[860] in Vegetarian_Support_Group
Meatout at MIT
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Laura C. Dilley)
Thu Mar 21 18:00:06 1996
To: Melanie_K._Bartlett@onf.com
Cc: Veg-teen@empire.net, vsg@MIT.EDU, vsg-local@MIT.EDU, veg-boston@empire.net
In-Reply-To: Your message of "21 Mar 1996 13:07:29 GMT."
<46464925.5365150@onf.com>
Date: Thu, 21 Mar 1996 17:53:00 EST
From: "Laura C. Dilley" <elsiedee@MIT.EDU>
>We did some spontaneous chalking at my schools' meatout event. But, we did it
>during the l unch period and it kinda pissed of the administraation. two of
>my close friends got suspended for vandalism (yes, it WAS chalk).
...
>
>btw, because of the suspension, some more chalking showed up this morning
>"freedom of speech" and "free Mike Bishop" (one of the kids suspended). It's
>kinda cool. the two kids are proud of themselves in a lot of ways...and their
>parents are dealing with it okay, too...
Cool!!!
Good for you about the Meatout!!
Awesome!!
We chalked the boards in one of the main lecture halls at MIT
for the Meatout. We were going to chalk the sidewalks,
but it was supposed to rain, so we didn't. I have a 9:30
a.m. lecture, and because I was helping to set up the booth
for the Meatout, so I missed most of class (don't let me be an
example! :) but I came in late to see if the chalking was still up,
and it was - there were chemical compounds all over the board and "Kick the
Meat Habit!" was peeping out from behind one of the boards. We also wrote
"The Great American Meatout" on the other board which could be seen when
the lecturer lowered the other board. I crept in the back of the lecture
hall with a camera and took a picture of it, just for kicks. :)
Then we had a booth from about 10-4 in Lobby 10, which is in the main corridor
where everyone at MIT passes through. (Student groups have booths here on a
regular basis.) There are a handful of people active in our group, the MIT
Vegetarian Support Group, and we managed to put together a pretty impressive
booth, if I do say so myself. We photocopied a ton of literature (which you
can get from e.g. PCRM, PETA, and other places) on health, environment,
animal aspects of veg*ism, as well as an original flier which we made up about
the day's events. Would you believe, Food Services at MIT was extremely
supportive of our efforts, and they provided us with six beautifully prepared
fruit and veggie platters. We also had cookbooks and some other books (Animal
Factories, Diet For a New America) out on display for people to look at.
People came up and snacked on the veggies and looked at our literature and
we asked them to sign the Meatout Pledge. A few people from the Boston
Vegetarian Society came and helped out, providing a beautiful professional-looking
display which said on the left side "eat these " and showed veggie foods
and on the right "not these" and had pictures of cute farm animals interspersed
with words like "cancer" "heart disease" etc. A lot of people stopped by throughout
the course of the day.
One of the Boston Veg. Society people brought along a rabbit costume, and
she wore this costume while handing out bags of carrots rubber-banded with
literature. The carrots (about six boxes) had been obtained from one of the MIT Food Service
distributors, who often give dividends in the form of free products to their
clients.
There was also an all-vegetarian issue of the "progressive" paper "The Thistle" which a number
of us worked on that came out on the same day, which addressed a great many of the
issues of veg*ism - health, environment, politics, animals, myths about veg*ism,
etc.
In the evening there was a vegetarian dinner in Kresge Auditorium for $2 which
the Hare Krishnas cooked. Afterwards, we also showed the video "Diet for a New America"
and the Simpsons episode where Lisa goes vegetarian. (I hadn't seen it yet! I loved
it. Have you all seen it?)
Anyway, as you can tell, there was a lot that went on at MIT for the Great American
Meatout. It required a lot of planning and hard work by a small number of
dedicated people. We started planning for it more than a month in advance and
met with a number of administrators in MIT Food Services, MIT Medical Education,
the Thistle staff, Boston Vegetarian Society, and others. We could not have
done it without all their support. We especially owe a lot to Food Services,
who not only provided us with food for the booth, but also had vegetarian
specials all across campus, and even made up posters for us to advertise the
Meatout, and little "table tents" which went on all the tables in all the
cafeterias. One of the women with whom I worked closely to plan these events
even went around and got the signatures of all the managers in Food Services
(except for one) on the Meatout Pledge. Though not all the numbers are in yet,
over 300 signatures I would estimate were collected on the meatout pledge. I even
saw some professors had signed, and the head of food services.
Best of all, I think we accomplished the goal of getting people to *think* about
their food choices. I know that conversations were spawned, which otherwise would
not have been. These things, to me, are important steps. Get people to think, that's
my message.
Though our event was a big one, every effort is important, no matter how small.
I think that everyone who did anything for the Meatout deserves credit. Everyone
who has written so far to the list (veg-teen) about what they did for the Meatout
inspired *me* to share what went on with the Meatout at MIT. Maybe I've inspired
some of you. I hope so.
Best wishes, everyone,
Laura Dilley
age 22, senior in Brain & Cognitive Sciences
vegan for 9 months, veg for 6 years (started in H.S.)
president, MIT Vegetarian Support Group (VSG)
P.S. BTW, I love this list! You all are so cool!!
