Food for Thought Exhibited at 3 Virtual Conferences

Our virtual booths at the conferences:

Organizations are hosting virtual conferences because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Virtual conferences are a great opportunity to network while ensuring attendees’ safety. Last month, Food for Thought exhibited at three virtual conferences.: HSUS Animal Care Expo, Animal Care Conference, and New England Federation of Humane Societies Conference.

Similar to an in-person event, each exhibitor has its own virtual booth. Our virtual booth included resources on how to adopt a policy and our grant opportunities. We engaged with attendees through the public group chat, private message, or video chat.

We received lots of engagement this year! Everyone was very supportive of our program. Several attendees expressed interest in adopting a plant-based menu policy for their organization. Here are some quotes from the conferences:

“Your booth was definitely food for thought! Thank you for the great information!” - HSUS Expo

“Such an important organization & unique mission. Thank you for being part of Expo!” - HSUS Expo

“I appreciate you all soooo much! Thank you for being an Exhibitor here. Your campaign is amazing and your work is changing the world, one meal at a time.” - Animal Care Conference

Since the world is reopening, organizations expect conferences to be in-person next year. We look forward to meeting everyone face-to-face again!

Recap: HSUS Animal Care Expo 2020

This past July, Food for Thought was an exhibitor at the Humane Society of the United States Animal Care Expo Online 2020.

Many organizations have adapted to the Covid-19 pandemic by hosting their conferences online. Food for Thought attended the Humane Society of the United States Animal Care Expo in-person last year so we were excited to be invited back to their virtual conference this year!

Similar to the in-person event, each exhibitor was given their own virtual booth. Attendees could browse through our resources and videos, ask us questions on the public group chat or private message, and swipe their virtual badge (the virtual equivalent of leaving their business card). We also raffled off a signed copy of Jackson Galaxy’s book “Catify to Satisfy” for those who completed our survey.

Everyone who interacted with our virtual booth was supportive of our work! Several attendees expressed how thankful they were to have us at the conference. A couple of organizations even adopted an animal-friendly menu policy from our conversation with them!

Of course, we missed seeing everyone face-to-face, and since the Humane Society of the United States has a vegan menu policy, we missed eating their delicious plant-based food! However, the virtual conference was a wonderful opportunity to safely build relationships with members of the animal-welfare community during this uncertain time. We look forward to attending the conference next year!

Our Virtual Booth

Policy Grant Recipient: Leavenworth County Humane Society

Congratulations to our newest Policy Grant recipient, Leavenworth County Humane Society, Inc.! Based in Kansas, they are the only organization working to build and operate a no-kill shelter that is available to all residents in Leavenworth County. They also offer humane education, veterinary and training assistance, and they work to improve animal care protection laws. Their vision is to be the place where all animals are treated with compassion and have the opportunity to find a loving forever home.

Leavenworth County Humane Society, Inc. recognizes they are a leader in the rescue community who sets humane standards when it comes to the treatment of animals. According to the organization, they adopted a vegan menu policy because they “oppose any practice that causes a sentient being to suffer unnecessarily.” We love seeing shelters make this connection and choose to serve food that is respectful to all.

Thank you for your dedication to helping animals!

Policy Grant Recipient: Ohlone Humane Society

We’re excited to announce a new Policy Grant recipient, Ohlone Humane Society! This Californian-based animal welfare nonprofit advocates for all animals. They serve the Fremont, Newark, and Union City areas and rescue companion animals to native species. In addition to foster and adoption, Ohlone Humane Society provides several community programs including humane education, spay and neuter assistance, an urban wildlife rehabilitation center, and more!

We also love their mission statement: “Ohlone Humane Society strives to inspire respect and compassion for all animals, advocate for their interests and welfare, and instill in our community that all living beings have the right to be treated humanely.” Having a vegan menu policy, they are a perfect example of an organization whose menu aligns with their mission.

Congratulations on adopting a policy and thank you for all your hard work!

Policy Grant Recipient: Skagit Animals In Need

Congratulations to our newest policy grant recipient, Skagit Animals In Need! Based in Washington state, they support law enforcement and animal control in rehabilitation, foster care, and adoption for large animals such as horses. Skagit Animals In Need will cover the cost of food, medical care, training, and rehabilitation and then once the animal is healthy, they will work to find them a forever home.

Skagit Animals In Need is nonprofit ran completely by volunteers who are dedicated to helping animals. They even offer an Animal Assistance Program where they provide financial support to those who need help caring for their animals during the COVID-19 pandemic. Their compassion extends to all animals by not serving them at their events.

Thank you for adopting a veg-friendly menu policy!

Policy Grant Recipient: American Tortoise Rescue

Food for Thought is proud to announce our new Policy Grant recipient, American Tortoise Rescue!

Founded in 1990 and Located in Malibu, CA they provide protection and sanctuary to all species of tortoise and turtle. They have successfully re-homed over 4,000 tortoises and turtles; permanent sanctuary is given to those with special needs and they stay in the care of American Tortoise Rescue for the remainder of their lives. 

ATR are leaders in tortoise and turtle education; offering information about the care, feeding, and rehabilitation of endangered and captive-born tortoises. They are also advocates who work to abolish “live market” slaughter of turtles and the cruel importation and exploitation of these animals as food. It’s no wonder this amazing organization has extended it’s compassionate work to include a vegan menu policy for their events. Their policy states:

“For 30 years, founders Susan Tellem and Marshall Thompson have firmly held the belief that if you love animals, you don’t eat them. Meat animals and fish suffer greatly during factory farming, and the world’s climate is suffering because of meat consumption as well. By reducing the consumption of meat and by eating a plant based diet, we can all make a difference in our lives and those of the animals we love.”

We couldn’t be happier to award ATR this grant for their dedication to all animals. Their work is especially needed during this time. Thank you, American Tortoise Rescue!

To learn more about how you can support them, visit: www.tortoise.com

Policy Grant Recipient: Whole Dog Academy

Food for Thought is excited to announce Whole Dog Academy as our newest policy grant recipient! Based in Oregon, Whole Dog Academy works to improve the human and canine relationship. They educate shelter and rescue staff, veterinarians, dog trainers, and the general public on reward-based, force-free training. They offer several programs to their community including a Dog Trainer Certificate Program, a low-cost Community Training Program, seminars, workshops, animal behavior research, shelter dog training, and they even have a canine behavior conference called WagCon! We love that Whole Dog Academy's educational outreach keeps dogs in homes and out of shelters!    

Another reason to love Whole Dog Academy is that they have a vegan menu policy! They believe that their commitment to animal welfare does not end with canines. As they stated, "Whole Dog Academy understands that our organization has a responsibility to not only adopt, but to promote and educate about humane practices and the compassion that all animals deserve. Adopting a vegan-only menus policy is one step toward making our organization the best stewards of animal health and welfare that we can be." 

Congratulations on adopting a vegan menu policy! 

Vegan Event Grant Recipient: Friends of Oakland Animal Services

We're excited to announce another vegan event grant recipient, Friends of Oakland Animal Services! This wonderful organization partners with Oakland Animal Services to take in over 5,000 homeless animals each year and provide critical services such as veterinary care. While they've had smaller events with vegan options, their first fully vegan event, Raise the Woof!, was so successful that it sold out!

Their guests loved the food! Here was their mouth-watering vegan menu:

• Broccoli, potato, and cheddar tofu quiche

• Smoked Gouda, bacon, and spinach turnovers

• Soy chicken salad spinach wraps

• Blue cheese almond stuffed baby portobello mushrooms

• Almond Ricotta stuffed shiitake mushrooms topped with tomato and basil-walnut pesto

• Tomato-basil bruschetta

• Olive tapenade with Miyoko's cheese

• Artichoke dip

• Caesar Salad kabob

They also completely ran out of dessert which were catered by Timeless Cafe! We're happy to hear that there was a wide variety of plant-based options for everyone to enjoy!

Vegan Event Grant Recipient: Spay Neuter Project Los Angeles

Congratulations to our vegan grant recipient, The Spay Neuter Project Los Angeles! This incredible organization provides quality veterinary care to underserved communities in Los Angeles. Their low-waste and fully plant-based event, The Million Pet Soirée, was a huge success in raising money for their cause.

In addition to raising funds, The Spay Neuter Project Los Angeles received positive feedback about their vegan food. They served fruit and cheese platters, caprese pizza, salad with Gorgonzola dressing, sandwiches with veggies and cheese all from a dairy-free cheese shop called Vromage, veggie platters from Heirloom LA, and delicious vegan pastries from Cake Girl. What a perfect opportunity for their non-vegan and vegetarian guests to enjoy good vegan food!

Vegan Event Grant Recipient: Mary S. Roberts Pet Adoption Center

Mary S. Roberts Pet Adoption Center recently held their first vegan event called Tito's & Tails!

This fundraiser benefited homeless cats and dogs in their community and we're happy to say that serving vegan food surpassed their expectations. Their cater, Kick Ass Vegan, provided delicious vegan food including pineapple shrimp bowls, ceviche, mac and cheese, jackfruit taquitos, stuffed mushrooms, chips and guacamole, and cookies. All of their guests raved about it! We're excited to see yet another successful vegan event!

Recap: Animal Rights National Conference 2019

This past July, Wildlife & Environmental Coordinator Barbara Troyer spoke at the Animal Rights National Conference (AR 2019) in Washington, D.C. as part of a panel she organized called "Sustainable Food Policies and Climate Crisis: Earth- and Animal-friendly Menus for a Changing Planet!"

Barb Troyer.

Chloe Waterman, Barb Troyer, and Liberty Mulkani.

Alysoun Mahoney and Barb Troyer.

In addition to Barb, the panel included Chloe Waterman, Senior Food Campaigner, Friends of the Earth and Liberty Mulkani, Project Management Program Director, Animal Legal Defense Fund. Barb’s presentation focused on menu policy adoption successes (and challenges) with environmental and wildlife nonprofits and highlighted Food for Thought’s innovative grant opportunities. Chloe spoke about her impactful food policy work with schools and governmental organizations and Liberty gave real-world examples and practical tips on putting sustainability policy into action at large events. This isn’t the first time this powerful team of women has come together—earlier this year, they presented at the Public Interest Environmental Law Conference (PIELC) in Eugene, OR. The panel was so successful, they wanted to do it again, and the AR 2019 audience appeared to be a good fit.

The panel’s unique Sustainable Food Policies topic stood out from the 80+ other sessions at AR2019 and drew a good crowd, with engaged attendees who packed the room. One person even thanked the panel team, saying it was the most valuable session she attended at the conference and that they were presenting important information not heard anywhere else that weekend!

In addition to the panel, Barb tabled and networked throughout the conference, engaging with nonprofit employees and activists from around the world. Food for Thought donor and volunteer Alysoun Mahoney also generously lent a hand at the table each day!

The Food for Thought team was pleased with the opportunity to present at AR 2019 and we look forward to promoting our work, as well as strengthening partnerships with other nonprofits, at future Animal Rights National Conferences.

Policy Grant Recipient: Animal Village NM

We're excited to announce a new policy grant recipient: AnimalVillageNM! This New Mexico based no-kill shelter works to reduce the number of dogs and cats who were abandoned for euthanasia at municipal shelters. AnimalVillageNM is not only dedicated to rescuing animals, but focused on giving their adopters the tools to create a loving, forever home. This includes ensuring cats are adopted to homes where they will be indoors and not declawed, providing educational support, and offering K9 training classes. AnimalVillageNM puts animals needs and safety as top priority.

AnimalVillageNM's mission is to help New Mexico become a state of love, compassion, and respect for all animals―creating a world where animals and humans live in harmony. They will continue to stand by these values when serving vegan for all their events, fundraisers, and activities.

​Congratulations on adopting a vegan menu policy!

Vegan Event Grant Recipient: Fearless Kitty Rescue

We're pleased to announce yet another vegan grant recipient, Fearless Kitty Rescue! This no-kill cat rescue in Arizona used our grant to serve vegan food for one of their largest fundraisers of the year, Wet Your Whiskers.

The fundraiser proved to be a huge success! At the event, attendees bid on a silent auction while enjoying wine and vegan appetizers. The food was provided by a favorite local plant-based restaurant, Green New American Vegetarian. Some of their appetizers included vegan BBQ 'chicken' skewers, peanut tofu skewers, artichoke burritos, samosas, and 'turkey' club wraps. A majority of the attendees had never tried vegan food before and were extremely impressed with their first experience.  

Since the organization aligns with the idea that serving animals to save animals is wrong, Fearless Kitty Rescue has chosen to be meat-free for all their future events! Thank you for extending your compassion to farmed animals and congratulations on adopting a formal vegetarian menu policy! 

Vegan Event Grant Recipient: Student Sustainability Coalition

Photo by Tacos Sín Karma.

Photo by Tacos Sín Karma.

Featuring event grant recipient: Student Sustainability Coalition, CSULB. This student-run nonprofit used event grant funds to provide vegan food for their 2nd annual State of the Environment Conference. This year’s conference had good attendance, with local activists, plant-based food champions, urban gardeners, economists, and educators sharing their experience and expertise on the state of the environment with an engaged audience.

The conference provided vegan tacos by Tacos Sín Karma that were a big hit, with attendees saying they would be open to eating more plant-based meals if they knew vegan food could taste so good!  Chips were also included, along with plenty of fresh fruit.

Thank you, Student Sustainability Coalition, for providing a fun and approachable plant-based menu at your conference and introducing students and community members to new ways of thinking about how what’s on their plate affects animals, people, and the environment.

We love the wide variety of vegan foods on the menus that grantees are providing for their events! If you would like to apply for our grant to help with your first vegan event, please see our grant criteria and applications here.

Policy Grant Recipient: Centre For A Responsible Future

We’re pleased to announce a new policy grantee: Centre for a Responsible Future (CRF), based in Singapore. CRF engages people and organizations in Singapore to adopt more responsible practices for a better future and they do so through a variety of programs and events like EarthFest, Animal Allies, Vegetarian Society Singapore, and Alliance for a Responsible Future (ARF).

​ARF is CRF’s corporate engagement program that works to create connections between plant-based and related businesses and the sustainability community. One innovative way ARF does this is through their Disruption in Food & Sustainability Summit, which focuses on raising awareness and fostering the growth of sustainable plant-based, alternative protein, and "clean meat" products. Conference organizers were sure to feature only vegan foods during the recent summit, even working directly with chefs at the Grand Hyatt to create a unique and regionally-focused plant-based menu.
 
In March of this year, CRF adopted a new vegan menu policy, which applies to all its programs. (At Food for Thought, we find a written policy to be ideal because it ensures that the intentions of the organizers and founders will be upheld over the years.) Congratulations, Centre for a Responsible Future for the leadership you’ve shown in featuring plant-based foods at your Summit and for formalizing your vegan menu policy!

--

Thanks to generous support from the Gregory J. Reiter Memorial Fund, we're able to reach out to environmental and wildlife groups with guidance and resources to help their events go veg!

Recap: HSUS Animal Care Expo, April 2019

Our latest conference adventure features Northeast Regional Coordinator, Deva Holub, and Wildlife & Environmental Coordinator, Barbara Troyer at the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) Animal Care Expo in New Orleans! These two enthusiastically tackled a jam-packed week of exhibiting, round-tabling, speaking, and demoing at HSUS's largest expo yet—with an estimated attendance of 2800 people from around the world in the animal welfare field.

Barb and Deva had fruitful conversations (no pun intended) with hundreds of shelter staff, volunteers, and board members eager to learn more about adopting veg menus for their events. They spread the word about Food for Thought's exciting event and policy grants while exhibiting and during a special "round-table" breakfast session on budget-friendly plant-based fundraising events. Deva and Barb were pleased to note more conference attendees than ever mentioning that they had vegan coworkers, board members, or volunteers and that they were already thinking of and/or planning a plant-based event for their organization.
 
The week culminated for our intrepid coordinators in a special bonus session called Adopt an animal-friendly food policy to save more lives. During this session, Deva gave an impactful and interactive presentation about the why's behind adopting an animal-friendly menu policy. Panelist Josephine (Josie) Morris, Food and Nutrition Specialist of Forward Food presented some eye-opening statistics on animals raised for food in the United States as well as highlighting the work Forward Food is doing with food service professionals and other industries. Stephanie Shain, Chief Operating Officer of Humane Rescue Alliance. rounded out the panel with an inspirational real-world overview of the process of adopting a board-approved vegan menu policy. Barb and Josie each demoed a recipe, as well! Find Barb's Smoky Okie Vegan Jambalaya recipe here.

The entire Food for Thought team was excited for the opportunity to present at Expo and we look forward to next year's conference in San Antonio, Texas! Of note: HSUS itself has implemented a vegan menu policy, and as a result, provided delicious and eye-pleasing vegan buffets throughout the conference. And for meals that were not included, they offered a guide in the app to many veg-forward or entirely plant-based eating establishments throughout the New Orleans area. Deva and Barb may have found a few of these while exploring the Big Easy in their spare time!

Food for Thought Awarded Effective Animal Advocacy Grant

We are excited to announce that Animal Place's Food for Thought program has been selected as a grant recipient of Animal Charity Evaluators' Effective Animal Advocacy Fund! This support will help launch a new arm of the Food for Thought Program that will work with human-focused social justice organizations to adopt mission-driven, plant-based menu policies.

To date, we have achieved food policy changes at over 100 animal and environmental organizations and know that this additional funding will help create the groundwork to reach new organizations. According to Animal Charity Evaluators, "What sets this particular form of institutional outreach apart from others is that they are specifically targeting organizations where they can make a strong argument that adopting these food policies will help them to become more aligned with their own mission. They aim to highlight the connections and build synergistic alliances between farmed animal advocacy and other causes that are naturally well aligned."

Food for Thought staff look forward to developing new resources that explore the impact of animal farming on human populations and the intersections between animal rights and other social justice causes, and to building important relationships with organizations as we work together to bring farmed animal advocacy into the anti-oppression practices of other nonprofits. 

Follow us on Facebook to stay up to date on our latest program updates!