The Invercargill Vegan Society (INVSOC) celebrated World Vegan Day 1st November 2014 in style! From unveiling public art, street giveaways, our annual poster campaign raising terror in the hearts of men….it was a great day for vegan activism.
With help from our World Vegan Day sponsors, we gave out vegan products downtown. Hell Pizza Invercargill (vegan pizza, with vegan cheese!), ComplEat Wellness (“Nice Cream” coconut ice cream) represented local Vegan friendly businesses well.
At an international level, we were helped by Sanitarium (soymilk, Marmite, vegan sausages…) and Fry’s (frozen vegan burger patties…) we had a lovely time raising awareness of how easy it is to be vegan.
We gave out world vegan day awards, got mentioned by Paul Henry on-air and made it on the CUE TV daily news too! Take a seat, make sure you’ve got a packed lunch and join us virtually for our World Vegan Day 2014 celebrations :-)
World Vegan Day Posters
Across Invercargill, posters featuring blue, yellow, orange, red and even green went up. With hidden messages of respect towards animals, we’ve heard from several passers-by interested in learning more about Veganism.
Regarding the colourful bird poster, check out our…
“Peace of Chicken” Queens Park Mosaic
Unveiled on 1st November World Vegan Day, Invercargill Vegan Society artists made a mosaic monument to the animals of the world. Cloying sweetness with a bit-of-a-pun, “Peace of Chicken” represents what animals in need truly want: peace, love and respect.
A jigsaw pinched out of ceramic tiles and stuck to a $25 Mitre 10 Mega concrete paver, the hen has a little dove friend flying alongside her. We didn’t want her to get lonely! Birds of a feather get-represented-in-mosaic-together, both would like a vegan world of respect towards animals.
“Peace of Chicken” with sanded edges and black grout. The dove flies freely, with loyalty and a sense of fairness. The hen has a beak that could cut a bus in half, large talons and a spray of silicone for water resistance.
Our world vegan day artwork is located near the Queens Park bronze animal statues.
Celebrating the 70th anniversary since Englishman Donald Watson coined the term “vegan”, you can find “Peace of Chicken” just west of her Queens Park eagle friend.
Invercargill Library Display
INVSOC co-ordinator Jen Stone booked the library displays for World Vegan Day. Inside, we arranged a number of vegan goods ranging from fair trade chocolate to fair trade soap to fair trade coconut ice cream. All-in-all, a fair representation of veganism?
Awards
With invaluable aid from Vegan superstar Julie Gun, we gave out awards to local Invercargill businesses for being vegan friendly.
Hell Pizza – “for being an absolute heaven to your vegan customers, with dairy free vegan cheese!”
Hell Pizza Invercargill manager Brad supported us strongly. Although not Vegan himself, he has a strong sense of humour, generosity and smily-ness. Brad recalled the horrors of Easter past, when radical vegan extremists forcibly shared bunny chocolates in his store.
Not only were we given free Hell Pizza vouchers to share on World Vegan Day, but an exclusive promotion too. “Convert-A-Carnivore”, two vegan pizzas for the price of one!
With such a deal you can imagine what many Invercargill Vegan Society members brought to the World Vegan Day potluck :-)
We thanked Julie Bryce of her eponymous Fashion Emporium , for her wonderful street signage and motto. “The Invercargill Vegan Society would like to thank Julie Bryce for your lovely “please be kind to animals” motto. You always make our day!”
“ComplEat Wellness” in Windsor, “for proudly saying vegan on your signage, and stocking Nice Cream!”. ComplEat supported World Vegan Day 2014 with coconut icecream vouchers shared downtown.
Bombay Palace Indian Restaurant: “for fantastic friendly service to all your vegan customers!”
We are very thankful to the vegan friendly businesses of Invercargill :-)
Street Giveaways
The Invercargill Vegan Society street team dusted off their Team Vegan shirts, and took to Wachner Place with bags of Whittaker’s chocolate!
Activists big and small, all had a great time vegan-izing our fellow Invercarg-illians.
We primarily shared Whittaker’s dark chocolate treat bars, but also pizza and coconut ice cream vouchers.
We always meet many interesting and vegan-interested people during our street activism. One story which has stuck with us, the man in blue mentioned his experience shooting animals to death. He killed a deer with a gun, and was horrified to see her face mangled by the blast. He decided right then to sell his guns and never go hunting again.
We spoke with them for about ten minutes, giving our INVSOC cards and a voucher for Hell Pizza. Many vegans have similar experiences of killing animals, and we thought it was a great lifestory for him to share on World Vegan Day.
CUE TV World Vegan Day 2014 Street Giveaway coverage
World Vegan Day also got a tip of the hat on “The Paul Henry Show”
World Vegan Day Potluck
Held at the Southland Football grounds on Islington Street, we had a great dinner! New guests Nicki, Carol, Katie and Hannah joined in :-)
Making good use of Hell’s “Convert-A-Carnivore” deal, there were no fewer than SEVEN vegan pizzas with new vegan cheese!
Fancy salads, Kofta vegetable balls, steamed Chinese dumplings, vegan sushi….
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