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BAVeg Today
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Prior to BAVeg, the largest local veg group or mailing list had maybe 250 members. Currently, our newsletter has over 4,500 members. BAVeg had its first events in 2002, a grand total of 10 events. In the last 8 months, BAVeg has already had over 100 events, including dining out, letter writing, animal cruelty protests, tabling & leafleting. Volunteers have distributed over 20,000 leaflets promoting veganism to the public.
We're always looking for new leaders and volunteers to help us promote compassion to animals and veganism. If you've got a wonderful idea that aligns with BAVeg's goal of supporting our veg community, advocacy for animals, providing resources or education, we want to hear from you! Drop us an email or come chat with us in person at an upcoming event. Don't be shy, and don't worry if you've never done it before. Most of what we've done with BAVeg was new for us at some point in time, and that's true for many other volunteers, too.
Only with your support can we continue to be a strong organization promoting a compassionate & cruelty-free lifestyle. Thank you to all of our wonderful volunteers and supporters who have made this possible since our beginning in 2001.
Tammy & Chris
BAVeg co-founders
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Hearts in Action
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The "Have a Heart, Go Veg Leafleting" activity has had a great response, with several new leafleters as well as experienced leafleters joining us on a regular basis.
So far, over 20,000 vegan booklets have been distributed. Over half of those booklets were distributed during SF Pride weekend. Yes, over 10,000 leaflets at the SF Pride parade and festival.
As Nora, a long-time leafleter, says "Aren’t you glad you know about how the animals are treated so that you can choose to do something about it? Give others that opportunity to make a difference, as well! And give the animals an opportunity for people to consider their plight."
Get the full scoop, lettuce ladies too, here.
So take a break from your computer, and join us for our next Have-a-Heart leafleting on Saturday, 8/23 at Powell and Market in SF or at Power to the Peaceful on Saturday, 9/6 in Golden Gate Park.
Our leafleting team in Vegan Outreach's Adopt-a-College Program is also starting soon. We did 1,000 leaflets in Spring 2008. Help us beat that number by signing up to join our team by 'adopting' a college convenient for you to leaflet on a regular basis, even 30-60 minutes once a month makes a difference in reaching people who would otherwise not have received that life-saving information.
No previous experience is necessary for leafleting, just a smile and a willingness to help animals. Contact us for more info or to sign-up.
If tabling is more your style, see the event calendar for helping at the Solano Stroll on Sun, Sept 14th.
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Full Day, Full Belly
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Ironically, this description could describe most BAVeg events :-) But, particularly, this term is most apt for our very own style of potlucks, the Vegan Food Party. On Independence Day, over 40 folks gathered in Montara State Beach to celebrate our compassion and good vegan food at our annual Sand-n-Surf VFP. There was a wide variety of vegan dishes, always a great opportunity to bring your friends who wonder "what do vegans eat?".
For those who missed it, we've got photographs to share, and an invitation to our next Vegan Food Party, the sibling Grass-n-Lake VFP in Oakland. (See, that's the perk of organizing the events, you can give them creative names.) So mark your calendars for Sat, Sept 6th.
You're welcome to bring your favorite vegan dish or "animal test" a new recipe on hungry volunteers.
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Home, Sweet Home for Animal Place
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For some, it was just another lovely June 17th evening in Berkeley. For the standing room only crowd at the D. King Gallery, it was much more. It was an opportunity to support our friends at Animal Place in their move to a larger sanctuary in Grass Valley.
Mike and Mila attended their first BAVeg event in April, the tour & picnic to Animal Place in Vacaville, and two months later they're co-hosting the vegan pizza party & boutique fun(d)raiser with Roni, a long-time Animal Place supporter, and Tammy, who's been bringing an annual tour group of 25 people to Animal Place for the last four years.
To maximize funds raised, Mike and Mila sought vegan pizza donations from local restaurants. Mila noted that "Getting a hold of restaurant owners is quite a challenge as we soon found out. When we finally did get a hold of a few decision makers, the reactions ranged from regret that they couldn’t participate due to finances to fleeing when the words 'Farm Animal Sanctuary' came up. The one place that consistently showed interest and support was Fellini Restaurant. They offered us 10 of their delicious vegan pizzas and a huge portion of their Vegan Caesar Sorrento salad." **
"We raised a total of $2299.30. And this is all thanks for the many wonderful people who support animals, support Animal Place and who act as the voice of all the animals who needs us. A big thank you from all of us!" said Roni.
You can find full details on how our event eventually netted $4598 for Animal Place, and which two-legged animal was eager to taste test the vegan dog biscuits ...
Cast & Credits
$2,299 for Animal Place!
** Pizza Notes: Fellini's pizzas with vegan mozzarella on a light crispy crust were very well-received. While Fellini's offer faux-meat pizzas like the No Cowwie Maui, the ones without faux meats were the most popular at our event. If you want Chris & Tammy's personal recommendations, go for the Margherita (Roma tomatoes, basil and garlic) or the Shiitake and Oyster Mushroom made on an garlic-oil brushed crust. They also add that you can invite them for vegan pizza at Fellini's anytime.
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Food for Thought: Specious Science
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Want to learn more about animal rights or veganism? Enjoy reading a thought-provoking book and then discussing it with like-minded people in a friendly, supportive atmosphere? Then join the Bay Area Vegetarians Food for Thought Book Club.
We typically meet on 5-6 Sundays a year, and discuss the book over vegan food. Our locations rotate throughout the Bay Area, primarily SF and South Bay/Peninsula. Books are suggested and decided upon by the group. Ideally we would like to have 8 people at each discussion, but it's varied from 4 to 12. It's always fun to use this meeting as an opportunity to try different veg restaurants, too. We had one meeting as a vegan picnic at Yerba Buena Gardens.
The FFTBC started in Feb 2006 with Animal Liberation and has since read Dominion, Vegan Freaks, The China Study, Free the Animals, Pleasurable Kingdom, Committed: A Rabble-Rouser's Memoir, The Pig Who Sang to the Moon, The Way We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter, Living Among Meat Eaters, For the Prevention of Cruelty: The History and Legacy of Animal Rights Activism, Making Burros Fly, and Eternal Treblinka.
The Food for Thought Book Club's September selection is about the use of animals in medical research. "Specious Science: How Genetics and Evolution Reveal Why Medical Research on Animals Harms Humans" by C. Ray Greek, MD and Jean Swingle Greek, DVM
Google Books description: "Arguing that there is a great divide between species that makes extrapolation of biochemical research from one group to another utterly invalid, this book provides the argument's scientific underpinning in accessible language, examining pediatrics, brain diseases, new surgical techniques and more."
Get the book now and join us for our discussion on 9/14.
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Spotlight: Humane Charity Seal
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Concerned whether that appealing donation request that just arrived in your mailbox funds research using animal experimentation? Look for the Humane Charity Seal of Approval. "A wide range of charities meet their research needs using exclusively nonanimal methods. The Humane Charity Seal of Approval
encourages the support of these forward-thinking charities." Check 'em out before you donate .. we always do!
If you have a useful website you'd like to suggest for a future spotlight, please let us know.
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New East Bay Dining Event!
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Welcome and thanks to Roni for hosting this new event series.
Please join Roni on the 4th Sunday, August 24th, for brunch/lunch at Herbivore in Berkeley. “This event is meant for like minded vegans to enjoy getting together discussing veganism over a nice vegan lunch!” says Roni. “You don’t necessarily have to be vegan, you can be vegetarian or just curious what being vegan is all about. We each have our own story to tell. Getting together will be a positive experience and not for people to debate our choices.”
If you have an idea for an event or an event series, or simply want to have an event at your favorite restaurant or beach, let us know. You'll be in the good company as BAVeg has the best volunteers.
Here's the current line-up of our regular events. See Event Calendar for details of each event and our event hosting page for information to get started with your own BAVeg event.
Dining out: Marin (Alicia), Garden Fresh/Mtn View (Collin), Happy Bamboo/San Jose (Melissa), Fragrance Land/Cupertino (Sharon), Herbivore/Berkeley (Roni), Veganauts dinner (hosts & locations vary)
Vegan Food Party: location and hosts vary, Sept is Oakland, tenatively Oct SF. Email us if you'd like to host one.
KFC Cruelty Protest: SF (Andrew) and San Jose (Carol)
Book Clubs:"Vegan Book Club" fiction books (Lisa), "Food for Thought Book Club" non-fiction veg/AR books (Tammy)
Letter Writing: Activist Writers Salon in San Jose (Dana), Berkeley/Oakland (Sara)
Leafleting - Have a Heart, Go Veg Leafleting in SF (Tammy), Adopt-a-College leafleting starting soon!
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Ultimate Guide Updates
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On the veg restaurant scene, it's 4 openings to 2 closures since our last newsletter. Welcome to Udupi Palace (SF), Tofu Yu (Berkeley as well as El Cerrito), and Cafe Soulstice (Palo Alto) and good-bye Bok Choy Garden (SF), Usual Suspects Cafe (SF).
For more details on the above, and regular updates, check out our Guide News blog
Have Your Say -- voice your opinion with an Ultimate Guide review. With 1,448 reviews in the Ultimate Guide, these vegetarian restaurants are ranked the best.
Top Ten Vegetarian Restaurants
1) Garden Fresh, Mtn View - 4.57
2) Cha-Ya, Berkeley - 4.55 
3) Pizza Plaza, Oakland - 4.52
4) Vital Ital Calabash - 4.5 
5) Vegetarian House, San Jose - 4.5
6) Good Karma, San Jose - 4.38
7) Tofoo Com Chay, San Jose - 4.29
8) Millennium, SF - 4.23
9) New World Vegetarian - 4.21
10) Manzanita Restaurant - 4.2
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Heart Smart Cooking
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Food is the center of most social occasions. For that reason, learn to feed your friends well, vegan-style. Chef Alex shares some yummy recipes that her friends made for her.
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August 2008
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RSS Feeds:
For those of you who use Yahoo or RSS, we've now added a convenient feed for upcoming BAV Events as well as News.
BAV Events
 
BAV
News
Guide Updates /
News
For
folks on the go, we also have a mobile
edition of
the events calendar for PDA and cellphone
users.
And an iPod Edition of the Guide.
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Send us your likes, dislikes, and requests to help us build a
better newsletter and organization.
This newsletter was sent by the Bay Area Vegetarians
PO Box 371215,
Montara, CA,
94037-1215
(415) 57-VEG-57 (578-3457) skype: bayareaveg
www.BayAreaVeg.org
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