Welcome Vegans and Vegetarians!
The Vegetarian Network of Austin is Austin's longest-serving family-friendly social and educational vegetarian group, active in promoting vegetarianism in Austin since 1996. We aim to make it easier for new people to find out about vegan and vegetarian resources, businesses and activities in Austin.We have at least two meetings each month, a potluck dinner held at one of our members' homes, and a restaurant visit for lunch or dinner a local vegetarian or vegan establishment, or at least one with a vegetarian-friendly atmosphere and menu. We also sometimes have food classes, film presentations, and tabling efforts at local events.
We produce a newsletter for Austin's vegan/vegetarian community five times a year, Austin Vegetarian Living, that's mailed out to our directory and distributed around town at various eateries and shops. We also produce a podcast on roughly the same schedule.
If you're interested in helping support the VNA's efforts, we encourage you to consider joining us as a VNA Director. Directorships have different levels to fit your level of interest, and we offer Directors several benefits.
You don't have to be vegan or vegetarian to attend our events, but we ask that you bring a vegan dish to our potlucks and order vegetarian at our restaurant visits.
may 6 2013
"Most Veg-Friendly Trailer Park", Longhorn Food Court, closing this week
This is something we've heard has been in the works for awhile now. After we found out (and reported in our last newsletter that Kristen Davenport's Capital City Bakery would be getting a brick-and-mortar store on East Cesar Chavez sometime this summer, we asked her what she planned to do with her trailer. She told us she'd love to keep it and have it stay open as well, but she'd have to find a new place to put it, as the site where it currently sits, the Longhorn Food Court, would be closing soon. Workers have been seen coming and going taking measurements and making preparations for the inevitable new apartment building coming to that lot. Obviously such a valuable property so close to UT couldn't stay a trailer park for long, since developers are gobbling up locations to fill the ever-growing need for student housing.So it happens that the end has come rather quickly, and the place we've come to celebrate as the "most veg-friendly" food court or trailer park in Austin, where Conscious Cravings, Moses Falafel and Capital City Bakery have been feeding us for so long, will actually be closing this weekend. The trailers themselves aren't closing, but we do not know yet where they're relocating to. Since we've still got time, we're coordinating with Vegans Rock Austin and Austin Progressive Vegetarians to have a "One Last Hurrah" at Longhorn Food Court!
Come down and join everyone this Friday evening at 5:30pm. You can eat at Conscious Cravings, or if you get there before sundown, at Moses Falafel. You can also get dessert at Capital City Bakery, but they close at 6, so arrive a little early and get your sweets first. Rabbit Food Grocery will have a pop-up shop there too.
Hang out with us at the picnic tables and reminisce about the good ole days of the most veg-friendly food court in Austin!
april 27 2013
Austin's World Wide Vegan Bake Sale tomorrow
Austin's vegan community has been putting on bakesales for years now, and every time they get a little bit bigger, the offerings become more elaborate, and the amount of money donated to animal rescue organizaitons gets a little bit heftier. For the first time ever, tomorrow's World Wide Vegan Bake Sale will be in TWO places: at MonkeyWrench Books at 110 North Loop (corner of Avenue F), and at Counter Culture at 2337 E Cesar Chavez St (corner of Clara St.). It'll run from 11am to 2pm. There will be cupcakes, whoopie pies, ice cream sandwiches, cookies, and of course sugar free and gluten free items for sale.All proceeds will benefit Sunny Day Farms Animal Sanctuary in La Coste, and Southern Animal Rescue Association Sanctuary in Seguin. You can contribute to this event in two ways:
- Come buy some delicious vegan baked goods! It's by donation as the goods are not priced, so please be generous.
- Bring your own vegan baked goods to donate to the bake sale! Or just come volunteer to help out at the event itself. Sign up to do either this form.
april 22 2013
VNA at Austin Community College Earth Day Fair today
At the last minute, we've gotten the opportunity to participate in Austin Community College's Earth Day Fair today. From 11am to 2pm today at the Round Rock campus, the VNA will be tabling at the ACC 2013 Earth Day Fair. If you, or any of your friends or family, are a student, staff or faculty member at the Round Rock Campus (4400 College Park Drive), come to the lawn behind Building 2000, to meet with and learn about lots of environmentally-friendly vendors and organizations. We'll be there with sign-up sheets for the Veg Pledge and can give you a starter kit, restaurant guide and recipe booklet right there in person!
april 21 2013
US VegWeek starts tomorrow
We're proud to be participating in Compassion Over Killing's Veg Week 2013, a campaign to ask people to pledge to give up meat for just seven days. You can take the pledge to "Go Veg!" for this week, starting tomorrow, at Compassion Over Killing's website. If you're already vegetarian, this would also be a perfect time to try going vegan for seven days. And if you're already vegan, what can you do? Sign up a couple of friends who you've talked to about going veg. It's a great way to spread the word and share your experiences, as well as the benefits.There's lots of stuff to try this week in Austin when you go veg. In addition to all the great vegan, vegetarian, and veg-friendly restaurants and food trailers, the week will be capped off with the Austin edition of the World Wide Vegan Bake Sale. On Sunday the 28th, they'll be holding the bake sale in two places: at Monkeywrench Books on North Loop, along with Counter Culture on East Cesar Chavez, selling cupcakes, cookies, and baked goods of all sorts. And it's for a great cause: to support Sunny Day Farms and SARA Sanctuary, two area animal rescue organizations who could really use the help. You can sign up to donate baked goods for the event using this form.
april 17 2013
Gathering of the Tribes this Saturday!
The VNA will be one of the groups participating in Austin's largest vegan potluck picnic this Saturday! In addition to tons of delicious food and great company, there will be live music, prizes to raffle, and speakers.There are regularly over 100 people who attend these Gatherings, from all of Austin's veg groups (not just the VNA, but also Vegans Rock, the Progressive Vegetarians, Vegan Parents of Austin, and even the Central Texas Vegan Motorcyclists!). So you know there'll be plenty of food. Come join us, hang out with your veg friends and make new ones at the same time!
Please bring a VEGAN dish to feed eight adults- no meat or animal products of any kind (dairy, egg, meat or chicken broths, honey, animal fats like lard, etc etc). Also, please be sure to bring your own plate, utensils, and beverage (no glass) -and don't forget your serving utensil!. You'll also need to let them know your dishes' ingredients at the check-in table, to help those with food sensitivities.
More info at VegATX.com
april 10 2013
Sarah's Kale Chips at this Saturday's potluck
We'll be in south Austin for our monthly potluck this Saturday, be sure to check our calendar page for the details. We just arranged to have Sarah from Sarah's Kale Chips come to the potluck, to give us a chance to try her all-vegan, all-organic kale chips which she just started making in March. It's been less than a month and she's already got her chips at Snap Kitchen. And of course lots of other great vegan food. Don't miss it!
april 7 2013
New Austin Vegetarian Living newsletter available
We're proud to announce that the VNA's newsletter, Austin Vegetarian Living, is back in production, with an all-new design for 2013. Our latest issue, the Spring 2013 edition, is now available for download from our Newsletters page. For over 15 years, Austin Vegetarian Living has been Austin's only print (and now digital) publication committed to the vegetarian and vegan community. This issue's cover story is a great article on tempeh production by Beth Taylor from The Hearty Vegan (and a VNA Director). There's also an article from the Vegetarian Society of El Paso's Greg Lawson on superfoods, plus more news, a calendar of local April and May events, recipes and more. Download it today!
april 6 2013
Great success at Texas VegFest
This year's Texas VegFest was another hugely successful event today, with over 5000 people having come to Fiesta Gardens to learn all about what's new and great about veganism today. The VNA had a very active booth all day, which was very gratifying since some of the booths had stretches of time where they weren't getting any traffic. We had a big table full of vegetarian starter kits, local restaurant guides, recipe booklets, bumper stickers and stickers for kids, and coupons, not to mention our newsletters (of which we handed out almost our entire run of 500) and our new local guide cards with info on the Gathering of the Tribes in two weeks, the Lone Star Vegetarian Chili Cook-Off coming up on November 10th, the upcoming World Wide Vegan Bake Sale, and all the local veg groups. We had people coming up to specifically ask for the guide cards when they saw the big posters for the Gathering of the Tribes and the Vegetarian Chili Cook-Off.We also signed up several new members, sold a good number of our t-shirts, and talked all day with people (both in and outside of Austin) about how they can get active with us or in their own community. And we really appreciate all the help we got from our Directors who came to volunteer for a few hours, we had 16 people manning our booth over the course of the day!
This is just the start of a very busy month of April for us and the veg community. Our next potluck is this Saturday in south Austin, followed the next Saturday by the afore-mentioned sixth semi-annual Gathering of the Tribes in Pease Park. Then Compassion Over Killing's VegWeek 2013 runs from April 22nd to 28th, and in Austin we'll be finishing that week by participating in the World Wide Vegan Bake Sale (you can sign up using this online form to contribute baked goods to the sale.). It all wraps up on Tuesday April 30th, when the VNA will be heading to Bombay Express in north Austin for our monthly restaurant visit. We're looking forward to seeing lots of people at all these events!
april 1 2013
VNA at Texas VegFest this week
Austin's biggest vegan event is back for 2013. The second annual Texas VegFest will be this Saturday, April 6th from 11am to 6pm, at Fiesta Gardens. The VNA will be in attendance with our tent and table out there, handing out newsletters, restaurant guides, and vegetarian starter kits. We'll also have our "I [texas] Vegan" t-shirts for sale.We're looking for members who are interested in volunteering to help staff the table. If you're planning on coming, let us know if you'd be available to come help for an hour or two by handing out materials and talkng about our activities with event-goers. Please send an email to our Communications Director.
The festival itself will be huge. Last year 3500 people came for the cooking demos, vegan exhibitors, live music, big-name speakers, family activities, and food food food. Three vegan all-stars are providing cooking demos, including cookbook author Isa Chandra Moskowitz, coauthor of Veganomicon and Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World; Seattle restauranteur Ayinde Howell will be showing how to cook vegan soul food. And Austin's own Christy Morgan, The Blissful Chef, will demonstrate protein-packed vegan recipes.
This year's speakers include Colleen Patrick Goudreau, educator and author of five vegan cookbooks and lifestyle guides; Dr. Baxter Montgomery, a Houston cardiologist who believes that plant-based diets are the key to good health; and championship vegetarian boxer Omowale Adewale.
Come out and have a good time, and while you're there be sure to visit our booth, we'd love to see you.
march 19 2013
New Executive Board members elected, and new options for directorships
A couple of weeks ago, the VNA held its annual elections for the Executive Board of Officers. We're pleased to announce that the three open positions, for Chairman, Events Director and Treasurer, have all been filled. Our new Chairman is Robert Leudtke, who's been coming to our events for about a year now. The new Events Director is Teresa Troxel; she became active with us last summer, and has lots of ideas for new activities for the VNA. Last but not least the Treasurer's role has been filled by Kathy Monte, who has been serving for the past few years as our Membership Director (which is now an open position, if we have any Directors who are interested!)Twenty six votes were cast, and twelve of them were by new Directors who had just joined at the March potluck. We greatly appreciate everyone in support the VNA by paying dues; these funds are crucial in enabling the VNA to carry out its activities throughout the year. We're very excited to welcome Robert and Teresa to the Board, and Kathy to her new role, and look forward to exciting new events in 2013.
The Executive Board also has voted to revamp our dues structure and the Directorships offered by the VNA. The annual cost for an individual Director will soon be reduced to $20. We'll also be transitioning all Directorships to plans that run the time period each year (from March to February), or to online subscription plans that automatically renew on their anniversary date each year, at their choice. Look for these changes on our Directorship registration page soon.
If you have any questions about the Executive Board, our Directorships and dues, etc., please send an email to our Communications Director.
