Two Projects That Need Your Support

It’s not easy to separate me from my money. Ask any of my friends who have done charity bike rides! I am also not one to ask other people to give up their own money. But, like when I drop product names, sometimes there are causes that I deem especially worthy of my (and your!) time and money. Here are two current fundraising campaigns that need your support.

The first is by The Food Empowerment Project, a food justice organization that, among other things, runs the Slavery-Free Chocolate List. I’ve done a lot of research on cacao/chocolate recently (more on that soon!) and I can tell you the situation is as dire as they say. They also do a lot of work around veganism and the fundraising campaign is for an issue very important to me: vegan retention. Did you know that most vegans/vegetarians eventually go back to eating meat? It’s an issue that is not openly discussed, though it should be. Food Empowerment Project is developing a newsletter with the sole purpose of retaining vegans, called Food Chain. Read about the fundraising campaign and see the video above. There aren’t many vegan organizations who have a strong commitment to intersectionality, so it is crucial to support the ones who do.

punkrockcookbook

You may know about my friend Joshua Ploeg, an extremely skilled chef who makes some of the best food I have ever eaten, no exaggeration! Him and I are working on a project that comes out next year, but he’s already finished This Ain’t No Picnic: Your Punk Rock Vegan Cookbook. Full color and 192 pages! How cool is this? It’s ready to go to print, but the publisher, instead of having it printed abroad, is using a worker-owned printer in Illinois. This costs more and they are fundraising for the remaining amount. The best deal? You can get 5 books for a $50 donation! Perfect for people who love to give vegan cookbooks as gifts. More details in the video.

[kickstarter url=http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/897079804/this-aint-no-picnic-your-punk-rock-vegan-cookbook width=480]

If you have the means to donate to either of these projects your money will go a long way to support people doing the work we all care about. Thank you! And bonus points for anyone that can name the dog from my instagram or the athlete from the Day in the Life that is on the cover of Joshua’s book.

No Meat Athlete Book Tour

As you probably know, the No Meat Athlete book came out this month and I’m very excited to be a co-author. I’m especially happy right now to announce that I am jumping on some of the book tour with Matt! I’ll be doing the Southern California, Arizona and Austin events.

no-meat-athlete-book-cover

November 1 — San Diego, CA | Movin’ Shoes (Pacific Beach location) — Get Updates

November 3 — Los Angeles, CA | Vegan Book Fair at Animal Advocacy Museum, presented by Compassion Over Killing — Get Updates

November 5 — Phoenix, AZ | 24 Carrots – Get Updates and Tickets

November 6 — Scottsdale, AZ | Nourish Cafe – Get Updates

November 7 — Tucson, AZ | Morning Blend show followed by run/event presented by Healthy You Network (details to come)

November 9 — Austin, TX | Bearded Bros. – Get Updates

If you live in one of these areas, I’d love to see you at an event. Have an omnivorous friend who is interested in vegetarianism? Bring them along. And as time allows, I can schedule private consultations in these cities if you are interested in working with me one on one.

Also, I’m taking recommendations for your favorite places to eat and drink coffee in these cities!

For those in the Los Angeles area I encourage you to join me before Sunday’s event at Dan Koeppel’s staircase walk. Dan created the Big Parade which is a yearly walk of over 100 staircases in Los Angeles (my photos and story) and leads regular walks that will no doubt show you parts of LA you didn’t know exist. Sunday’s walk focuses on the Hyperion-Glendale Bridge because the city is planning on ‘improving it’ with wider lanes, freeway dividers and 55 MPH speeds with little concern for cyclists and pedestrians. Right in between the very walkable and bikeable Silver Lake and Atwater neighborhoods!

Lastly, if you are in Northern California the No Meat Athlete San Francisco event with Leo Babauta from Zen Habits looks very cool. Which reminds me: If you haven’t seen it please check out Leo’s 7-Day Vegan Challenge and share it widely.

Thanks for reading and I hope to see you on the road!