Bay Area Vegetarians

In Sunnyvale, a new restaurant will be openng soon. It’s website proudly proclaims “All dishes are prepared with fresh and nutritious ingredients; No animal products, eggs or MSG.”

Merit Vegetarian is at 548-2 Lawrence Expressway in Sunnyvale, CA
Hours: Daily 11:00 AM – 9:00 PM

BAVeg is looking for 1-2 volunteers who work or live in San Francisco to establish new monthly dining events in SF.

Please take our survey to determine your aptitude.

1) Do you enjoy eating vegan foods? (yes, no)

2) Do you like to share interesting conversation with like-minded folks? (yes, no)

3) Do you enjoy meeting new people? (yes, no)

4) Do you want to help support new veg*ns? (yes, no)

5) Do you believe a veg*n lifestyle benefits the animals, the environment, and human health? (yes, no)

6) Do you believe one person can make a difference? (yes, no)

7) Do you support BAVeg’s mission to promote veganism and animal rights? (yes, no)

If you answered YES to all of the above, then you’re a great fit to host a vegan dining out activity. We are particularly looking for hosts in SF at this time.

Volunteer Info

Current, BAVeg has about a dozen monthly events in Marin, South Bay, East Bay, and SF. We would like to expand that to include a regular dinner in San Francisco.

If you’re new to event hosting, please note that we provide a support forum exclusively for our hosts, with real life practical tips and ideas for event hosting.

Our volunteers make everything happen for Bay Area Veg. And they are indeed Veggie Important People to us. Join a great team!

Dinner Event:

Host a dinner at your favorite veg restaurant! Sound interesting? Read more about event hosting and then contact Tammy with your ideas.

The dinner can be during the week or on the weekend to fit your schedule. Currently, all the volunteer dinner hosts pick their favorite restaurant, and then host the dinner there at a set date and time every month (i.e. 4th Wednesday at 7 pm, 2nd Saturday at 6 pm). Having regularly scheduled events makes it easier to remember the dates, too.

Lunch event – co-host needed!

Tammy is looking for a co-host for a regular SF lunch (currently held at the SF Ferry Building Farmer’s Market). She can do the online organizing but her work schedule often includes spontaneous meetings at/near the lunch hour. So she needs a reliable co-host who has a very predictable work schedule and can arrive promptly at the event. If you can help, the next lunch is currently scheduled for 9/4; please contact Tammy.

At the Aug 7th lunch at Donna’s Tamales at the SF Ferry Building Farmer’s Market, there were 11 folks in attendance, with a variety of foods and conversations enjoyed. We’ll miss Andrew who has been co-hosting, but is changing job locations.

New Leaf Market, a popular natural foods store chain in the Santa Cruz area, has announced it will be moving into Half Moon Bay in Spring 2008.

This is hugely exciting news for those living on the San Mateo coastside, the headquarters for Bay Area Vegetarians.

Vegetarian House, a popular restaurant in the South Bay with an extensive menu of Asian and Western foods, is now an entirely vegan restaurant.

Sunny, at Vegetarian House, said: “We are happy to say that the entire menu – including all desserts are now 100% vegan – (with no non-vegan options). The website was updated today – so please check it out again. Vegans can now order anything on the menu without any dairy. We have vegan crepes Florentine on the specials menu this weekend with our own ricotta ‘cheese’ and creamy white sauce.”

Check it out at the next monthly dinner. See BAVeg event calendar for details.

The Breakroom Cafe is open on 13th St in Oakland, serving vegetarian & vegan sandwiches, soups, and side dishes, as well as snacks, pastries, desserts, including vegan cakes by Black China Bakery.

http://www.bayareaveg.org/ug/display.htm?id=797

Beautiful blue sky, miles of clean sandy beach, fresh ocean breeze, dish after dish after dish of vegan food to share with new and old friends – the perfect setting for the annual 4th of July Sand-n-Surf Vegan Food Party at Montara State Beach, Montara, CA.

About 45-55 people attended. Some were families with small kids, with bigger kids, without kids, with two or four-legged friend(s), or just solo.

In between bites of good food and conversation, we did manage to take a few photographs. So if couldn’t attend this year, make plans to attend next year.

San Francisco Bay Area Events & Activities, recipes .. and more!

http://www.bayareaveg.org/newsletters/BAV-News-Jul2007.htm

To have this delivered automatically to your inbox, please subscribe at
http://www.bayareaveg.org/join.htm

We consider the annual two-day SF LGBT Pride Celebration an important community event, attracting celebrants from cities across the Bay Area, nation, and abroad, from Albany to Arizona to Australia. SF’s event is the largest in the nation, attracting over 1 million visitors.

It’s both a symbolic and practical statement to have our banner and booth, on Larkin Street in front of the Asian Art Museum, prominently placed at the Celebration festival.

Symbolically, we are a reminder to all that yes, there are individuals in this world who eschew meat, eggs, dairy for many reasons, including ethical, environmental, animal cruelty, social justice, religious, economic, and health concerns.

Practically, we directly educate thousands more with free literature that we distribute from our table and by leafleting.

We have always had a tremendous response to our table at this event, and it’s typically busy. To increase our outreach to people, we deliberately decided to ramp up our outreach efforts away from the booth with more volunteers leafleting during the festival AND (for the first time) the Parade.

How many activists does it take to distribute 2,000 leaflets in 45 minutes?

Three!

On Sunday morning, BAVeg volunteers educated the crowd queued for the SF LGBT Pride Celebration parade. Our float was a push cart with a bunch of celery banded to the front. Alex and Ari inked their sentiments to GOVEG.COM on their bare backsides, and distributed leaflets to individuals hungry for veg info. Chris managed the cart, laden with Vegetarian Starter Kits.

By the end of the weekend, by working together, BAVeg volunteers distributed over 10,300 pieces of literature, mostly by leafleting with Vegan Outreach Why Vegan and Even if You Like Meat and Vegetarian Starter Guides from PETA and Mercy for Animals. We also signed-up hundreds of new members.

When asked about his volunteer experience, Ari reflects, “Alex and I passed out about 2,000 vegetarian starter guides in less than one hour before the parade. Assuming 1.5% of those people adopt a vegetarian diet for 10 yrs (or, in total, that group of people cut down their entire animal consumption just 1.5%), we will have saved 28,500 animals from a life of constant suffering. Personally, [leafleting and] saving almost 100 animals each year [per person] feels really empowering.

I could never make this much of a difference in my entire life by just changing my diet.”

Chef Alex: “Free vegetarian recipes, Sir?”

Guest: “Are you really a chef?”

Chef Alex: “Yes, really.”

Guest: “OK, thanks! Wait–can I have two? My neighbor would love this!”

“Thank you to everyone who helped, and also to Sun Flour Baking for donating vegan cookie samples, for the fifth successive year!”

-Tammy & Chris, BAVeg co-founders

Cast and Credits

Event/Volunteer Coordinator: Tammy

Parade Volunteers: Alex, Ari, and Chris

Tabling Volunteers: Anna, Chris, Dana, Denise, Josh, Katherine, Mark, Myles, Peggy, Tammy and Warren

Leafleting Volunteers: Alex, Alvaro, Andrew, Ari, Blue, Chris, Dyanna, Jack, Kansinee, Lucia, Mark, Myles, Nora, Ron, Tammy and Warren

Setup & Takedown (both days): Alex, George, Chris, and Tammy

Vegan Cookie Samples: Sun Flour Baking
Literature: Vegan Outreach, PETA, PCRM, Farm Sanctuary, Mercy for Animals, United Poultry Concerns, BAVeg

Visit the photo gallery to see BAVeg volunteers give everyone food for thought. Over 100 photos from our 2 days at SF LGBT Pride Celebration 2007.

Six years ago, Tammy and Chris started Bay Area Vegetarians. One of the reasons was simply to meet more like-minded people. And that continues to be one of the core reasons for Bay Area Vegetarians — to support and connect the veg community.

So this 4th of July, come on out to Montara State Beach and share good vegan food & fellowship with like-minded folks. We will picnic on the beautiful, clean sandy Montara State Beach, enjoying fresh ocean breezes and admiring the surf.

If you’ve never been to a Vegan Food Party, then make this your first one! If you’ve been to several, then come again to this one! The basic concept is that everyone makes a yummy vegan dish to share. It’s a super opportunity to ‘animal test’ new vegan recipes on willing volunteers, and to try a variety of dishes.

What: Sand-n-Surf Vegan Food Party!
Where: Montara State Beach

When: 7/4/07 Wednesday, 1:00 pm
RSVP: Tammy & Chris

Directions | What to Bring | Google Map

More Photos

NOTE – if you can help and arrive at 12:30 to help us carry and set up a canopy and tables, that would be much appreciated! Thanks to Jordan and we could use 2 more volunteers!

This year’s Sand-n-Surf VFP is extra special for Tammy & Chris. Last year, Highway 1, the highway connecting Pacifica and Montara, was closed from April through August for a major road repair. Effectively, Pacifica and Montara became the largest cul-de-sacs in the Bay Area, requiring huge detours and lengthened commute times. The annual 4th of July celebration was regretfully cancelled for 2006.

San Francisco Bay Area Events & Activities, recipes, vegan advice .. and more!

http://www.bayareaveg.org/newsletters/BAV-News-Jun2007.htm

To have this delivered automatically to your inbox, please subscribe at
http://www.bayareaveg.org/join.htm