Looking for a partner

December 20, 2006

PETA provides grassroots groups with bright green newspaper stands to distribute Free Vegetarian Starter Kits. We have several here in San Francisco. This is a great way to help people learn about going veg and being kind to animals--some people will refuse to take a leaflet from you personally, but they will take it anonymously because they feel less pressured. And I have yet to meet the activist who can stand and leaflet for 24 hours without a break, like the newspaper stand can.

PETA just surveyed the effectiveness of the Veg Starter Kits and the results are amazing (below). I want to do what I can to make more VSK's available to the public.

I would like to adopt two San Francisco stands to keep them stocked. This means driving by and checking them once a week. Since I travel a lot there will be weeks I can't do it and I'd love to have a partner to help me out. You would need a car to get to the stands and carry the VSK's. I'll take care of ordering the VSK's and having them delivered to your home or office. If it goes well, perhaps we could take on more than 2.

If you want to alternate weeks with me, that would be great!

Thank you, Alex

Check out the survey results below!

December 19, 2006

From October through December, PETA distributed 50,750 VSKs via distribution stands.

A more detailed analysis of last quarter’s 8,245 VSK survey responses revealed the following amazing statistics:

Meat-eating status Before reading VSK After reading VSK

Eat meat regularly 45% 5% Eat meat occasionally 29% 33% Vegetarian 22% 47% Vegan 4% 6%

Great feedback from the activists who stock the stands continues to come in regularly. Below are some recent comments:

Testimonials:

I’ve been slowly trying to convert my hairdresser friend to a vegan animal-rights activist, and she’s about halfway there. Today she called me (I have an appointment today) and said that she just picked up a VSK from one of the stands on the lower east side, and she was totally shocked and appalled. She asked me to bring as many of those as I could to my appointment. She wants to hand them out to her clients!

- Marissa M., New York, NY

You’re probably wondering why I’m always pestering you for more Vegetarian Starter Kits! Well, now that we’ve had the Vegetarian Starter Kits and stands in our two shelters for just over a year, I just wanted to give you some feedback. The reaction is just phenomenal—we just cannot keep the stands stocked.

I think that sometimes people are surprised to see materials that relate to farm animals in a shelter predominantly for dogs and cats. But we are quick to explain that as a “humane” organization, we care about the welfare of all animals and that farm animals are not even protected by the Animal Welfare Act. I have found that it’s just a wonderful way to initiate dialogue about simple things that people can do, such as food choices, that will have a direct impact on animals.

In fact, we made a point this summer of going through the Vegetarian Starter Kit with our Compassionate Campers during our shelter summer camp and when I got back the feedback forms I sent out, the thing that our campers said they remembered most was the information they received about becoming a vegetarian and factory farming; this is largely due to your generosity in making the kits available to us.

I have also incorporated the starter kit into a number of lesson plans we use in the classrooms. The feedback has just been wonderful and I’d like to take this opportunity to thank you for making this wonderful offering available to us and for always being so responsive to our questions and our requests for refills! Your ability to make this document available to us has enabled us to help spread this component of the broad body of work for animals in which we all engage, far more effectively than we would have been able to, without you. Thanks so very much for continuing to keep our stands full and for the amazing work you all do. We’re very grateful!

- Kris H., A. Humane Society

If I can only put one piece of literature in a person’s hand, I opt for the VSK every time. We have two stands downtown where people can pick up a copy of the VSK, and we keep a few sympathetic businesses supplied with VSKs where we don’t have stands. At festivals, we frequently have people coming by to tell us things like, “I picked up a copy of the starter kit downtown and have been vegetarian/vegan ever since.” These are the experiences I live for! It makes it all worth it. The VSK is one of the most effective tools for getting people to go veg! And while there are some pieces of literature that people are afraid to take (some people feel they are too graphic) the VSK seems perfectly designed to give people a friendly, honest invitation to vegetarianism/veganism.

- Billy K., Asheville, NC

As I walk down the street, handing out the regular PETA literature, I so often receive this response: “Oh I'm already vegan. I picked up one of those magazines from the stand on the corner there and I’ve been vegan ever since.” I see people taking them out and reading them right near the stand.

I was told by a 10-year-old girl’s child-care giver that this girl daily goes to one of my VSK stands and grabs a whole bunch and hands them out to all the children in her school. This has definitely made my experience as an animal rights activist more effective in a multi-dimensional way. Just HAVING the stands there conveys the message that this is a viable option to consider. Also vegans take them and hand them out to NON-vegans on their jobs, communities, places of worship, etc. So it provides a way for others to become more active.

I could go on and on. I hope I’ve conveyed how powerful a method this is and how it so positively affects the lives (health/longevity/conscience) of the people, spares animals’ lives and saves our very precious planet.

With so much appreciation, Nancy - Nancy K., New York, NY