April 2004 

Volume  1   Issue  3  

Breaking News - San Francisco Taxes Meat

In a closed council session, Mayor Gavin convinced the Supes that eating meat is an expensive luxury, city workers are too sluggish after meaty lunchtime meals and that raw flesh is really just 'too gruesome'.

With strong support from forest green friend Matt Gonzales, Mayor G's initiative to levy an extra 17.2% tax on the sale of all meat products sold within SF county passed with a 7-2 vote.

Proceeds from the new tax, effective April 15, will be used to create community gardens for denizens to grow herbs, fruits & vegetables. Says Mayor 'Meat is Gruesome' Newsom, "The World War II era victory gardens were hugely successful in getting Americans to be less reliant on imported foods, to grow their own produce. Our gardens will create jobs for displaced high tech workers as well as improve city air quality."

Register your garden and receive a free vegetarian starter kit complete with organic seeds and recipes at 1-888-VEG-FOODS

Complete coverage at The Chronicle  

VegPride Update

BAV will be at the Gay Pride festival again this year!

THANK YOU to Bob Gotch, George, Karen, Linda Phillips, Loretta, Mat Thomas, Michelle, Nancy Orr, Nicole & Regina, Paul, Priya Rath, Thava, and Warren Jones for believing and financially supporting the importance of sharing a veg message of compassion and good health with the several hundreds of thousands of people who attend the annual Pride Festival!

Volunteer

Site Update

Check out the new Events page! With several new features, such as an easier-to-read format, new buttons to send event notices to family & friends or add them to your Outlook calendar, you're all set to veg out with Bay Area Vegetarians! And remember, you can submit your veg and AR events to be posted on our calendar, with full use of all calendar features, too!

BAV Success Stories

It was about 2.5 years ago that we created SFBAVEG to connect and support the local vegetarian and animal rights community.  We've had lots of fun along the way, met some great people, and worked on some great projects.. and that still holds true for today!

But we're wondering... what has your experience been? Is your veg life different now that you’re hooked up with BAV & SFBAVEG? Do you have a 'happy' or 'success' story about Bay Area Vegetarians or SFBAVEG that you'd like to share?? We've met only a fraction of the people subscribed to SFBAVEG, and while we think & hope SFBAVEG is making a difference, sometimes we're not really sure....

So, tell us your stories, give us your feedback – really! Our electronic operators are standing by, waiting for your emails!!

Veggie Anniversaries

Congratulations and best wishes to our celebrants!

March : Sam in San Jose -- 1st Vegetarian Anniversary; Judith in Pacifica -- 1st Vegan Anniversary; Chris in Montara – 10th year vegan!

April : Abby of San Francisco -- celebrating her 8th vegetarian year!

Please continue to send them in so you can be featured in an upcoming e-newsletter. We just need your name, city, month/year for vegetarian and/or vegan anniversary.

Highlights of Events in April

Thu 1st - Vegan Dinner - Herbivore (Valencia)
Thu 1st - Screening: The Emotional World of Farm Animals - San Francisco
Sat 3rd - AR 101 Workshop - San Francisco Public Library
Sun 11th - San Mateo Coast Veg Coffee at Twinberry Café in El Granada
Tue 13th - Monthly Palo Alto Vegan Dinner (2nd Tuesday) at Bay Leaf Cafe
Wed 14th - Monthly SF Dinner (2nd Wednesday) at Golden Era
Fri 16th - Vegan Backpack & Camping Trip - Pt Reyes National Seashore
Sun 18th - Monthly Oakland Dinner (3rd Sunday) - New World Vegetarian Restaurant
Mon 19th - Earth Day tabling at Unity High School in Oakland
Thu 22nd - Monthly College Leafleting - Academy of Arts, SF
Thu 29th - Monthly SF Dinner (Last Thursday) at Shangri-La Vegetarian Restaurant

See Event Calendar at http://www.BayAreaVeg.org/events.php for full details of all activities.

Thanks to March's hosts

With thanks to our volunteer hosts, Jordan, Bob, Sean, and Dave, as well as Tammy & Chris, we have had several fun and food-filled March dining events. BAV also hit the streets, distributing hundreds of Try Vegetarians and Why Vegans at our Meatout and Adopt-a-College leafleting events.