraro creator of the cartoon Bizarro and the second is by a man that I personally met and body builder extraordinaire Robert Cheeke.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05zhL1YUd8Q

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M4N1K1fag4