As I am in the Academy of Business and Finance at my school, I was most struck by the discovery that U.S. animal production incurs hundreds of billions of dollars in externalized societal costs, evident in our healthcare system and damaged environment. Within weeks of obtaining this haunting knowledge, I cut out meat from my diet completely and I eliminated dairy and eggs shortly after, becoming fully vegan.

For the past four years, I have been a leader of my school’s veganism club, Sprouting Change. By providing weekly meal plans for the annual Veganuary challenge, I have exposed participants to the fun and approachable side of veganism. Recognizing the need for ongoing year-round support, my team and I also compile comprehensive digital booklets featuring seasonal recipes with plant-based twists. At the end of my sophomore year, at my school’s first-ever climate summit, I gave a presentation of the wide-ranging impacts of animal agriculture with regards to deforestation, land use, greenhouse gas emissions, and water footprint.

A reference for Greta said, “As the summer staff tossed ideas for superlatives for the program’s end of year awards ceremony, they came close to awarding Greta the title of “most likely to convert you to veganism.”  Another of her projects was her podcast called EcoThreads, which explores the intersections of sustainability with different economic, political, environmental, and social issues.

In college, Greta aims to combine her academic and personal interests through a double major in Economics and Environmental Studies.

Support Young Veg Activists

To send support for additional scholarships and internships, donate at www.vrg.org/donate or call (410) 366-8343. You can also send a donation to VRG, P.O. Box 1463, Baltimore, MD 21203.

Do you know an amazing vegan or vegetarian high school student? If so, let them know about our annual scholarship contest. The deadline for high school seniors is February 20^th of each year. To see scholarship rules and past winners, visit www.vrg.org/student/scholar

Recent topics brought up include:

– Shared an article that a VRG intern wrote on vegan meals for middle and high school kids

– 2 ways to make vegan Easter eggs quickly

– Mentioned kid-friendly vegan and gluten-free cookie mix

– Vegan Vitamin D drops for Babies

https://www.facebook.com/groups/VRGparentsandkids is intended to be a group that offers support for families raising children on vegan diets and for vegan kids around the world. We envision it as a place to get advice about a wide-variety of topics: pregnancy, birthday parties, school lunches, Halloween, non-leather apparel, cruelty-free products, summer camps, and more. Please use it as a place to share your wisdom, seek advice, or just find a sympathetic ear. The goal is to offer support.

Consequently, any profane, defamatory, offensive, or violent language will be removed. Feel free to disagree, but do so respectfully. Hateful or discriminatory comments regarding race, ethnicity, religion, gender, disability, sexual orientation, or political beliefs will not be tolerated. We expect that posts should relate to vegan diets and lifestyles. The Vegetarian Resource Group reserves the right to monitor all content and ban any user who posts in violation of the above rules, any law or regulation, SPAM, or anything otherwise off topic.

Please share this information with any veggie families that you know! Thanks.

photo from MooShoes

Warm weather has arrived in many parts of the world and you may need a new pair of vegan sandals. Here are online shops selling a wide variety of vegan sandals from various countries:

USA

BC Footwear: American company selling women’s sandals.

https://bcfootwear.com/collections/sandals

Bhava Studio: American company offering women’s sandals.

https://bhavastudio.com/collections/sandals

Matt & Natt: American company selling women’s sandals. Shipped to several countries.

https://us.mattandnat.com/collections/sandals

Mooshoes: American company selling women’s and men’s sandals.

https://www.mooshoes.com/collections/womens-sandals

https://www.mooshoes.com/collections/mens-sandals

Okabashi: American company selling sandals for women and men.

https://www.okabashi.com/collections/womens-sandals

https://www.okabashi.com/collections/mens-sandals

Third Oak: American company offering women’s sandals.

https://explorethirdoak.com/collections/sandals

Vegan Chic: American company selling women’s and men’s sandals.

https://www.veganchic.com/women/vegan+sandals/search.aspx

https://www.veganchic.com/men/vegan+sandals/search.aspx

Europe

Avesu: German company that offers world-wide shipping on sandals for women and men.

https://www.avesuveganshoes.com/vegan-womens-shoes/sandals-com.html

https://www.avesuveganshoes.com/vegan-mens-shoes/sandals-com.html

BioWorld: Company from Spain that offers men’s and women’s sandals.

https://www.bioveganos.com/c182148-sandalias-de-mujer.html

https://www.bioveganos.com/c183577-sandalias-de-hombre.html

Freerangers: British company selling women’s and men’s sandals.

https://www.freerangers.co.uk/ladies-sandals

https://www.freerangers.co.uk/mens-sandals

 Green Laces: Swedish shop offering men’s and women’s sandals.

https://greenlaces.se/produkt-kategori/shop/shop-skor/shop-herr-skor/shop-herr-skor-sandaler/

https://greenlaces.se/produkt-kategori/shop/shop-skor/shop-dam-skor/shop-dam-skor-sandaler/

Vegetarian Shoes: British company selling men’s and women’s sandals.

https://www.vegetarian-shoes.co.uk/womens/womens_sandals/10153_0c.html

https://www.vegetarian-shoes.co.uk/mens/sandals/10094_0c.html

 Will’s Vegan Store: Company from the UK selling women’s and men’s sandals. Can be shipped globally.

https://www.wills-vegan-store.co.uk/collections/vegan-womens-sandals?usf_sort=bestselling

https://www.wills-vegan-store.co.uk/collections/vegan-mens-sandals?usf_sort=bestselling

Canada

Native Shoes: Canadian company selling sandals for women, men, and children.

https://www.nativeshoes.com/womens/sandals

https://www.nativeshoes.com/mens/sandals

https://www.nativeshoes.com/girls/sandals

https://www.nativeshoes.com/boys/sandals

Australia

Holster Australia: Australian company offering sandals for women. Will ship to USA.

https://www.holsterfashion.com/collections/sandals

Vegan Journal is published by The Vegetarian Resource Group. Enjoy in-depth original research, product and book reviews, scientific updates on veggie nutrition, delicious vegan recipes with gorgeous photos, plus so much more. Both long-term vegans and those new to a vegan life-style will enjoy this magazine. To subscribe in the USA only, see: https://www.vrg.org/member/2013sv.php

By Reed Mangels, PhD, RD

The WIC (Women, Infants, Children) Program served about 6.6 million participants in 2023, including more than half of all infants born in the United States. This program was developed to protect the health of low-income pregnant and post-partum people, infants, and children up to age 5. It provides participants with vouchers that are used to purchase specific foods that are identified as being nutritious. WIC is administered by the USDA, which recently issued a press release that announced the final rule on revisions to WIC food packages. According to USDA’s website, “The changes will provide WIC participants with a wider variety of nutritious foods to support healthy dietary patterns and accommodate special dietary needs and personal and cultural food preferences. The revisions provide foods in amounts that are more consistent with the supplemental nature of the program, encourages fruit and vegetable consumption, and strengthens support for breastfeeding.”

The goals of the update include providing “additional flexibility, variety, and choice for individuals with special dietary needs due to medical conditions, limited cooking and/or storage facilities, and cultural and personal preference (including, but not limited to, vegan and vegetarian diets) while ensuring the delivery of priority nutrients to WIC participants.” Many of the changes will make it easier to follow a vegan diet while participating in the WIC program. The Vegetarian Resource Group has been promoting changes like these for many years in comments we submitted to the USDA related to WIC.

The changes will be phased in over the 24 months from the publication of the final rule, with a few exceptions.

Changes include:

• Allowing plant-based yogurt and plant-based cheese that meets requirements set by USDA for protein and calcium to be used in place of the entire allowance of dairy milk. These products would have to provide a specified amount of calcium and protein and, for yogurt, vitamin D. An added sugar limit has been established for yogurt (plant-based and dairy) and for plant-based milk alternatives. Previously, USDA had allowed “soy-based beverages”; now “plant-based milk alternatives” are allowed. Medical documentation is not needed to substitute plant-based products for dairy milk. I’ll talk more specifically about these important changes in a future blog post.
• Reducing the maximum monthly amount of dairy milk allowed.
• Requiring that tofu, which can be used to replace dairy milk, supply at least 100 milligrams of calcium per 100 grams of tofu.
• Requiring states to allow peanut butter and legumes to substitute for eggs. Allowing states the option of substituting tofu for eggs. Previously, WIC regulations did not allow substitutions for eggs.
• Requiring canned beans to be offered in addition to dried.
• Allowing WIC State agencies the option to authorize nut and seed butters as a substitute for peanut butter.
• Reducing the amount of infant meat (baby food meat) offered for breast-fed babies.
• Expanding whole grain options to include quinoa, wild rice, millet, triticale, amaranth, kamut, sorghum, wheat berries, tortillas made with folic acid-fortified corn masa flour, cornmeal, teff, and buckwheat. Whole wheat pita, English muffins, bagels, and naan were also added as whole grain options. In addition, WIC State agencies are allowed to authorize other whole grain options that meet WIC standards.
• Permanently increasing the fruit and vegetable benefit so that the dollar amount of vouchers to purchase fruits and vegetables increases up to 4-fold.
• Requiring that WIC State agencies allow fresh and at least one other form (canned, frozen, dried) of fruits and vegetables.
• Allowing fresh-cut herbs to be purchased with vegetable vouchers.

These changes will potentially make the WIC program more relevant to vegans as well as promoting more plant-based options for all participants.

To read more about the WIC program see:

The Vegetarian Resource Group Sent in Testimony on the Proposed Revision in the WIC Food Package (2023)

USDA Proposes Updates to the WIC Program (2022)

WIC Programs Offer Foods For Vegans (2020)

WIC Farmers Market Program (2020)

Revisions to the WIC Food Package Make Sense (2014)

Special thanks to Arnie Alper, MD for staffing The Vegetarian Resource Group booth at the Santa Cruz VegFest in California. Over 3,000 people attended this successful event! Shout-out as well to VRG’s Nutrition Advisor, Reed Mangels, PhD, RD, who co-coordinated over 74 volunteers that helped make this event happen.

Cheyenne writes: I became vegan when I was around 14 years old. For the past two years I have been working on a campaign advocating for plant-based Meals-Ready-To-Eat for military personnel. I have spent numerous hours speaking to political and military leaders about the importance of integrating a humane food option for military personnel. On top of this, as President of my school’s Environmental Club, I have actively promoted plant-based eating and veganism. I spoke to a school board member about the need for more plant-based options in Arlington Public School cafeterias. I have also created and presented a short documentary about the need for the United States to move away from its reliance on animal agriculture. At the organization Center for Youth and Family Advocacy workshop, I spoke about the importance of eating more plants and the benefits, including lower blood pressure, other heart-healthy benefits, and increasing fiber intake. Being vegan is not a trend or hobby. Being vegan is who I am and the ethical guide I follow to live a life I deem morally sound.

The most difficult challenge I have had to overcome was surgery due to cancer. In addition to the anxiety with a fear of reoccurrence, the surgery itself impeded me from doing the sport I love—weightlifting. My greatest successes include being a vegan who is a competitive weightlifter, going to states for track and field, and becoming a certified personal trainer.

We asked Cheyenne how she responds to other weightlifters who tell her that she needs to have animal protein. She related: This comes up quite often. Typically, when I tell other lifters I am vegan, they look at me funny and ask, “How do you get your protein, though?” ME: “I get my protein from plants. How do you think the animals you eat get their protein?” THEM: They almost always say, “Plants, I guess.” ME; “Exactly, I just don’t eat the middle man.” I believe I can serve as a role model for America’s youth—as they will see and learn that a physically strong woman thrives as a vegan.

I will promote veganism in the college I am going to attend, the University of Virginia (UVA), by reviving the UVA Vegan Club and pushing to create a more humane campus. I will also use my degree and education to implement policy changes and work to further animal rights through politics and policy.  I hope to get my law degree or a Master’s in Public Policy to learn the tools necessary to become an effective activist and advocate.

Support Young Veg Activists

To send support for additional scholarships and internships, donate at www.vrg.org/donate or call (410) 366-8343. You can also send a donation to VRG, P.O. Box 1463, Baltimore, MD 21203.

Do you know an amazing vegan or vegetarian high school student? If so, let them know about our annual scholarship contest. The deadline for high school seniors is February 20^th of each year. To see scholarship rules and past winners, visit www.vrg.org/student/scholar

Some vegans may end up in an assisted-living facility sometime during their life. How can you make sure that your vegan diet/lifestyle is accommodated? Chef Nancy Berkoff shares tips that can be shared with the assisted living establishment, as well as recipes that can be used. See: https://www.vrg.org/journal/vj2012issue4/2012_issue4_assisted_living_food_service.php

Summer Pad Thai photo

Where: Sawatdee Thai Restaurant, Minneapolis, Minnesota

When: Sunday, October 6, 2024, 6 PM

Come meet dietitians from the Vegetarian Nutrition Dietetic Practice Group as well as VRG members. The public is invited. You must preregister. You can pay at www.vrg.org/donate and write in the names of attendees and that this is for the Networking dinner.

BUFFET

Appetizers: Vegetarian Spring Rolls and Fried Tofu

Main Dishes:

Red Curry with Tofu

Summer Pad Thai

Combination Vegetable Dish with broccoli, cauliflower, mushrooms, onions, napa, water chestnuts, tomatoes, and mock duck.

Plus: Brown Rice and White Rice and Coffee or tea and water

Dessert: Mango and Sticky Rice

Cost: $30 for VRG and Vegetarian Nutrition Practice Group members before September 15, 2024. $35 for others. $20 for two to ten year olds. Other drinks can be purchased from the restaurant separately.

PLEASE PAY at www.vrg.org/donate and write in the Comments: Networking Dinner with the Attendee names.  Or call (410) 366-8343. Or mail payment to The Vegetarian Resource Group, P.O. Box 1463, Baltimore, MD 21203. We look forward to seeing you there.

Xero Shoes Xcursion Fusion Hiking Boots – Men’s REI Co-op

Enjoy the outdoors: you may want to go hiking in the USA, Canada, and/or Europe. Below is a list of online stores offering vegan hiking boots and shoes.

Avesu Vegan Shoes out of Germany sells Lowa hiking boots and shoes. See: https://www.avesuveganshoes.com/brands/lowa-com.html

Eco Vegan Shoes out of the Netherlands offers vegan hiking shoes and boots. See: https://www.eco-vegan-shoes.com/vegan-hiking-boots-walking-shoes

Ethical Wares out of Wales in the United Kingdom offers a wide variety of hiking boots See: https://www.ethicalwares.com/footwear/walking-boots-and-shoes/

Merrell in the USA offers some vegan hiking shoes. Search under “vegan hiking shoe or boot.” See: https://www.merrell.com

REI offers several vegan hiking shoes and boots. Search under “vegan hiking shoe or boot.” https://www.rei.com/

Thesus headquartered in Toronto, Canada and will ship hiking shoes for women to Americans. Search under the word vegan boot. See: https://thesusoutdoors.com/

Treksta USA offers hiking shoes and boots for men and women. See: https://trekstausa.com/product-category/vegan

Will’s Vegan Store in London, England offers hiking boots for men and women. See: https://wills-vegan-store.com/