Louisville Vegetarian Club

 
 
Hey there! We apologize for the lack of updates on the 'minutes' but felt it wasn't something to put a lot of energy into at the time. Think we stopped doing stuff after May of 2011? Think again! See all of our past events here (Facebook) and check the Calendar for upcoming ones. We're still going strong with a vegan lifestyle in 2012!
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We've been having some very untraditional meetings lately! They've included:

March: We screened Bold Native at the beginning of the month and had some great vegan appetizers, followed by a meeting led by Sarah about the problem with eggs and their by-products. Later in the month we did a demonstration against the circus at the Yum! Center and it was a great success - we passed out hundreds of flyers and kids' coloring books to inform people of the cruelty involved in the circus.

April: We had a "dining out" evening at North End Cafe and feasted on some yummy vegan ruebens, as well as participating in the Mighty Kindness' Hootenanny even though it poured all day! We sold vegan baked goods to raise money for the Shamrock Pet Foundation and met lots of interesting people. Thanks for supporting us if you came out! (Note: we had planned an event of U of L to distribute pro-veg literature and free vegan treats, but it was rained out - so much rain this month!)

May: We're half-way into this month, and it started off great with our People's Kentucky Derby vegan cook-out! We did this to raise awareness of the plight that race horses go through year round when being bred and trained to race. We had a plethora of people come and go throughout the day while we feasted on Tofurky hot dogs at Tyler Park. Thanks for coming out!

Our next event is our "Bring A Friend" meeting on May 28 at Eternal Health Yoga at 6:30pm. We're asking everyone to bring a non-vegan friend or family member so they can see that 1) vegan food can taste good and 2) get to know a little bit more about the lifestyle that all of us lead. We hope you'll join us! More info on Facebook.
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February's meeting drew out a few new faces - and many regulars - to discuss some key ways to live vegan within your budget.  Topics included Food, where and what to buy; Clothing, how to avoid leather/suede/silk; and Essentials, which companies don't test on animals. We discussed, ate, and drank through the afternoon at Cumberland Brewery on Bardstown Road... making sure to take full advantage of their fantastic falafel burger. For this meeting Andrew Johnson led the discussion; other members of the organization committee will be taking turns leading throughout the year. 

A few points taken away from the meeting were a desire for a list of vegetarian/vegan friends cookbooks, as well as restaurants around the Kentuckiana area. We are working on putting together the lists for distribution among the group. 

Our February peaceful protest outside the circus was a big success. We passed out hundreds of "Animals Belong in the Jungle" coloring books, provided by Peta, to parents and their children as they entered the circus. Hopefully these books will spark conversations at home about why the animals in the circus aren't out in the wild, enjoying their natural habitat. 

Next month we will be meeting at the Crescent Hill Louisville Free Public Library on March 26th from 1pm-2:30pm, with Sarah Frankel leading the meeting. We hope to see you out there! 
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We had a great meeting in January and we have an exciting year ahead of us.  One big change for this year is that we now have a planning committee that will help me in planning events, meetings, and other things throughout the year that the Veg Club will be involved in.  In addition, throughout the year there will be many opportunities for you all to get involved if you are interested.

Coming up next Friday, February 11 The Louisville Vegetarian Club will be hosting a peaceful demonstration at the entrance of the KY Expo Center before the start of Kosair Shriners Circus. We will be handing out leaflets informing visitors and guests of the reality of the circus: that animals are cruelly treated in order to perform tricks for the entertainment of the circus's patrons.

We'll be meeting at the entrance to the Expo Center/Fairgrounds at 5:45pm and kindly passing out leaflets and pamphlets (provided by the Veg Club) to people entering for the show from 6:00pm to 7:00pm. We don't anticipate any trouble as we'll be on public (city) property, so this makes a wonderful event if you're interested in animal activism. 

After the demonstration, we'll be going out to eat at the very vegan-friendly restaurant Vietnam Kitchen (at Woodlawn and S 3rd St).

Parking is best done near the intersection of Preston and Phillips Ln; from there walk south down Phillips Ln until you reach the Expo Center entrance.

You can learn more and RSVP to this event here.

Lastly, I'd like to invite you to "like" our new fan page on Facebook.  We are currently switching our Facebook profile from a group to a page so we can better communicate with everyone.  If you are currently a member of the group, please "like" the fan page so you can be up to date on the most current happenings, as we will be eventually deleting our group page.

We hope you'll join us for the many fun and exciting events we have planned for 2011.
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Our November meeting was a big success, including a potluck at Carrie's house in the theme of a turkey-free, vegan Thanksgiving. We discussed how to "survive" Thanksgiving and what we can do to educate others at that time of the year.

General updates include:

Book Club - will be held on the 4th Saturday of January following the regular meeting.  The book is still Animal Liberation; see "Book Club" page.

January Meeting - will be January 22 at 1:00pm.  Location still TBD.  At this meeting we will discuss the direction of the club for the year, the new meeting/social event schedule for the coming year, the possibility of choosing a "board" to help with the organization of events, etc., and the possibility of other members leading some of our topic discussions in their particular areas of interest.

Vegan Cookie Exchange - Will be December 10 at 6:30pm at Eternal Health Yoga, recipes are due to D'Arci Freeland ceidarci@aol.com by Monday December 6th.

Cookbook - We are still accepting ORIGINAL VEGAN recipes for a cookbook we are trying to put together.
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For October we had our Walk for Farm Animals benefiting the Farm Sanctuary, so no official meeting was held.

It was a big success - this was the first WFFA in Louisville, and the first "big" event for the Louisville Vegetarian Club, too. We had over 40 people, and walked all through downtown Louisville, giving out flyers and telling people about our cause. We had a wonderful vegan picnic afterwards.

We want to thank everyone who donated both time and money - it shows that you guys care about the advocacy efforts of the Farm Sanctuary to alert people to the horrors of factory farming, and also promote vegan and vegetarian lifestyles. All told we raised over $1000 for the Farm Sanctuary, which is incredible considering it was all first year ever. Hopefully we can double or triple our numbers, both in people and money, next year!

If you'd like to see pictures from the walk, check out the Louisville Veg Club's flickr page here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/54905743@N07/
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We had a great meeting this past Saturday at Java.  Our dairy discussion was very informative and apparently interesting as we ended up discussing it for nearly the entire hour! Here are a couple links about the perils of dairy:
http://www.posthuman.ca/2009/12/04/dairy-withdrawal-why-is-casein-addictive/
http://www.pcrm.org/health/veginfo/dairy.html

The following was discussed in the "business" portion of our meeting:

Bake Sale - the Bake Sale we held on Labor Day weekend at Eternal Health Yoga to benefit Farm Sanctuary was a success. We raised over $230 for this organization.  We plan to do bake sales in the future to raise money for local organizations.  If you know of an organization that fits in with our club's mission and needs our support please let me know.

Walk for Farm Animals - is approaching quickly.  The Walk is on October 16 at Waterfront Park.  All proceeds benefit rescue, outreach and education at Farm Sanctuary.  This is a wonderful organization to support.  Please consider walking or donating.

Mighty Kindness Harvest Hootenanny - Eternal Health Yoga and The Louisville Vegetarian Club will have a booth at this event.  The event will be held on November 6 from 11:00am - 6:00pm at the Louisville Nature Center, across from the Louisville Zoo.  We will be discussing all aspects of veganism with those who stop by our booth; animal rights, health and environment, and how yoga and veganism are intimately linked.  In addition to providing this information we will also be passing out samples of vegan food.

Volunteers for this event are appreciated.  If you are interested in getting active in the community and spreading the message of a compassionate vegan lifestyle this is a perfect opportunity to get involved.  Please contact me with the times you are available to help out.

Thanks"living" Potluck - In conjunction with Eternal Health Yoga we will be celebrating Thanks"living" this year by holding a potluck dinner for our members, students of Eternal Health Yoga, and your families.  This dinner will be Friday November 19 at 6:30pm at Eternal Health Yoga on Frankfort Ave.  An invitation with will be sent out via e-mail, with your RSVP we will need to know the type of dish you are bringing (side, dessert, main, salad, etc.) and the number of persons that will be attending with you.  The night of the dinner we will be collecting donations to support the Shamrock Foundation.

Cookbook - Again, working with Eternal Health Yoga we will be developing a cookbook or all original vegan recipes submitted by our club members and students at Eternal Health.  We are looking for your original vegan recipes to include in the book.  Jodie Tingle-Willlis is organizing this project for us and is working very hard.  All recipes and photos can be e-mailed to her at tinglewillis@bellsouth.net.  Deadline for recipe submissions is Saturday October 16.  Get in the kitchen, get creative, and share your recipes today!!

Dates and Times for Upcoming Meetings, Dinners, and Book Club - With all of the fall and winter holidays approaching our schedules and calendars seem to fill up quickly and most of our weekends are booked with already scheduled engagements.  Therefore, there will be some changes to the dates and times of our upcoming meetings, dinners and book club. For now we do know that we'll be having a "dining out" even on October 8 at 6:30pm, this time at Naked Pizza in St. Matthews.

Book Club Selection - We enjoyed Ethics into Action so much we've decided to stick with author Peter Singer and read a classic in the Animal Rights movement as our next selection.  We'll read Animal Liberation by Peter Singer.  Date, time and location of next book club meeting will be circulated via e-mail.  Get the book and join us for what will surely be a riveting discussion of the Animal Rights Movement.

On a side note, author Michael Pollan will be visiting Bellarmine University on October 7th at 7:30pm for anyone interested in attending.  You can find more details here.
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Our discussion topic was "Soy: The good, the bad, and the ugly".  We spent most of our hour discussing issues surrounding soy and why it is this innocent little legume has become the topic of such controversy.  I've been asked to share this discussion topic by several people who were not at the recent meeting, and as soon as I figure out the best way to organize my thoughts and get them to you I will.  This will most likely happen our The Louisville Vegetarian Club website.

The idea of members of the Veg Club contributing to a community blog on The Louisville Vegetarian Club website.  The idea being that any member with a story to share, a passion for writing, etc. would be able to submit blog entries to share with those that view our site.  This could be recipes, your experience with vegetarianism, animal rights, health, etc.  Whatever you'd like to write about pertaining to the club in some way.  For now, the best way to do this is to submit your piece, via e-mail to louisvilleveg@gmail.com and Sam, April or I will edit your piece and get it posted.  So, start writing, we'd all love to hear what you have to share.  

Farm Sanctuary Walk.  The walk is scheduled for October 16 and is approaching quickly.  If you'd like to show your support for Farm Sanctuary and raise money to help in their education and outreach efforts please visitwww.walkforfarmanimals.org to register to walk or to donate.  I'd love for the Louisville Vegetarian Club to have a decent presence at the Walk.

There is a VEGAN bake sale Labor Day weekend at Eternal Health Yoga.  All proceeds will go to support Farm Sanctuary and the Walk for Farm Animals.

With regards to fund-raising, we discussed possible future fundraisers to either support Farm Sanctuary or other local organizations such as No Kill Louisville, etc.  Some ideas discussed were future bake sales, vegan pizza parties, and arts/crafts sales with goods donated by our very talented club members.  If you have additional fund-raising ideas or ideas for organizations that could use our donations please contact me at this e-mail address.  As soon as the Walk is over we'll get started organizing future events!  We even discussed the idea of walking in the No Kill Louisville Parade......how fun would that be?!?!?

We still have Louisville Vegetarian Club business sized cards available to hand out to friends/family who might be interested.  These are also handy for passing out to local restaurants with suggestions on the back for more veg friendly options or to thank local eateries that take care of all of us Veg Heads.  If you need more cards please contact me and I'll mail some out to you.


With regards to the Meatless Monday campaign, I have been given some leads, and much support from Earth Save Louisville members, but unfortunately haven't had much time to dedicate to making this happen yet.  It's still on my agenda, but if any of you have time on your hands and would like to get the ball rolling with this contact me and I can set you up with all of the information I have.

Our September book club book is Ethics Into Action: Henry Spira and the Animal Rights Movement by Peter Singer.  The book will be available in limited supply for us to purchase at Carmichael's Bookstore on Frankfort Ave.  As of today they have not come in yet, but I will be sure to let you know when the book is available.  We will meet to discuss the book following the meeting on September 25, from 2-3pm.  In addition, the author, Peter Singer will be giving a lecture on Thursday September 9th at Eastern Kentucky University, follow this link for more information.

Regarding the monthly meetings: We will meet again on the 4th Saturday in September, Sept. 25.  We will return to our regular meeting time of 1:00pm, location is still TBD.  If you have suggestions of where you'd like to see our next meeting held drop me a line.  After the September meeting we will move the monthly meetings to every other month, meeting on the same Saturday as the book club (Sept, Nov., Jan., etc.).  On the months that there is not a Vegetarian Club meeting we will hold some sort of social event, in addition to our regular dinner out.  Most likely these additional events will be pot-lucks, holiday parties, etc.

Our September dinner out will be held at Maido Japanese Restaurant on Frankfort Avenue.  Maido has a fantastic selection of vegetarian and vegan sushi, noodle dishes, appetizers, etc.  They have great outdoor seating and hopefully in September the weather will be more conducive to al fresco dining!!  We'll meet at Maido at 6:30pm on Friday, September 10.
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Brief summary:
- new website url: http://www.louisvilleveg.com
- club merchandise for sale: http://www.printfection.com/LouisvilleVegClub
- business cards available (see Carrie)
- Meatless Monday campaign possible
- Walk For Animals in Louisville, October 16
- Vegan Bake Sale at Eternal Health Yoga, Sep. 4-6
- Meeting times discussed/changed
- Bold Native film showing possible

In full:


First, I've mentioned before, but it's worth mentioning again, our web address has changed slightly.  We are now located at www.louisvilleveg.com.  This will simplify communication of our web address to your friends, family and acquaintances who may be interested in learning more about who we are and what we are doing.

Our next big announcement was that we now have Louisville Vegetarian Club MERCHANDISE!!  It's available for purchase on-line.  There are several styles of shirts to choose from, as well as children's t-shirts, canvas shopping bags, and stainless steel water bottles.  

Another new item we have are Louisville Vegetarian Club business cards.  We created these cards to pass out to anyone who may be interested in the club, as well as for leaving at restaurants either thanking them for their attention to vegan menu items, or requesting that they include more veg friendly items on their menu.  These cards are available through me.  If you are interested in getting some cards to carry with you please contact me and I will get those to you ASAP.  They will also be available at our August meeting.

We talked about cities such as San Fransisco, Washington DC and Cincinnati adopting Meatless Monday.  We discussed ideas about how to get a similar resolution passed here in Louisville.  I am currently working with some members of Earth Save Louisville and the Jackie Green campaign to form a task force to help present this resolution to the City Council.  If you are interested in joining the task force or know anything about the ins and outs of the Metro Government please let me know, we'd love to have your help!!

As many of you know club member Sarah Frankel and I are organizing the 2010 Farm Sanctuary Walk for Farm Animals here in Louisville.  Registration for this walk is now open, you can visit the link to REGISTER or to DONATE to the Walk.  Some flyers advertising the Walk were passed around at the meeting and members were asked to hang flyer where ever they saw fit.  If you are interested in helping post flyers and advertise the walk please contact me and I can get flyers to you to distribute.  For those of you that have chosen the vegan/vegetarian lifestyle for reasons of compassion and animal rights I strongly encourage you to get involved with this walk by registering to walk, donating, etc.  Farm Sanctuary is an incredible organization that does fantastic work both rehabilitating and caring for rescued animals and educating the public about the need to end factory farming.  If you have any questions about the Walk, please contact me.  

Related to the Walk, we will be having a VEGAN BAKE SALE the weekend of September 4-6 at Eternal Health Yoga on Frankfort Ave.  If any of you are interested in baking and donating your treats to this bake sale please contact me ASAP and let me know.  Once I know how many of you are interested in helping to bake we will arrange a time/location for drop off of your goodies.  The sale is set to last for THREE days (the entirety of Labor Day Weekend) so we will need as many VEGAN baked goods as we can get.  I encourage you to consider donating your baking skill to make this sale a success.  Additionally, I would encourage you to come out to the sale, purchase some treats, and partake in some yoga while you're there (there's even a FREE community class that Sunday at noon).  The sale will be help 30 minutes before and after each class of that entire weekend, so there will be many opportunities to purchase.  If you have a location that you think would be great for a VEGAN bake sale please let me know and we will consider having another sale to support the Walk for Farm Animals.  Additionally, any other fund raising ideas you have are welcome, as we would like to see the first ever Walk for Farm Animals in Louisville be a success!

Regarding club meetings and events, a few things were discussed.  First, we decided that for the time being, it would be best to move our monthly meetings around town.  We appreciate Eternal Health Yoga kindly offering us their studio space to hold our meetings, and we will still meet there from time to time.  However, in the interest of making the club more known and more visible around the city we have decided to patronize local establishments as our monthly meeting venue.  OUR AUGUST MEETING WILL BE HELD AT QUILL'S COFFEE SHOP ON BAXTER AVENUE, SATURDAY AUGUST 28 AT 1:00PM.  We have also decided to change our monthly "social event" to a monthly "dinner out" in order to show our support to our local veg friendly restaurants.  Our other events such as pot-lucks, movies, etc will be held from time to time in addition to the monthly dinner out.  The dinner out will still be held on the SECOND FRIDAY of each month.  OUR AUGUST DINNER OUT WILL BE FRIDAY AUGUST 13, 7:00PM AT DAKSHIN INDIAN RESTAURANT ON BARDSTOWN RD.

Finally, we discussed the new indie movie Bold Native.  Bold Native is a film focusing on Animal Rights through the eyes of a two different organizations, the fictional version of the Animal Liberation Front, and the fictional version of PETA.  I think this would be a fantastic film to get to Louisville to raise awareness about animal rights.  If you will please take a moment to contact both Village 8 and Baxter Ave Theaters and request that they show this film.  On the same topic,   there is another new film, Forks Over Knives, a documentary highlighting the health benefits of a plant-based diet.  It's set to be released in March 2011, so while you are at it and then again in early spring, go ahead and put in a request for this film as well.
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Lousiville Vegetarian Club
Meeting Agenda
Saturday March 27, 2010

Welcome and Introductions:
• There were 14 members in attendance, including 3 new members to the group
• The meeting was opened with an introduction by Carrie Klaus. It was discussed that this and all
future meetings of the Louisville Vegetarian Club will be one hour in length. Any discussion
that needs to go beyond one hour will be carried over to the next months meeting.
• As shared on Facebook and via e-mail, the first 30 minutes of the meeting were dedicated to discussing Vegan Nutrition. We discussed how to get the proper balance of vital nutrients on a vegan diet, including iron, vitamin D and vitamin B12.

• The last 30 minutes of the meeting were dedicated to discussions regarding the function of the Louisville Vegetarian Club:

1. Website / Calendar
– All in attendance were given the web address for the new website created by
Sam Hartman and April Fultz.
– There was discussion regarding whether or not we wanted to collect
donations from members of the group to pay for web hosting. It was agreed
that for the time being we are happy with free web hosting on Weebly.

2. T-shirt design contest
– It was announced that The Louisville Vegetarian Club will be partnering with
Eternal Health Yoga to host a Vegan T-shirt Design Contest
– The contest is open to all member of the Louisville Community
– Winning entries will be printed on Louisville Veg Club and Eternal Health Yoga
T-shirts and the winner will receive a free 2 month pass to Eternal Health Yoga
– Entries will be accepted through the moth of May.

3. Photographer
– It was requested that someone with an interest in photography volunteer to take
photographs at both meetings and events. Photos will be shared on Facebook a
nd the website to help promote the group.
– No one volunteered at the meeting. April Fultz volunteered via e-mail and will
begin photo-documenting our events as soon as possible. If anyone else would
like to volunteer please feel free, as we will need more than one person to do
this.

4. Book Club
– The formation of a book club was discussed and agreed upon.
– It was decided that in order to accommodate many varying schedules that book club
will meet every other month following that months regularly scheduled meeting.
– Several different books were mentioned as possibilities.
– It was decided that Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer will be our first book to
discuss.
– Book Club will begin meeting on May 22 at 2:00pm

5. April Social Event
- Ideas for an April Social Event were discussed
- Some ideas were going out to dinner, a dessert party and wine tasting
- We decided upon a desserts only potluck to be held April 9th, for more info see
Facebook and e-mail.
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