FOOD FOR THOUGHT 2015
YEAR IN REVIEW AND A LOOK AHEAD

Food for Thought was relaunched by Animal Place in 2013 to assist shelters, rescues, and other animal protection organizations in developing and adopting more animal-friendly menu policies for their sponsored events and fundraisers.

In 2015, we hired five regional coordinators across the U.S. and Canada and, in our first full year of dedicated advocacy, Food for Thought grew to over 200 endorsers and supporters. The campaign has been welcomed by many as an idea whose time has come, fostering vital conversations and connections within the larger animal protection movement.

Here are some of Food for Thought’s highlights from 2015...

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"WHY VEGAN" RESOURCE

To help foster more understanding and dialogue, we created the Why Vegan resource as well as a similar resource, Why We’re Leaving Animals Off the Plate at Events, for organizations to share with their supporters that addresses the reasons for adopting an animal-friendly menu policy.

VEG-FRIENDLY CATERING GUIDE

Last year also saw the development of our vegan-friendly catering guide for organizations, a resource that will continue to expand and become more extensive as the Food for Thought Campaign grows.

GUIDE TO THROWING YOUR FIRST VEG EVENT

Intended for organizations, we created the helpful resource, Guide to Throwing Your First Veg Event, which is both practical and creative for hosting an inaugural meatless event.

ADVOCATE INFORMATIONAL PACKET

A comprehensive Food for Thought Campaign informational packet was developed as a way for advocates to do effective plant-based menu policy outreach on their own to local animal charities.

CAMPAIGN VIDEOS

Videos featuring television personality Jackson Galaxy of “My Cat from Hell” and our Shelters of the Month helped to get the word out about our campaign and our featured shelters. We are also very excited to be releasing a new celebrity endorsement video very soon! Stay tuned.

TABLING AT EVENTS

We attended events across the U.S. and Canada to promote our message to keep animals off the menu at fundraisers and sponsored events. We plan to do many more in 2016, including a panel presentation at the National Animal Welfare Conference in Toronto in April.

MAJOR MEDIA COVERAGE

The Food for Thought Campaign received major media coverage in 2015. We were especially thrilled by the story in the Chicago Tribune, which was widely shared across social media channels and said, "… groups around the country are taking a step back and re-evaluating the food they serve at fundraisers, adoption events or even volunteer recognition luncheons. For some, the time has come to back up their talk of compassion toward animals with action. Meat is out, vegetarian and vegan alternatives are in."

FACEBOOK PAGE

Understanding the importance of social media outreach, we created a Facebook page and began creating memes for people to easily share with animal advocacy agencies to express support for animal-friendly menu policy changes.

ENDORSEMENT GROWTH

Food for Thought has brought on more than 200 endorsers and supporters to date, and we are in conversation with more than 600 others. You can find the most up-to-date list of our endorsers and supporters here. We awarded grants and recognition to four animal agencies that adopted new animal-friendly menu policies and featured 12 nonprofits as our Shelter of the Month.

Some stand-out supporters include:

HAPPILY EVER ESTHER FARM SANCTUARY

SANCTUARY ONE

THE HUMANE SOCIETY OF LOUISIANA

VERMONT HUMANE FEDERATION

Happily Ever Esther Farm Sanctuary, a newly registered charity in Ontario and home of Esther the Wonder Pig endorsed the Food for Thought campaign after meeting Canadian coordinator Patti Nyman at Toronto VegFest.

Northwest coordinator Barb Troyer worked with farmed and companion animal rescue Sanctuary One in Oregon to adopt a board-approved vegetarian policy that reads: “We have adopted an animal-friendly food policy to emphasize the value of all life forms and recognize that all creatures are sentient beings deserving of compassion, respect and care.”

The Humane Society of Louisiana, signed on by our Chesapeake coordinator Deva Holub officially passed a board resolution that all food served at their events will be vegan.

New England coordinator Janice Krish worked with the Vermont Humane Federation to endorse the Food for Thought program and adopt a vegan food policy. "In keeping with the Vermont Humane Federation's mission of ‘promoting the welfare of all animals,’ the VHF operates on the premise that animal welfare encompasses all species including companion animals, wildlife and farmed animals"

HELP US HELP ANIMALS
IN 2016

This year we look forward to doing more of what we do best: Extensive outreach and continued engagement with animal organizations, and communicating our message of integrated kindness, while creating more persuasive and effective advocacy materials.

If you are involved with a rescue charity that has not adopted an animal-friendly menu policy, please be in touch so we can work together. Please join our efforts to build a more compassionate world.