April 01, 2018

LC SALDF Hosts MeatOut 2018

LC SALDF Hosts An Incredibly Successful MeatOut 2018!

On March 22nd, 2018, the Student Animal Legal Defense Fund at Lewis & Clark Law School held the Annual “MeatOut” Event at the LRC on the Law Campus. This coincided with Animal Law Week – which meant it was a great week for all those interested in animal law and animal protection issues (and of course, eating delicious vegan food)!

The aim of the event was to encourage people to pledge to go vegan for a day (and hopefully beyond), and this was done by offering lots of great vegan food and drinks to law students, professors and staff from the College who may not usually have been exposed to such treats! It also highlighted the plight of farm animals and aimed at educating people about where their food comes from. The event show cased just how many local vegan options there are in and around Portland and also how fantastically delightful vegan food can be. In addition to the food, the idea was also to exhibit vegan beauty products and business and other local businesses offering fun activities.

This year did not disappoint! There were well over 200 students from the law school who attended the event which was held during the lunch hour. There was a line going halfway around the LRC!

Some of the delicious food and drinks we had at the event included (all vegan): pizza; burgers; hot dogs; chips salsa and guacamole; donuts; veggies and hummus; pretzels; sandwiches; cupcakes; cookies; coffee; sodas; kombucha; and beer!

We also had a raffle with prizes ranging from hair and spa products, to vegan dog foods, to gift vouchers for restaurants and gift vouchers for fun activities! All of the proceeds were donated to a local farm animal rescue, Green Acres Farm Sanctuary (http://greenacresfarmsanctuary.org/). Amazingly, we raised over $250 for the sanctuary which will go towards helping them with their expenses for all the good work they do for farmed animals!

The following fantastic organizations tabling at the event: Youth for the Voiceless (http://youthforthevoiceless.org/), Imperfect Produce (https://www.imperfectproduce.com/) and of course Green Acres Farm Sanctuary which was the recipient of the funds raised from our raffle. Attendees could also have a Virtual Reality experience of how animals are raised for food thanks to Animal Equality’s iAnimal outreach program (https://www.animalequality.net/).

In addition to the above, we had a number of materials and information packs for students on veganism and other animal protection issues.

The event was a huge success and received very positive feedback from students (vegan and non-vegans alike)!

We would like to thank all who attended the event and all of our sponsors for their very generous donations of either food, drinks, prizes or outreach materials:

Dave’s Killer Bread; Themis; Field Roast; Tofurky; Jem Organic Nut Butters; A.N.D Café; Aviv; Brew Dr. Kombucha; Miyokos; Canteen; DC Vegetarian; Vegan Hair and Beauty; Hurraw; Jet Black Coffee Company; Next Level Burger; Shoofly; The Whole Bowl; Virtuous Pie; Rubi &Tatsu; Jones Soda; Fusion Cut and Color Organic Salon; Ground Kontrol; Herbivore Clothing; Scapegoat Tattoo; Live Goodly; Primal Foods; Purrington’s Cafe; Schmidt’s Natural Deodorant; Selwood Yoga; GT’S Kombucha; Shiro Cosmetics; Pacifica; V-dog Dog Food; Vegan Outreach; the Humane League and Imperfect Produce.

In particular, we would like to say a special thanks to the Animal Legal Defense Fund, without their contribution the event would not have been possible, as well as to our wonderful MeatOut Committee Leaders: Amy Wilson and Shanna McCormack!  These two board members went above and beyond the call of duty to make this one of our most successful MeatOut events in history and we are so thankful to them for their hard work and leadership.

We hope to see you all again next year and continue promoting the vegan, cruelty free way of living!