9 Ways to Celebrate World Vegan Day

There are so many reasons to choose vegan foods—more than nine billion, in fact. Sadly, that’s how many birds, pigs, and cows are killed each year for food in the U.S. (and billions more aquatic animals suffer the same fate).

That’s why, for World Vegan Day (Nov. 1) — and World Vegan Month (Nov.), we’re sharing nine ways to celebrate the compassionate choices we can make to defend these animals who are every bit as smart, social, and sentient as the cats and dogs with whom we share our homes:

1. Gather your friends for a vegan potluck. Make sure to share the recipes so that every guest walks away with a few more vegan meals to try at home.
2. Leaflet or host a feed-in to educate others about the many benefits of going meat-, egg- and dairy-free. Contact us for free literature.
3. Visit a farmed animal sanctuary. Nothing is more inspiring than spending time with the survivors of factory farm abuse. They can teach us about perseverance so that we remain committed to advocating for them every day.
4. Open your home to family and friends for a vegan movie night. A few of our favorites? Vegucated, Forks Over Knives and Peaceable Kingdom.
5. Dine out at your favorite vegan restaurant, and ask soon-to-be-vegan friends to join you. Order a variety of dishes so they can sample the many flavors of vegan foods.
6. Post your favorite farmed animal photo on Facebook with a status update that educates. Invite your friends to “share if you love animals too!”
7. Gift a book to a veg-friendly friend, such as Veganist, Skinny Bitch or Eating Animals. Better yet, start a book club!
8. Try that vegan recipe that you’ve been drooling over, but which you haven’t had time to make yet. Don’t have one in mind? Here are some ideas.
9. Join us so that we can, together, spare more animals from suffering.