Kick off the 12th annual DC Green Festival with live cooking demonstrations, vegan/vegetarian food & over 250 sustainable businesses showcasing their products! Use code VRG16 for 20% OFF your ticket http://bit.ly/20VrEuO

On a beautiful Sunday morning, I volunteered for The Vegetarian Resource Group at Great Sage, a fully vegan restaurant part of the Conscious Corner located in Clarksville, Maryland. Conscious Corner is a family of businesses dedicated to promoting healthy and mindful living by focusing on animal welfare, the environment, and community. Great Sage’s bold brunch menu features international flavors and organic ingredients with dishes such as a decadent cinnamon roll, a Cajun “chicken” sandwich, soba noodle salad, and much more. Along with hosting live music events that feature local musicians, Great Sage also supports non-profit organizations by hosting benefit days. On April 17, 2016, Great Sage hosted a benefit day for The Vegetarian Resource Group to which they donated 10% of proceeds of the day’s sales.

As a high school intern, I greatly benefited from volunteering and spending time with VRG’s dietetic intern, who answered my countless questions about vegan diets during our time at the restaurant. We discussed everything from the importance of B12 for vegans and dietitian certification levels to farmers’ markets, Thanksgiving, and recipes for coconut bacon and avocado pie crust. Situated near the waiting area, we attracted a number of patrons who took interest in the VRG literature we set out, including pamphlets, recipe books, the Vegetarian Journal, and restaurant guides. The younger restaurant-goers enjoyed VRG’s coloring book I Love Animals and Broccoli. It was an honor to spend my Sunday surrounded by friendly and inquisitive patrons in the warm and inviting atmosphere of Great Sage, and I hope to visit the restaurant again soon to enjoy a satisfying vegan meal! For information about Great Sage, see http://greatsage.com/

If you would like to volunteer to help with other outreach, please contact Brigette at [email protected]

If you would like to support the distribution of coloring books and other materials, please donate at www.vrg.org/donate

I just wanted to give you an update about tempeh, etc. First of all my partner/husband Gunter Pfaff passed away last May, 2015 from fast acting bladder cancer. Gunter was the poster person of all things tempeh having patented a new way of making tempeh that we later called Betsy’s Tempeh and were in business in Michigan for 9 1/2 years. We then retired to California and Gunter then worked on another tempeh project that he filed a patent on. We then connected with a group that was able to take our idea to the next level and called it TempehSure. They will begin producing the units probably by late fall of 2016. They introduced the tempeh incubator at the Natural Products Expo food show in Anaheim in March and many chefs said they are anxious to have one in their kitchen. We always thought it would be great to have a small unit so people could start making their own artisan tempeh for the local community.

Take a look at their website www.TempehSure.com which will give you a history of who they are and the people that are involved with the project. Meanwhile I still have our website showing our easy method for making tempeh: http://www.makethebesttempeh.org/

Since The Vegetarian Resource Group has such great outreach and I respect what you are doing I thought you would be interested in knowing what both Gunter and I have been up to these many years.

By Madeline St. John

Do you like beans? If so, this year is the year for you. In its 68th session, the United Nations has proclaimed 2016 the International Year of Pulses. Pulses are leguminous crops used for food and feed that grow their seeds in pods, such as lentils, beans, peas, and chickpeas. The objective of this International Year is to encourage collaboration around pulses, promote their use, and educate the public on the importance and benefits of their use in sustainable food production.

As one of their projects for the year-long celebration, the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the UN is printing a book to raise awareness about the nutritional benefits of pulses. For this project, they have selected a small team of chefs to be the faces of the publication, from ten countries around the world. Representing the United States, Chef Ron Pickarski will be featured with recipes from his new cookbook, which, in his words, is “very pro-bean.”

For information on Ron Pickarski’s book The Classical Vegetarian Cookbook, see: http://www.eco-cuisine.com/

A VRG reader contacted Mom’s Naked Lunch Cafe regarding their menu not clearly distinguishing between vegan and vegetarian food.
In response, they sent her this chart that you might find useful. Items with green checks under the vegan column are vegan.

For more information on Mom’s, see http://www.momsorganicmarket.com/

Below is a list of some of the activities VRG will be present at the next few months. If you attend any of these events, be sure to stop by our booth and say hello!

Also, we’d greatly appreciate your donations towards all our outreach. In addition to the events below, The Vegetarian Resource Group provides vegan handouts to many other organizations for their tabling activities. We are bombarded with requests for materials and constantly need to reprint them to keep up with the demand. To donate, please see: http://www.vrg.org/donate

Paul’s Place “Spring Into Good Health” Festival
1100 Block of Ward St. (Just off Washington)
Baltimore, MD 21230
Saturday April 23, 1pm – 4pm

Baltimore VegFest
UMBC Campus on Erickson Field
1000 Hilltop Cir, Catonsville, MD 21228
April 30, 2016

New England VegFest
Worcester, MA
Sunday May 1st, 11am – 5pm

Green Festival Expo – DC
Walter E. Washington Convention Center
801 Mt Vernon Pl NW, Washington, DC 20001
May 6-8, 2016

New Hampshire Dietetic Association Meeting
Concord, NH
May 11, 2016; VRG Nutrition Advisor Reed Mangels, PhD RD will be speaking at this event

Albany VegFest
Polish Community Center
225 Washington Avenue Extension
Albany, New York 12205
Saturday, June 4th 2016, 10am-5pm

Richmond VegFest
Azalea Gardens at Bryan Park
Richmond, VA
Saturday June 25th, 12pm-6pm
(Rain date July 9th)

Charlottesville VegFest
Charlottesville, VA
Saturday, Sept. 24th

VRG Vegan Thai Dinner
Boston, MA
Sunday, October 16, 2016, 6 PM

Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Conference
Boston, MA
Sunday, October 16, 2016 –
Tuesday, October 18, 2016

Pre-Thanksgiving Potluck
with The Vegetarian Resource Group
North Baltimore Mennonite Church
4615 Roland Ave
Baltimore, MD 21210
Sunday, November 20th 2016, 5pm

By Maria Pittarelli

Our Daily Bread in Baltimore serves free meals to over 700 needy people 365 days a year. About ten percent of individuals ask for a vegetarian meal.
They also have a casserole program where generous people in the community can make one of the casserole recipes on their website and donate it for use during the lunch service when needed. VRG’s Foodservice Advisor Chef Nancy Berkoff created three vegan recipes, which now have been posted as options on the website. Nancy tested these at a senior center in Los Angeles, CA. The recipes are:

Brunswick Stew
Creamy Bean and Potato Casserole
Sweet Potato Black Bean Casserole

They are posted at:
http://www.catholiccharities-md.org/our-daily-bread/odb-food-service/favorite-casserole-recipes.html

VRG nutrition intern Maria Pittarelli was tasked with the mission of trying out the donation process from start to process. The first step was to find the specific disposable metal pans that they require for their casseroles. She was unable to find the exact size of 12” x 10” x 2 9/16,” but the lovely people at Our Daily Bread said it was okay if the pan was a very close size. At Party City, she found these pans labeled “half size chafing dish” which are 11 3/4” x 9 3/8” x 2 9/16” at the price of 4 for $2.37 or 20 for $9.99. They also sell matching lids for $0.60 each, but they are unnecessary as tightly wrapped foil may be used if you prefer.

Next stop was the grocery store. Bringing the printed ingredient list was best, so it could be used like a checklist to make sure we got everything. The recipes are specifically designed to include simple, cheap, and easy to find ingredients with nothing exotic or too expensive. Prices will vary from store to store, but at this particular store I shopped in, it cost:

$9.51 for ingredients for one batch (serves 8-10 people) of Creamy Bean and Potato Casserole
$9.98 for ingredients for one batch (serves 8-10 people) of Brunswick Stew
$7.78 for ingredients for one batch (serves 8-10 people) of Sweet Potato Black Bean Casserole, including dry black beans. It would’ve cost about $2-3 more to use canned black beans instead, but they are an option if you’d like to speed the process up.

However, if you or a local group would be able to donate casseroles in larger quantities, the price per casserole would be less due to being able to buy in bulk. Many of these ingredients are canned, so they can be bought in large quantities and stored, if desired.

The recipes were straightforward and easy to complete in a home kitchen with no special tools other than a knife, a cutting board, a pot, and a potato peeler.

The fastest and simplest recipe is the Creamy Bean and Potato Casserole. It only has 4 canned ingredients, that are spread in layers into the casserole pan and then topped with black pepper. We found that stirring the refried beans in a bowl first made them easier to spread. Start to finish, it took 10-15 minutes which is great for busy people who would like to donate a complete meal for those in need of food who would like something besides salad and peanut butter sandwiches.

The next recipe is Brunswick Stew, a hearty mixture of tomatoes, lima beans, potatoes, carrots, and onions. Our taste tester particularly liked the addition of corn in the recipe. From start to finish, including peeling, chopping, and cooking in a pot on the stove, this recipe took about 1 hour. If it were being made in larger batches, it would add a little prep time but the result would be many more portions to feed people. It may be possible to make 4 batches in one large pot.

The third recipe is Sweet Potato Black Bean Casserole, a filling mixture of sweet potatoes, black beans, tomatoes, onions, and green pepper that is very slightly spicy. This recipe took the intern the longest to prepare, since it requires mincing onions, dicing green peppers, peeling sweet potatoes, and chopping sweet potatoes before you can start the cooking process on the stove. She also chose to simmer dry black beans for 2 hours to save money, instead of using canned black beans, but this did not add much to the total time since the other vegetables could be prepped while the beans were simmering. In this case, it took 2.5 hours to make 2 batches, but it is possible it could be done faster if you have efficient choppers and use canned beans. Again, having a big pot would make it possible to make multiple batches at the same time. The finished product was very delicious and satisfying.

After the recipe is complete, it needs to be in one of the disposable metal casserole pans that were mentioned earlier. They must be tightly sealed, either with disposable lids or with aluminum foil. The casserole must be frozen solid before donating. In our case, homemade casseroles that were put in the home freezer at 5 pm were frozen by 9 am the next morning. It may also be possible to freeze them in a large cooler with ice, but we did not try this. Be careful to not stack the casseroles before they are frozen, as this can result in them breaking or leaking (as our tester accidentally found out!). Use a sharpie, or tape with a pen, to label each one with the name of the casserole and the date it was made. If you are able to make a donation, it would be greatly appreciated and put to good use helping those in need who desire vegetarian meals.

For information about donating to Our Daily Bread in Baltimore, see http://www.catholiccharities-md.org/our-daily-bread/odb-food-service/favorite-casserole-recipes.html

If you are outside the Baltimore area, prepare one of these recipes for a local charity that serves food to the needy.

Award-winning outdoor footwear maker, Treksta, released the details of several of its hiking shoe models that allow outdoor users to align their active lifestyles with their vegan and animal cruelty-free beliefs regarding product materials and manufacture. Recognizing that many outdoor users have a difficult time matching their lifestyle choices with high performance product options, Treksta shared the details of two of its exceptional hiking boot models, which are both made from durable, non-leather synthetic materials, and animal-free adhesives and threads. The vegan-friendly boots are the Evolution Mid 161 GTX and the Cape Mid GTX.

Visit: http://www.trekstausa.com

Vegan dietitian Virginia Messina, MPH, RD has a nice post on her blog about vegan children that we’d like to share with you.
Here’s the link http://www.theveganrd.com/2016/04/vegan-diets-are-safe-for-children.html

According to NonProfit Pro.com, employees of corporations
can add to their giving in many ways. Microsoft provides each new
employee with a $50 grant, which the employee can give to a nonprofit
of his or her choice. They also make a matching donation made by
employees up to $15,000 annually and provide grants of $25 per volunteer
hour to nonprofits where employees volunteer.

RealNetworks enables employees to allocate a $500 grant to a nonprofit
of their choosing at their five-year anniversaries.

CarMax matches donations up to $10,000 annually per employee and
provides volunteer grants of $10 per employee per hour, and that
includes donations for the work of family members.

Here is a list of some other companies that provide matching grants:
www.vrg.org/donate
Check “Would you like your employer to match?”