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, 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.

april 27 2012
World Wide Vegan Bake Sale tomorrow

The Vegetarian Network of Austin is helping to host the Austin edition of the World Wide Vegan Bake Sale, Sunday April 29th from noon to 6pm. It'll be at MonkeyWrench Books at 110 North Loop. There will be cupcakes, whoopie pies, ice cream sandwiches, cookies, and of course sugar-free and gluten-free items. The other sponsors are Vegans Rock Austin, Action for Animals Austin and Capital City Bakery.

All proceeds will benefit Sunny Day Farms Animal Sanctuary in La Coste, Texas. Please come be a part of the VNA's contribution to this event- you can do so in two ways!

1. Come buy some delicious vegan baked goods! It's by donation as the goods are not priced, so please be generous.

2. 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 here.

There'll also be beverages there donated by Zico (coconut water), and right next door where Counter Culture used to be, the new Vegan Nom taco trailer is having their Launch Party at the same time!

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 we get to donate to organizations that help animals or people in need gets a little bit heftier. The VNA needs your help in making this happen again this year!

For more information, visit the ATXveg Tribes webpage for the event.

april 22 2012
"Go Veg" week starts tomorrow

We've already had a great start on getting the word out about Compassion Over Killing's Veg Week 2012, a campaign to ask people to pledge to give up meat for just seven days. At last Thursday's Earth Fair at Austin Community College, we signed up eight people on the spot to take the pledge, and we've had two more sign up with us in the days since.

It's not too late, you too can take the pledge to "Go Veg!" for this week, starting tomorrow! 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.

Plus there'll be lots of new 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, there'll be one more opening this week. Sue Davis's Counter Culture, which closed in January as a trailer, is doing a soft re-opening this week as a full service trailer on East Cesar Chavez! Then, to cap off Veg Week in real style, come join us at the Austin edition of the World Wide Vegan Bake Sale. On Sunday the 29th, we'll be at MonkeyWrench Books on North Loop, along with Vegans Rock Austin, Action for Animals Austin and Capital City Bakery, selling cupcakes, cookies, and baked goods of all sorts. And it's benefiting Sunny Day Farms animal sanctuary- who really needs the help since they just rescued 25 goats and 4 sheep!

april 21, 2012
Gathering of the Tribes- Spring 2012 edition is TODAY

It's time again for Austin's largest vegan potluck picnic- the Gathering of the Tribes, for Earth Day 2012, is this afternoon, at 4:00pm in Pease Park, and ALL of Austin's vegetarian and vegan groups will be bringing their people: Vegans Rock Austin, Progressive Vegetarians, University Vegetarians, and of course the Vegetarian Network of Austin. In addition to tons of delicious food and great company, there will be music, giveaways, and a raffle to benefit Sunny Day Farms animal sanctuary in LaCoste.

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.

This Gathering is for a special cause: they're raising money for Sunny Day Farms, an animal sanctuary near San Antonio. Financially they've always had a battle, and after the recent goat rescue, they need our community's help more than ever. There'll be LOTS of raffle prizes to give away, so PLEASE be generous and buy lots of raffle tickets!

april 15, 2012
Pledge to "Go Veg" for seven days with Compassion Over Killing

We know many of you who come to our potlucks, restaurant visits, or just come to our website for information are already vegetarian or vegan. But we also know a lot of you are somewhere on the path to vegetarianism, or are just interested in learning more (we call it "veg-curious"). So this coming week, April 23rd through 29th, will be a great opportunity for you to give vegetarianism a real chance.

Our friends at Compassion Over Killing are promoting Veg Week 2012, a campaign to ask people to pledge to give up meat for just seven days. When you sign up you'll receive a Starter Pack loaded with recipes and product coupons, and you can choose to receive daily emails with recipes, tips, meal ideas and more. Going veg is really easy, easier than ever before in fact, especially in Austin. And Compassion Over Killing is making it even easier with their support. If you're already vegetarian, you can even take the pledge to go vegan for seven days.

We're here to support you too, and a great way to get a "taste" of how great the food can be at this Saturday's Gathering of the Tribes. It's a big potluck picnic at Pease Park for all of Austin's vegans and vegetarians. There are usually about 100 people there, so that's a lot of different foods to try! Plus there'll be live music, door prizes and items for raffle to support Sunny Day Farms, the animal sanctuary near San Antonio.

The VNA will also be tabling this Thursday afternoon and evening at the Austin Community College Earth Fair. If you, or any of your friends or family, are a student, staff or faculty member at ACC, come to Room 8500 of the East Campus on Webberville Road, from 5:30 to 8:30pm, 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 9, 2012
VNA's first-ever Round Rock potluck this Saturday, with special guest

For our monthly potluck for April, the VNA will be up in Round Rock for the first time ever. We're hoping this gives a number of our members who live in Round Rock or far north Austin a chance to come that they haven't had before. The potluck, on Saturday April 14th at 6:30pm, is being hosted by Stephanie Maiman at her home (see calendar page for directions).

We'll also be joined by special guest Phil Eherenman of 2OurHealth.net, a certified Food for Life nutrition and cooking class instructor for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. He's coming all the way from Alaska to check out Austin, and wanted to attend our potluck while he was here. He'll be giving a brief cooking demo on how to make his low-fat hot "cheezy" sauce, made from nutritional yeast flakes and cashews. Please come join us for a special evening.

april 2, 2012
Big Day for the VNA at Texas VegFest

The first Texas VegFest, which took place Saturday March 31st at Fiesta Gardens, was a huge success for both the festival and for the VNA. Our understanding is that around 3500 people were in attendance, and apparently many of the food vendors were so overwhelmed by demand that they ran out of their stocks about midway through the afternoon. The speakers' sessions were all packed to the limit, including the one and only Dr. Michael Greger, Whole Foods' "Health Starts Here" chef Dan Marek, Veganomicon cookbook authors Isa Moskowitz and Terry Romero, Compassion Over Killing's executive director Erica Meier, and vegan bodybuilder Robert Cheeke (who recenty relocated to Austin himself).

At the other end of the park, festival go-ers were sampling foods from local places like Green Island Catering, White Mountain Foods, Aster's Ethiopian, Happy Vegan Baker, Mr. Natural and Bananarchy, as well as national companies like Daiya, Gardein, Vegan Cuts, Upton's Naturals and Tofurky. The live music kept a good crowd coming through on that side of the park as well, which really helped the VNA. Our booth handed out hundreds of newsletters, vegetarian starter kits and local restaurant guides, but best of all we sold around 40 of our new VNA t-shirts! (We'll have those up for sale online here very soon, but if you'd like to buy one in the meantime, be sure to come to one of our potlucks or to Gathering of the Tribes on April 21st!)

The VNA thanks all the volunteers who came to help at our tent, including Stevie Duda, Jerry Amundson, Kathy Monte, Rupert Hazle, Soña Holman, Stephanie Maiman, and Gerri Bradshaw. Also thanks to Kathy and Boris Veltman who let us use their iPhones to process credit cards, and a BIG thanks to John Raworth.

The VNA is very proud to be partner sponsors for Texas VegFest, and we're looking forward to being part of an even bigger event at the festival in 2013.