Archive for the ‘Fundraising’ Category
Monday, June 17th, 2013
Watch this space as our Badger Action Cafe plans and artwork is revealed day by day until we open at Glastonbury in … .
This year we are reshaping our ‘info for action’ activities by putting our popular and visual catering trailer right alongside the campaign space, such that the customers come inside the marquee to get their food and are offered shade from the sun, or respite from the rain, in a comfortable, carpeted action-cafe space, with tea and cake available directly from our kitchen in the marquee.
Not only will festival-goers attend as a result of being ushered in whilst buying their food from Veggies Catering Campaign, but by making the space fun, entertaining and interactive it will attract all kinds of festival-goers. This will be achieved by running discussion workshops, exhibitions, films, talks, cake baking skill-shares, and free food sampling give-aways. All this will be supported by our team of experienced campaigners, and is made possible by those wonderful people at Lush.
For full details visit the Veggies Badger Tour 2013 Events Listing.
Veggies Info for Action
The problem:
170,000 people attend Glastonbury for headliners, left-field bands, workshops, talks, and stalls with many charities taking the opportunity of such a lot of people in one place to raise awareness about various worthy causes. But there’s a gap – that’s Animal Rights, and it’s a problem. Festivalgoers are in an openminded headspace, relaxed and receptive.
Aims:
This project aims at giving Animal Rights a voice to the masses at Glastonbury through a variety of workshops in a dedicated space, benefiting from being annexed to, and sign-posted by, Veggies Catering (an old favourite at Glastonbury since 1987 & 3 times nominated for Glastonbury’s green caterer award). Not only will festivalgoers attend as a result of being ushered in whilst buying their food from Veggies Catering, but by making the space fun, entertaining and interactive it will attract all kinds of festivalgoers.
This will be achieved by running discussion workshops, films, talks, cookery demonstrations, and food sample giveaways.
Long-term, sustained change:
By highlighting this ever-present this educational component of Veggies Campaign Catering, it will entrench a change in thinking about vegan food, about our attitude to animals, and the consequences for the environment. This is the stuff that changes lives and an opportunity not to be missed. Whatever people learn here, they will pass on to friends and family, in casual conversations with co-workers and clients, and to strangers they get talking to over a meal. Enough of those people will repeat that information that awareness grows and grows slowly creating long-term change.
For more info on Veggies at Glastonbury visit our
Click here for more info on our campaigns to Stop the Badger Cull.
Veggies Campaigns
Veggies Catering Campaign was set up in Autumn 1984 by four friends who were frustrated about the lack of vegetarian fast food available in Nottingham. Their intention was both to provide an ethical fast food stall in the city, and to take the veggie message to a wider audience by participating in demonstrations and gatherings. One of the first things the founders did was to take a giant veggieburger along to a Vegetarian Society protest outside the infamous Royal Smithfield show!
Veggies has grown and evolved a lot over the last [29] years, but the ethical message has remained the same. All food served has been vegan from the start, and as minimally packaged and locally-sourced as possible and practical. Veggies also compiles the national Animal Rights calendar and Contacts Directory, whilst helping run the Nottingham’s Sumac Resource Centre. Veggies has a tightly packed events diary with the co-op providing food in all sorts of situations, like carrying boxes of samosas and cakes on protest marches.
New volunteers are always welcome – why not join us in the Badger Action Cafe in the Green Futures Field at Glastonbury Festival, or see the How To Help section of our website.
For full details visit the
Sketch design
Here is the original proposal sketch by our amazing Alex of Rubes Designs
Monday, June 3rd, 2013
Veggies attended the National March Against the Badger Cull on 1st June 2013.
See report below, with info, links & contacts for you to get involved to Stop The Cull
Only people power and direct action will stop the cull now. If you can, get to the cull zones. If you can’t, please support your local hunt sab group.
National March Against Badger Cull
Report from The Merry Veggies Of Nottingham Tumblr Blog
So we at Veggies went down to London yesterday (June 1st) for the National Anti Badger Cull March.
After a long and complicated journey, via trains and tubes (we will no longer be doing full catering in London) carrying as much as we possibly could of pasties and samosas, we sold out within the first hour of getting there!
Speakers included the amazing Brian May of Queen and members of Hunt Saboteurs.
We walked the march to the end point where we then did street side catering with trays of cakes in our arms and on a small table.
Following the music and crowds we ended at the park where the atmosphere was amazing and there were some pretty awesome badger dancers and music!
Making racism a black & white issue
Being as awesome as we are, we then decided to go across to Parliament where the BNP were holding a demo (all 30 odd of them) and joined the Anti-Fascists there.
As several news sites have covered it, ‘BNP get chased through London by a bunch of women dressed as badgers.’ Nice to see that we are all in it together, animal rights activists with anti-fash.
“Save the badgers – cull the BNP”.
Then the long and super-tiring journey back to Nottingham.
What an amazing Veggies day out!
More pictures at The Merry Veggies Of Nottingham Tumblr Blog.
Thanks to Save A Scream for this image. Click to see lots more great pictures:
Shari Black Velvet at Save A Scream says:
“Compassionate folk made their destination London on June 1st to protest against the badger cull that UK’s government has despicably already given approval to in the South East of England. Brian May and Bill Oddie took part in the march with the former giving a speech before the march kicked off. He was joined by Kate of Animal Aid, Wasp of London Against The Cull and Born Free Foundation’s Virginia McKenna. Activists, young and old, dressed in black and white with face masks and paint to show their support for the badgers, who do not deserve to be killed. London Against The Cull are calling for badgers to be vaccinated rather than culled.” …more…
Funds Raised to Stop the Cull
By providing refreshments on the streets just for donations, over 200 Samosas for Social Change, over 100 pasties from Screaming Carrot vegan bakery and 100 drinks went in an hour. 250+ cakes soon followed. Thanks to generous support from ‘customers’ over £100 was raised to pass on to friends working to Stop the Cull in the field.
To stop as many badgers being slaughtered as possible during the culls, activists and hunt saboteurs are ready in the cull zones to take every legal effort to put themselves in the way of those engaged in killing badgers. You can support this work with a small (or large) donation, or support your local group.
Support action to stop the badger cull
Ditch Dairy to Stop the Cull
This text from the campaign website shows why the vegan message is central to the campaign against the cull:
Why we oppose the cull
“We think that the government and farmers are scapegoating badgers to avoid addressing the real cause of bTB: bad farming practices.
We feel the evidence suggests that intensive farming and the inhumane treatment of cows in the dairy industry is to blame for the spread of this terrible disease.
Cows farmed for the dairy industry live in squalid, over crowded conditions. They are also under tremendous stress and are overworked, meaning that they are very prone to the spread of diseases.
We would like to see the end of cruel farming practices and a more healthy respect for this country’s invaluable wildlife by the government and farming communities.”
Only people power and direct action will stop the cull now.
If you can, get to the cull zones
If you can’t, please support your local hunt sab group
or contact http://www.stopthecull.net.
For lots more links & info see TeamBadger.org
See also:
Other listings on Veggies Website include:
Animal Rights Calendar – Campaigns for animal rights across the UK
including ongoing Action for the Badgers –
Veggies Diary – Events, campaigns and outreach in Nottingham & elsewhere.
…including…
27th February 2013: National Badger Cull Protest at National Farmers Union Conference
26th May 2013: Campaign outreach against the cull at The Milk Race
1st June 2013: National March Against the Badger Cull
6th October 2013: National Badger Day
2012: 22nd October – Stop Tesco, the Badger Killers.
Also Campaign outreach against the cull at Elvaston Woodland Festival and Stop the Badger Killers Protest at the Tory Conference
2011: Anti Hunt/Badger Cull March at the Tory Conference
2008: Campaign and Demonstration against the Welsh Badger Cull,
including Viva!’s Welsh Day of Action for Badgers.
Support action to stop the badger cull
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Friday, December 7th, 2012
VEGGIES … LUSH LEGENDS
Our mates at Lush donated an amazing all-vegan Lush Legends Gift Box, worth £100, to invite support for Veggies Campaigns.
The draw took place on Monday 17th December and the winners were announced on Twitter and Facebook.
Those in attendance for the draw got so excited we nearly had a riot on our hands. But we now have the winners names and they are as follows.
- 1st place Laura Gamble wins the giant Lush gift box.
- 2nd place David/Avril Simms won a small Lush box.
- 3rd place Marissa Johnston also won a small Lush box.
Congratulations to all the winners and a big thank you to everyone who entered and helped us raise lots of money 
We will spend the money wisely, spreading the vegan message.
Thank you for supporting Veggies Campaigns
Whilst the raffle is done, if you wish you can still donate to support our campaigns. To find out more about how important your donations are to support Veggies Campaigns -Click-Here- or visit the Campaigns section of our website.
The Lush gift box is a magnificent selection from which you can draw something for any occasion.
See list of all 25 great items here.
Stop Press – two extra gifts for runner up!
The Bunty gift box is full of some of Lush’s sweetest inventions. Bathtimes will never be the same again!
Give someone a taste of the sweet and fruity swirls of The Comforter bubble bar, the candy scented Creamy Candy, moisturising Butterball bath ballistic and Keep it Fluffy bath ballistics, and give them a little bit of luxury.
Exclusive gift – no longer available in stores.
Lush Support for Veggies Campaigns
Lush have supported Veggies in supporting grassroots campaigns for humans, animals and the environment, by funding outreach at the Glastonbury Festival. With their help, Veggies Catering Campaign created an exhibition to provide insight into work of the included groups.
Read more at A Dip in the Directory
In addition to a display of posters and leaflets from 25 participating groups, visitors were introduced to the Veggies Directory, also funded by the Lush Charity Pot. This project aims to improve networking between individuals and a wide variety of movements supporting social change.
To find our about many more groups supported by Lush and Veggies, visit Veggies Directory (also funded by Lush Charity Pot).
To find out more about how important your donations are to support Veggies Campaigns -Click-Here- or visit the Campaigns section of our website.
Thursday, March 29th, 2012
F.R.I.E.N.D Animal Sanctuary is a safe haven for predominantly farmed animals who will live out their lives in the beautiful Kent countryside.
Kerbear writes…
Sadly , has been taken seriously ill and hospitalised. However I would like to keep this appeal going for her so she doesn’t need to have any worries and can concentrate on getting well. Anyone who knows her knows what a wonderful woman she is, so please help me to help her.
Her original appeal is below as although we have received some of the more urgent items, we can never have enough of things like dog beds, animal feed etc so I have left those on there. I have also set up a standing order form to set up a monthly contribution (pdf opens in new tab).
Please keep this appeal going, we will have an open day in the summer so you will all be welcome to come and visit these gorgeous animals you are helping!
Contact: Kerry 0786 687 9851
As of the 17th March, Marion has left hospital and returned home. We are still not sure as to what exactly is wrong with her. Cards (and large cheques can be sent to the usual address…Linton View, 89 Bush Rd, East Peckham, Tonbridge, Kent, TN12 5LJ. Thanks.
DESPERATE APPEAL FROM F.R.I.E.N.D ANIMAL SANCTUARY
F.R.I.E.N.D Animal Sanctuary is a safe haven for predominantly farmed animals who will live out their lives in the beautiful Kent countryside. These include a herd of cows, a flock of sheep, a goat and 30 pigs as well as geese and chickens. We are also home to 11 dogs, 6 domestic cats, a large feral colony, 3 ferrets, a deer and a blind hedgehog named Elliot!
Sadly, our resources are severely strained so we are asking, hat in hand, for animal lovers out there to help us to continue to give the animals in our care the blissful life they would never have had. Most of the farmed animals have been saved from the “meat” industry, all the dogs and cats are rescues and the wildlife are rehabilitated and released where possible.
The most common question I get asked by well meaning people is, “What can I do to help?”, and as there is always so much I don’t know where to start! So I have sat down and written a list of what we really need. Please view our list below and if you can respond in any way to this VERY SERIOUS appeal, know you truly are making a difference to the lives of these animals.
Please see our website for pics of some of our gorgeous animal kids:
http://www.friendsanimalrescue.org.uk/
Or watch the Flickr slideshow (opens in news window)
WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP THE ANIMALS AT FRIEND
DONATE
- Any monetary donations are gratefully received, every penny helps!
- Building materials:
- Posts and Rails
- Pallets
- Screws
- Sterling board
- Timber, any size
- Roof slates
- Bricks
- Concrete
- Corrugated iron
- Solar lights / panels
- Use your imagination, if you think we could put it to good use, we probably can!
- Unwanted / Broken jewellery
- Warm winter clothing (second hand of course!) Including wellies and gloves of all sizes for volunteers.
- Dog coats of all sizes
- Leads and collars of all sizes
- Water troughs
- Cat litter
- Coal
- Single Mattresses
- Paint: any old cans of paint collecting dust in your garage could be used here! We will happily take your old brushes and rollers off you too
- Old bedding: in this cold weather, your old bedding will make an old dog very happy indeed!
- Brick-a-brack: we plan to do as many boot fairs as possible this summer so would be happy to relieve you of unwanted possessions
- Cleaning products – as you can imagine, especially in the muddy winter months, we have a lot of cleaning to do so we are asking for ethical cleaning products.
- Animal feed:
- Dog and cat food
- Ferret food
- Sheep nuts
- Mixed corn – all the farmed animals love mixed corn and it is so good for them!
VOLUNTEERS
- Handy people: We have been given a used shed, so if any handy people out there would like to donate a few hours of their time to help us put it together, we guarantee a delicious Vegan meal as thanks!
- Motor Mechanics: We have two vehicles at the sanctuary and both are indispensable. Our tractor, an old Ford 3000, is essential in the winter to ensure the cows, sheep and pigs are regularly strawed out to keep warm and to transport the hay to the sheep and cows. Our Transit van is used daily to collect the pig feed and we would be lost without it. Mechanics are expensive so if any mechanics are out there who are willing to very occasionally volunteer their time, then please give us
a call!
- Fundraisers: We hold an annual fundraiser at the sanctuary but due to commitments at the sanctuary are not able to hold more than one a year. So please use some of your spare time to organise a fundraiser to raise awareness of F.R.I.E.N.D and much needed funds for the sanctuary.
- Builders: As you will see in this appeal we have asked for posts and rails, this is to redo the fencing for the pigs and the sheep as it is falling down! If you are able to help with some physical labour then please get in touch.
- Others: Whilst we don’t have jobs for other skills sets at this time, the future is very fluid so if you think you have skills we may need then PLEASE let us know so we can keep your details on file for future. We do accept no for an answer if you are not able to help at the drop of a hat
WISH LIST
- To try and earn money for the sanctuary during these difficult times which have resulted in donations drying up, my husband is looking for work doing odd jobs in the neighbourhood, one of these being gardening. So if you have any gardening tools you would be happy to part with then please send them our way. If you are updating to a new lawnmower we would be happy to take your old one off your hands!
- A steam cleaner would be a great help for heavy duty soiling in some of the buildings and a jet wash for cleaning animal pens would be invaluable and a huge time saver.
- The house is very old and very drafty so if any of you are in the window replacement business, or if you have contacts in the industry, then please contact me.
- If you have a working printer you no longer need, preferably one where the inks don’t cost the earth, we would like to start printing appeals for bedding, animal feed etc to put up in our local area.
- Each year we hold a Festival Fundraiser and have to hire a marque, if you have one you are willing to loan to us for a few days in July that would be fantastic. Of course if you had one you wanted to get rid of that would be even better
OTHER
- Our vet bills are never ending and although the support we received after our last appeal has been so heartening, we have had to make use of our vet numerous times since then and that pesky bill is still there! If anyone would like to assist, our vet will accept contributions directly, his details are: Putlands Veterinary Surgery, T: 01892 835 456. Please specify that the money is towards the vet bills for Marion Eaton, the founder of F.R.I.E.N.D.
- Speak to your local shop owners for permission to leave one of our collection tins near the till.
- Download the standing order form to set up a monthly contribution (pdf opens in new tab).
THANK YOU FOR TAKING THE TIME TO READ OUR APPEAL, A GOLD STAR IF YOU GOT ALL THE WAY THROUGH!!
BEST WISHES
MARION EATON AND ALL AT F.R.I.E.N.D
T: 0786 687 9851
E: sanctuarydog@gmail.com
W: www.friendsanimalrescue.org.uk
Thursday, January 19th, 2012
Announcing revised recipes for 2012
We are pleased to announce that our burger, sosage and hemp mixes now contain half the salt.
And, unlike many other convenient vegan staples, they still contain no palm oil, a source of major concern for the environment, and for the people and other animals loosing their forest homes. Visit saynotopalmoil.com
In fact Veggies Mixes contain no added fats at all, nor sugar or artificial anything.
Our mixes are handmade in Nottingham, in our dedicated vegan kitchen, with organically grown ingredients, including wholewheat breadcrumb (with wheat “usually from the UK, sometimes from Finland or Sweden”), oats (supplied from Cheshire & sourced from UK or the EU) and soya (from France).
To find out why ours are probably the most ethical mixes available visit our Ethical Burgers & Sosages page.
Burger Mix
Ingredients
*96% organically grown
*wholewheat breadcrumbs 50%,
*soya mince 22%,
*oatflakes 20%,
yeast extract,
*malted barley flour,
*onion,
seasalt,
locust bean & xanthan gum (stabilisers),
*black pepper,
*sage
That’s it!
A retail bag, net weight 350g, mixed with 500ml water makes 15 x 56g (2oz) burgers.
Sosage Mix Ingredients
*96% organically grown
*Wholewheat breadcrumbs 50%, *soya mince 23%, *oatflakes 20%, yeast extract, *onion, sea salt, locust bean & xanthan gum (stabilisers), *black pepper, *sage, *beetroot powder.
A retail bag, net weight 350g, mixed with 500ml water makes 15 x 56g (2oz) burgers.
Hemp Burger Mix Ingredients
*96% organically grown
*Wholewheat breadcrumbs 27%, *oatflakes 27%, *hemp flour 22%, *sunflower seeds 13%, *onion, yeast extract, *garlic, seasalt, *parsley, locust bean & xanthan gum (stabiliser), *black pepper
A retail bag, net weight 350g, mixed with 350ml water makes 12 x 56g (2oz) burgers.
Allergy advice
Allergy advice: our products contains gluten (though we hope to launch a gluten-free recipe soon. The Regular burger mix and sosage mix contain soya.
Made in a kitchen which never uses eggs, fish, dairy or any other animal products but which handles nuts, peanuts, mustard, celery & sesame seeds.
To purchase our mixes…
… visit our mail order page
or visit us at the Sumac Centre
or visit one of our retail outlets in Nottingham, Derby and Manchester.
or order wholesale from our sole distributor, Lembas, based in Sheffield and delivering throughout our region
or enjoy Veggies Burgers at one of our many Veggies Events.
The sales of our mixes supports Veggies campaigns, events & our information resources.
Thank you for supporting minimal packaging since 1984!
Footnote:
Advice picked up whilst catering at the Sneinton Healthy Living event lead to the following calculations:
At 1.1% salt in the dry mix, this equates to 0.44g /100g when reconstituted, which is still a little more that the 0.3g or less required to be defined at ‘low salt’ in the traffic light food labeling scheme.
This gives 0.25g or 0.49g salt in a 2oz or 4oz (56g/112g) Veggies Burger from the 6g daily recommended by health experts quoted by the British Heart Foundation, so we might be looking for ideas to reduce it further.
Whilst we think that Veggies Mixes are still great tasting, as well as being the most ethical and cost effective organic mixes available, feedback suggests that the reduced salt may result in the product tasting ‘spicier’ or ‘more peppery’. You may wish to add your own secret blend of additional flavours when making it up.
Feedback would of course be most welcome.
Wednesday, August 24th, 2011
Green Meadow Animal Sanctuary urgently needs donations due to recent considerable vets bills. For example the treatment of a horse for several months has run into thousands of pounds and this has now put the Animal Sanctuary into serious financial difficulties.
Green Meadow Animal Sanctuary has been taking in sick and rescued animals since 1991 and is home to in excess of 100 sheep and various other animals such as goats, turkeys, chickens, ducks, geese, horses, rabbits, cats, etc.
The sanctuary is entirely reliant on volunteers and donations to look after all the rescued and sick animals in their care and now urgently needs your help.
All the animals will live out the rest of their natural lives here, as we operate a strict no-breed and no-kill policy.
Once the animals are here they can roam the 37 acres of land to their hearts content and desire and come in for shelter whenever they want to, into our purpose built accommodation.
We need to stress to people that the situation is now urgent and all animals face slaughter if land has to be sold off. Funds have run out, and with running costs of £2500 per month, things are looking grim if we can’t get money coming in.
Donate with PayPal or credit/debit cards via http://www.greenmeadow.org.uk/
Or post your donation to:
Green Meadow Animal Sanctuary
Quarry Farm
Great Moor
Pattingham
Near Wolverhampton
WV6 7AT
Tel: 01902 701743
See also Green Meadow Animal Sanctuary Spring Open Day (April)
and the Autumn Open Day (October) on Veggies’ Animal Rights Calendar.
Please help to support our work by sponsoring one of our 7 chosen animals via the website –
www.greenmeadow.org.uk Only £2 a month.
Support us through easy fundraising at
http://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/greenmeadow
Join our Facebook group at
https://www.facebook.com/groups/159781267434871/
Follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/#!/GMSanctuary
Monday, July 18th, 2011
April 2011: This new title from Scoffer Publications is now available!
Veggies Scoffer includes:
Anecdotes from 26th years catering at the frontline
Perhaps you were at J18 or M40 RTS street parties, the G8 in Stirling, Glastonbury or on Hatfield Peat Moor? You may even have stood with us in the snow at Molesworth US Airforce Base in the winter of ’85!
What was your favourite Veggies Event?
Recipies from Veggies events.
Have you been fed by Veggies at camps or gatherings, festivals or fairs, weddings or birthdays, or any other events?
Veggies Scoffer includes recipes from…
- Climate Camps
- Peace News Camp
- AR Gatherings
- Radical Routes Gatherings
- Veggieskool Catering
- Peoples Kitchen
Be your own Veggies
- How to set up a Veggies group
- Trailers / street stalls / indoor fairs / event catering
- Cooking with Veggies Mixes
Guest recipies from other campaign caterers, including Anarchist Teapot, Green Garden Cafe, Something Fishy, Fairfoods, Vegan Campaigns, Shambu’s, Screaming Carrot
Veggies Tour Dates – featuring events on our annual itinerary
Veggies Scoffer is now available from our Scoffer Publications section.
Wednesday, June 1st, 2011
According to the radio and TV news today (1 June 2011) Oxfam has warned that the cost of basic foods such as maize will double in 20 years. Barbara Stocking, Oxfam’s Chief Executive, says that “We are sleepwalking ourselves into ecological disaster.”
The following comment is by HIPPO (Help International Plant Protein Organisation), a British vegetarian charity supporting poor communities throughout Africa.
“The only thing we disagree with is her time-scale. We know that in Kenya the price of maize has increased by more than 50% since we left at the end of March – two months, never mind two decades. At that time we were paying 2200 Kenyan shillings (about £17) per 90-kilo bag. Now it is 3500 shillings (about £27) and increasing. Beans cost twice as much. Admittedly some of the present increases are due to speculation on the food market but will they come down again? And they come on the top of what had already been a 50% increase in the previous year. Four years ago we could buy maize for less than 1000/- a bag. Imagine how this affects the poor, who already have to spend all the money they have on food. Now they simply haven’t got the money to be able to eat. The rising cost also makes it increasingly difficult for charities like HIPPO to continue to help them.
“Oxfam cites a number of reasons for the impending disaster. The one that they consistently fail to address is the most serious one of all, which is simply that more and more meat is being eaten in the world by more and more people and farm livestock consume about 10 times more food than they produce.
“In fact farm animals should not be considered as food-producers at all since they are overwhelmingly net food consumers.
“The world’s people are eating more animal-based foods every year whilst the world’s population is growing rapidly. Meanwhile the remaining wild areas of the world are rapidly being destroyed to feed farm animals, e.g. the vast clearance of the Amazon rainforest to grow soya for feeding to the cattle, pigs and poultry of Europe, leading to changes in the world climate, especially in the patterns of rainfall. Trees are the ‘pumps’ that recycle water back into the atmosphere.
“HIPPO has been saying this since its foundation in 1999 and some others have been saying it for even longer. But even taken all together we are but a David to the Goliath of the worldwide meat and dairy industry. That is why we are sending you this email, asking you to take its message to heart and to pass it on, please.
“The world as a whole needs to consume less meat. As individuals our best contribution is to eat none at all. We can use the money we save to help the poor!”
———-
Veggies adds:
Since 1984 Veggies has been pleased to support the work of Vegfam in ‘feeding the the hungry without exploiting animals’.
The fragile environment cannot support two populations – humans and their food animals. Vegfam raises funds to eliminate hunger, thirst, malnutrition, and starvation, helping people in over 40 countries, by financing sustainable, self-supporting plant food projects, fruit and nut tree planting, irrigation and water wells.
We have sponsored and distributed Vegfam fliers and raised funds through a premium on the sales of bottled water and donations from our ‘samosas for social change‘ project.
You can help us to help Vegfam by using the Everyclick search facility, to raise funds for Vegfam whilst surfing the web.
Meanwhile, for more information on the work of HIPPO (in comparison to that of Oxfam) see our article Don’t Send A Cow – Plant a Tree!
Tuesday, May 24th, 2011
Growing With Grace
Well, not actually ours, but Growing with Grace is looking for investment to save their stock-free organic farm!
Former Sumac volunteer, Eleanor Fairbrother has recently become a grower at Growing With Grace, an organic farm in the Yorkshire Dales.
The farm is an amazing place, with 2 acres of glass houses. It supplies organic vegetables to local people via its shop, box scheme, and wholesale to other retail outlets. It is committed to its stock free status, with all its fertility coming from an onsite composting scheme of the local green waste.
Growing With Grace is also committed to environmental stewardship, using biodiesel made on site in its tractors and delivery vehicles, and promoting biodiversity in the greenhouses with permaculture techniques, including a spectacular forest garden under glass (with peaches, figs, and nectarines!). It is also committed to co-operation and non-hierarchy, having been a workers co-op since its inception, and now being a community co-op.
The farm has been in financial trouble for 2 years, after a failed take over by a larger social enterprise, but it now has a bunch of new directors who have changed it from a workers co-op to a community co-op, reorganised the business plan, and are now doing a share issue to raise funds to save the farm.
Growing with Grace needs around £60,000 to make it financially viable and has until the end of July to get it!
They are asking individuals / groups to buy a £100 share in the farm (or more if you want!). You will then be part owner of the farm, and able to vote at AGMs etc. The farm will be able to get back on its feet, and will be able to get back to full production and profitability. Copies of the share issue prospectus, and an application form are available in PDF form on our website.
It is essentially an ethical donation, but technically you could withdraw your money in a couple of years, and you can also expect to get a small dividend on your money from around the same time. Until they have raised enough money that they know they are financially viable, your money will be kept in a holding account, and if they don’t raise enough money to save the farm, we will return it.
Veggies adds…
As a ‘stock-free’ farm no animal products such as blood, bonemeal or slurry from factory farmed animals are used. More information on truely animal friendly farming can be obtained from the Vegan Organic Network.
Monday, February 28th, 2011
Can you help us continue our essential networking work?
After years of use and abuse maintaining our ‘vast and extensive’ internet networking, our laptop has finally reached the end of the road.
The loss of a series of keypad keys was managable, but now the hinges have collapsed, the battery only lasts 3 minutes and the memory, like mine, is fading away.
Can you help with a donation toward an essential replacement?
A suitable Samsung Netbook costs £230, but a recent Ethical Consumer report gives Samsung the second lowest ethical rating (after Toshiba), whilst a relatively highly ethical ASUS model would cost £340. Four donations of £25 would help us make the better ethical choice.
‘New’ Netbook up and running
Thanks to the response to this appeal we have found an appropriate Advent netbook to downsize and replace the previous Dell laptop.
As ever we did our best to be guided by the research of the Ethical Consumer Research Association (EC). By lucky chance their current Ethical Consumer Magazine had a major report on computers. It suggested various brands, such as ASUS with an ‘ethical score’ of 9.5.
This being a score of 9.5 out of 20 indicates that there are no truely ethical brands, so EC also recommend 2nd hand as the ‘best buy’. We were therefore well pleased to find an Advent netbook which was not only 2nd hand, but matched the 9.5 ethical rating. Further to that it was found by a vegan campaigner who does a bit of ebay trading purely as a means to keep the bailiffs from the door, whilst supporting all kinds of local community-based campaigns, including running our diy Community Print Resource, and Veggies Volunteering!
And it only cost £140 rather than £300 so, with the donations received so far, we only need to raise another £95 to pay for it!
The netbook was configured less than hour before catching a megabus train to London for a 3-day networking mission that took in visits to:
- GreensCool, who are assisting us with our campaigns networking exhibition
- Kingston Environment Centre, a campaign resource centre with similar aims to our Sumac Centre
- Kingston Green Radio, an internet streamed green radio station in Kingston
- Green Futures Festivals, who co-ordinate the area at which we run our campaign catering at Glastonbury
- 56a Infoshop, a radical resource for local people, campaign groups and projects in South London, hosting an exhibition for…
- Calais Migrant Solidarity, giving practical support for migrant communities, one of the many groups in our Networking Directory
- Ratstar, a squatted resource centre and hub for many campaign initiatives
- PixelPunch, the vegan web designer (and Veggies Volunteer) that redesigned our website and built our new Networking Directory
Oh yes, and whilst this was happening I did a 20 minute live interview with Talk Radio Europe from Spain, for Animal Aid’s Vegetarian Month The research in preparation for this was gathered at http://www.veggies.org.uk/2011/03/veggie-month/. This would not have been possible without the ‘new’ netbook.
So thank you for your support, helping us make great things happen!
For over 25 years Veggies has taken a wide range of campaign messages to over 100 events each year, but we can only do it with your support – Find more fundraising ideas at http://www.veggies.org.uk/about/donate.
Please donate to support our campaigns for humans, other animals and the environment.
