Earth Day is Sunday April 22nd this year. The vegan lifestyle certainly helps our environment. You may want to share The Vegetarian Resource Group’s Save Our Water: The Vegetarian Way brochure in honor of Earth Day.

You can view the brochure here: Save Our Water: The Vegetarian Way

We also have the brochure in Spanish here: Save Our Water (spanish version)

Finally, VRG has a section about environmental issues on The Vegetarian Resource Group website here:
https://www.vrg.org/environment/

Each year The Vegetarian Resource Group holds an essay contest for children. SUBJECT: 2-3 page essay on any aspect of veganism/vegetarianism. Vegetarianism is not eating meat, fish, and birds (for example, chicken or duck). Vegans do not use any animal products. Among the many reasons for being a vegan/vegetarian are beliefs about ethics, culture, health, aesthetics, religion, world peace, economics, world hunger, and the environment.

Entrants should base their paper on interviewing, research, and/or personal opinion. You need not be a vegetarian to enter. All essays become the property of The Vegetarian Resource Group.

Previous winning essays and complete details can be seen here: VRG Essay Contest for Children

This iPhone App will make it easier for you to travel around the world as a vegan:
http://www.maxlearning.net/HEALth/V-Cards.pdf

Dish from Brightside Kitchen

The Vegetarian Resource Group maintains an online Guide to Vegan/Vegetarian Restaurants in the USA and Canada. Below are some recent additions. The entire guide can be found here: VRG Online Veggie Restaurant Guide

To support the updating of this online restaurant guide, please donate at:
Donate to The Vegetarian Resource Group

Here are some new additions to VRG’s guide:

Brightside Kitchen
12493 University Ave.
Clive, IA 50325
Brightside Kitchen is located inside the Mercy Health and Fitness Center. Steve and Deanne Bryce created Brightside Kitchen in order to support their community by providing nutritionally balanced, sustainable, and 100%-plant-based food. Brightside bowls, which are grain bowls topped with lots of veggies and legumes, are a customer favorite. Flavors of Brightside Bowls rotate often. Past flavors include a chickpea tikka masala bowl with coconut lime sauce, a BBQ bowl, and a taco bowl.

Chef Chloe and Vegan Café
St. Roch Market
140 NE 39th St. 2nd Floor
Miami, FL 33137
Located in St. Roch Market an upscale food hall in Miami’s design district, Chef Chloe and Vegan Café is the creation of Chef Chloe Coscarelli, winner of the food network’s Cupcake Wars and cookbook author. Enjoy the best of sweet or savory; you can’t go wrong with the Butternut nachos, truffle avocado toast, Thai spring rolls, strawberry chocolate cupcake, chocolate chip salted cookies, and a dragon fruit lemonade. Photo Worthy on all bright white plates.

Eatin’ Vegan Café
519 NW Colorado Ave.
Swartz Creek, MI 48473
Eatin’ Vegan Café was founded by a mother daughter duo after they realized they couldn’t find someplace quick to eat that was both vegan and gluten free. Top reviewed menu items include the potato soup, Santa Fe wrap, the spicy black bean burger, and broccoli cheddar soup.

JOi Café
2855 Agoura Rd.
Westlake Village, CA 91361
JOi Café is located in an unassuming strip mall, however, the bright, modern interior décor immediately creates a welcoming vibe. This plant-based and gluten-free eatery has a variety of smoothies and juices, as well as delicious entrees, snacks, and desserts. Breakfast is served all day. The chilaquiles were a personal favorite: the portion size was huge, and the black bean and lentil sausage on the side was delicious. Sandwiches, bowls, wraps, and salads are also available, with a good amount of raw options as well. Items containing nuts and soy are clearly marked on the menu.

Love Café
39993 Hwy. 41
Oakhurst, CA 93644
Love Café is located right off Highway 41 in a mountain-lodge-style building decorated with murals of a park ranger and Smokey the Bear. Chef Rob Halpern serves takes on traditional American classics (the BLT, the Reuben, mac and cheese) and other inventive dishes (tempeh tacos; Thai-style fries topped with peanut sauce and spicy coleslaw). Ingredients are sourced from local farmers within a 45-mile radius. Gluten-free items are clearly marked. Dishes containing soy or nuts are also labeled.

Red Lunchbox
6172 Quinpool Rd.
Halifax, NS B3L 1A3 Canada
Red Lunchbox, located just west of downtown Halifax, is an entirely plant-based restaurant with a rotating seasonal menu of eclectic specials. Past menu items include seared lime and chili plantains, Sichuan-spiced vegetable curry, and deconstructed cheesecake. Not only does Red Lunchbox reflect a higher ethical standard in the dishes it serves, Red Lunchbox also makes sure to give back to its community. Its employee profit-sharing program is designed to improve the work environment and the wellbeing of its employees.

Renegade Health Bar
51 Collier St.
Barrie, ON Canada L4M 7G6
Renegade Health Bar takes your favorite unhealthy foods and gives them an extreme health makeover… or you could look at it this way… we take the veggies you know you should eat, and give them an extreme taste makeover. Our focus is on creating amazing tasting food that is seriously nutritious and seriously tasty so you don’t have to make the health/taste compromise anymore. We serve dishes like plant-based and gluten-free tacos, pizza, burritos, sushi, keto options, cheesecakes, cold-pressed juice, whole food dairy-free smoothies, silky nut milks, and more. All made fresh daily and served grab & go for your convenience.

The Modern Vegan
700 East Naples Dr., Ste. 111
Las Vegas, NV 89119
The Modern Vegan comes from Toronto native Gia Schultz who is a self-taught chef and from a background in fashion design. There is an extensive menu specializing in breakfast. Some menu items may be unavailable some days; however, don’t be dismayed as they’re plenty of options for starters, acai bowls, burgers, sweets, soups, breakfast favorites, lunch favorites, and smoothies and juices. Top recommendations include the breakfast burrito, “The Buffalo” chicken burger, Louisiana chicken, and Cauliflower buffalo wings. Ultra-modern atmosphere with creative employee uniforms complete with tvs of viral videos.

Thanks to VeggieHappy you can find out which baseball stadiums offer vegan food this season. Visit their Facebook page to get updates: https://www.facebook.com/VeggieHappy-305081262884052/

Here’s one example of vegan food being offered:
The Texas Rangers‘ Globe Life Park highlighted their new vegan options for the media. (Numerous television, print, and digital media covered this.) Options offered at their popular Ballpark Vegan stand now include Vegan Nachos Grande, pictured above, as well as Vegan Top N Go Frito Pie, Vegan Wrap with Beyond Chicken, Vegan Chili, Vegan Burger, Vegan Dog, and more.

On Sunday April 29, 2018, Great Sage restaurant in Clarksville, Maryland, will be donating 10% of sales to The Vegetarian Resource Group! Support VRG outreach while socializing and enjoying great vegan food.

Brunch is 10am-3pm with French toast, specialty pancakes, artichoke spinach dip, decadent cinnamon roll, and many other seasonal dishes. Lite fare is 3-5pm. Dinner is 5-9 pm.

Reservations for parties of 5 or more can be made by calling Great Sage at (443) 535-9400.

This is not a VRG gathering, but if you come during brunch, please do stop by and say hi to the VRG volunteer at the front door.

For more information on Great Sage and to view their menu, see Great Sage.

Vegan Republic, the Berkeley store run by Animal Place sanctuary, is now doing a monthly vegan Snack Club. All store proceeds support the rescue and care of cows, pigs, sheep, goats, chickens, turkeys, rabbits, and more.

There are 6-9 different treats each month, both savory and sweet, often seasonally inspired, for $25. Recent snack boxes have included Surf Sweets gummy candy, Primal Strips jerky, No Whey peanut butter cups, Mediterra snack bars, Sjaak’s chocolates, Brami lupini bean snacks, Su Mama jerky, Barr Necessities cookies, Mavuno dried jackfruit, and Eli’s Earth Bars.

To learn more or sign up: https://www.veganrepublicstore.org/snackclub.html

To follow along: https://www.instagram.com/_veganrepublic/

We received this note:

“We’ve made our film about Cesar Chavez and his amazing great-grandniece Genesis available for free at www.cesarchavezrespectforall.org, along with a complimentary learning guide”

“Cesar would be proud since he took as much pleasure from converting people to veganism as he did from enlisting them in the campaign for farm workers.”

See: https://www.cesarchavezrespectforall.org/watch-the-film/

In 1993, The Vegetarian Resource Group had 55 vegan restaurants in our national restaurant guide. In 2015, we had about 600 vegan restaurants.

Currently, we have about 971, with more to add each day. These are all vegan restaurants. We don’t count ones that have honey, for example. There are of course many more establishments with vegan options. To see restaurants throughout the USA and Canada, go to:
VRG Online Veggie Restaurant Guide

My name is Cindy and I work at Medical News Today. We’ve included The Vegetarian Resource Group in our news article, Recipes for a cholesterol-free diet: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/317403.php