need ideas for Vegetarian Club
Posted by lvcassie on Aug 25, 2008 · Member since Jul 2006 · 5 posts
I am a high school teacher. The kids want to start a Vegetarian Club. Does anyone have any ideas or advice? I figure we will probably meet 20-25 times for an hour or so. Thanks for your help.
hmm.
talk about nutrition maybe,share or come up with some recipes, potluck!, work on getting veg stuff in the cafeteria, maybe see if you can make pamphlets and have a little table outside the caf for a day or two (with vegan cookies ;) ) to get more people aware of veg stuff-- though try to make the pamphlets less scary and peta-y and more about the environment and stuff since the gross out tactics are probably too much for school. i wanted to start a veg club in hs, but the guy in charge never met with me. hmph. >:( good luck!
That is super cool! I'm a teacher too, though I have the little guys. Last year, I started a community garden project at my school - we grew some different vegetables and then the kids got to prepare and taste them. You could do that, or simpler, you could plant herbs! You could do some film screenings (for the people in the club, who have already demonstrated an interest in vegetarianism). I agree with ponycakes that you might want to stick with the less gross stuff for the general school population. Maybe you could lobby your cafeteria for more/better veg lunch options? You could do a book study on Eat to Live, The China Study, or another similar book regarding veg nutrition. March 20th is the Great American Meat-Out - you could plan some kind of event or activity around that - challenge people to pledge to give up meat for a day, put their name in a drawing, and give away vegan cupcakes or cookies to the winner(s). And of course, numerous cooking projects. Sounds like fun! I wish something like this would have been around when I was in high school.
that is great! just be careful...remember that art teacher that got fired for saying too much. He did some things that he shouldn't have....but people get very weird in schools when you aren't in the mainstream.
cooking would be great....maybe you can even sell it for a fundraiser!
book discussion
volunteering in an animal shelter
start a recycling program if its not in place (maybe broaden the club to environmental) and have veg be a part of it. could get some kids who aren't veg involved, and then interested!
Oh you guys have already left such great ideas! Are you interested in doing both veg*n outreach and animal rights or just vegetarian? It's kind of hard to seperate them out--but like others have mentioned it probably isn't easy to do a lot of hard core animal rights stuff at a school.
I love the idea of getting more veg friendly food stuff in the cafeteria--maybe you can get them to set up a fresh fruit/vegi salad bar if you don't already have one, get boca burgers on the menu, possibly other stuff.
You can do vegan bake sales--everyone can make a treat sans eggs and dairys and you'll help raise money for your new club (Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World would be a great book for your club!)
Oh Yes! A small garden or herb-ery would be super! You might be able to get other clubs to help you out if there are some eco clubs!
You could have veg potlucks, or maybe try to arrange veg dinners at local restauants that are veg friendly.
If you're interested in the animal rights side yourgroup could go volunteer at loal shelters, animal sanctuaries a couple weekends--places like that are always so grateful for the help and you would be doing something hands on with the kids--that's a strong message!
Vegan Outreach is a great organization/site--they have a lot of pamphlets and materials that are less extream than PETA--a lot of stuff you can download for free and you can also order stuff for a very small fee!
http://www.veganoutreach.org/
Vegan Action is another good site! They have a great "McVegan" campaign that your students might be interested in putting together!
http://www.vegan.org/index.html
And like other mentioned there are tons of books and videos you can get! Just try to have fun and be accepting of everyone!
Good luck to you!!!! You rock!
When I was in high school (I say it like May was so long ago...) I couldn't get enough vegetarians for a club.
I think that you should definitely delve into the nutritional aspect of veg*nism. Talk about how healthy it can be and how unhealthy you can become by being a potato chip vegetarian. High school is when a lot of people come around to the veg concept and become more aware of what they're putting int their bodies. We've all heard the "I tried being a veg*n once, but I was just so unhealthy..." argument. If they know enough to stay healthy, we might have more veg*ns in the world. :)
I LOVE all the ideas floating around this thread.
that's really awesome. i can't contribute more than others already have, though.
Have an ongoing thing about nutrition. First the educational part of what nutrients they need and in what proportions. Then, maybe tracking what they eat with the CRON-O-Meter. Then they can work to adjust their diet to something balanced.
Anyone have an input on this? I don't have an ED, so I don't know if tracking things so precisely would be harmful.
maybe do a thing where you dont track calories or fat, but just nutrients and the good stuff? like calcium, iron, vitamins, fiber, blahblah.
What about a brown bag lunch exchange? Kind of like a secret santa, but in the end you have a lunch where the students exchange brown bag lunches.
Since you've got older kids, ask them what they want to get out of it.
The Vegetarian club at my old high school focused on changing the curriculum to be more animal friendly. They gave a presentation to the school board about dissection and alternatives to it. It was pretty impressive. While the school board didn't ban dissection, they did pass a thing saying it cannot be required and a student has to be given an alternate assignment. They're looking at buying the software to do anatomy stuff on computers instead.
I agree with ponycakes, if your going to do somekind of a pamphlet or presentation, I would focus more on the enviromental and health impacts, rather than the "gross factor" like peta does so well. Though it's after seeing some videos off their website that I became vegetarian, it might shock or offend some other teachers, parents, and who knows who else. I think teens nowadays are trying to be more aware of the environment, so that would be a better angle, in my opinion.
In my geography class in 11th grade, we all paid 5$ at the end of the year and with the money we did a tasting of food from different countries. It wasent vegetarian, but you could so something like that. Basically show anyone who is thining about becoming veg that people all over the world have something on their menu that is already vegetarian. What we did is that we ordered 1 meal per country chosen. Like 1 chinese dish, 1 ethiopian, 1 greek, etc. at different restaurants and then reheated them at shool and devided the dishes into small portions/bites for everyone to taste.
I think the idea of this club is very cool. Kinda makes me wish that I was still in hs so I can be part of one myself, lol. Good luck
So we've given you lots of ideas. Some you may like and some you may be less likely to use. Which ones are you drawn to and we could come up with more ideas related to those.
Oh yes, You all have such wonderful ideas. Thank you!! I am going to print your ideas for the kids and see what they think. I definitely am going to do the nutrition part. I actually happen to be a Nutrition teacher. I think tracking their food intake is a wonderful idea. I do it with my regular kiddo's. I didn't even think to do it with the club kids. Great idea. Thank you to all of you.