We note in our mission statement that “no matter what your niche is, Our Hen House aims to give you what you need to be part of a new world for animals.” Because change making requires a multiplicity of methods to reach the hearts and minds of a multiplicity of people, we need activists of all stripes – artists, academics, lawyers, students, business moguls, media darlings, everyone – to do what they do best in mainstreaming the movement to end animal exploitation.
We’re very pleased to bring you 100+ ideas from activists who’ve been part of our media ’empire’ so far. This list will continue to grow as we do! Use it as a resource to help change the world for animals. We’ve categorized by broad strategy: “Cook & Bake,” “Do Grassroots Outreach,” “Make Art,” “Organize,” “Volunteer & Donate,” and “Write.”
We welcome your suggestions and additions. Email changetheworld@ourhenhouse.org with your own ideas! Only one rule: Always practice self-care to prevent activist burnout!!!
Cook & Bake
- Bring vegan dishes to potlucks and community gatherings.
- Cook hearty, delicious vegan meals for your non-vegan friends.
- Take non-vegan friends and family out to amazing vegan restaurants.
- Bring delicious vegan dishes to your family’s Thanksgiving meal.
- Become a vegan personal chef or start a vegan meal-delivery service.
- Create a vegan recipe for your school’s lunch program.
- Host a vegan potluck for your non-vegan friends and ask them each to bring a dish.
- If you’re a blogger, join the Vegan Month of Food!
- Make a project out of veganizing the food in mainstream American popular culture and publicize the hell out of it.
- Pursue effective culinary activism.
- Share with your friends vegan versions of traditionally non-vegan items (cheese, ice cream, jerky, etc.).
- Shoot vegan cooking videos and create a YouTube channel to promote them.
- Teach vegan cooking classes at your local grocery store.
- Veganize recipes on non-vegan blogs/websites, then comment on the site to tell how you did it.
- Work with your non-vegan family members to veganize traditional family dishes for the holidays.
Do Grassroots Outreach
- Bring pro-vegan leaflets and Vegetarian Starter Guides with you wherever you go and give them to people you talk to – many advocacy organizations are happy to provide you with literature at low or no cost.
- Advocate for veganism and animals in your religious community.
- Ask local restaurants and school cafeterias to put a veggie burger on the menu.
- Request that your local library carry animal rights books and vegan cookbooks.
- Ask your local elected officials to participate in U.S. VegWeek.
- Ask your local hairstylist, salon, barber, etc. to use products that weren’t tested on animals.
- Ask your local shoe store to carry non-leather shoes.
- If you’re going out with a group of friends to a non-vegan restaurant, call ahead and make sure that the chef can prepare you a vegan meal.
- Then congratulate non-vegan restaurants on offering vegan options.
- Contact your local cable company about running an animal rights video on cable public access television.
- Ask local businesses to display Vegetarian Starter Guides.
- Go leafleting! Check out these helpful tips to get started.
- Edit Wikipedia pages related to animal rights and veganism.
- Encourage those who just went vegan to practice healthy nutrition habits, like eating enough and taking vitamin B12. This will ensure that your friends feel good during their transition and don’t fall off the wagon.
- Engage in fur activism.
- Engage in office-place activism.
- Engage in social media activism.
- Educate yourself by taking relevant (free!) courses on Coursera.
- For your birthday and/or other holidays, ask your friends and family to make a donation to your favorite animal-related organization, to volunteer with you at a sanctuary, to watch an advocacy movie with you, etc.
- Gift new parents any of Ruby Roth’s gorgeous children’s books.
- Give your friends holiday gifts that showcase the wonders of veganism (books, documentaries, a Vegan Cuts Snack Box, a gift card to a vegan restaurant, etc.).
- Go into stores that sell clothing, shoes, handbags, etc., and ask if they have any vegan products. Be prepared to explain what that means. This lets business-people know that there is a demand for vegan items.
- Hand out pro-vegan leaflets along with vegan candy on Halloween as part of “Reverse Trick-or-Treating.”
- Have a Humane Halloween with the help of activist & writer Marla Rose.
- Hang pro-vegan posters on the inside doors of public restroom stalls.
- If Netflix doesn’t yet offer your favorite animal rights film/documentary, ask them to do so.
- If someone compliments an article of clothing that is made of vegan leather/fur/silk/etc., use it as a jumping-off point to explain the cruelty behind the non-vegan versions of such items.
- If they don’t already, ask your local coffee shop to start offering non-dairy milk and creamer.
- If you’re an athlete, wear vegan message-wear to competitions.
- Include an animal rights quote or link to a video in your e-mail auto-signature.
- Keep good responses to common vegan-related questions handy so that you’re prepared when friends or strangers ask them of you – the book Mind if I Order the Cheeseburger? is a great resource for this!
- Lend animal rights books to your friends, and place them in your condo, retirement home, town, school, church, or temple library.
- Point your non-vegan friends and family toward VegVids.com.
- Post a vegan-related badge (like the ones offered by OHH!) on your blog or website.
- Post ads for free Vegetarian Starter Guides on Craigslist.
- Post vegan message stickers on the belongings that you display in public (laptop, water bottle, etc.).
- Share pro-vegan videos, memes, quotes, and undercover investigations on social media.
- Speak with your local school/university about offering alternatives to dissection.
- Spend the summer leafleting with the Vans Warped Tour.
- Take your non-vegan friends and family shopping at vegan stores/boutiques (if you have any in your area) so that they can see the quality and variety available.
- Take your non-vegan friends and family to a Veg Fest.
- Tour the country (perhaps by bike!) handing out leaflets at colleges and universities.
- Use your impressive skills (like climbing mountains, anyone?) to shed light on animal exploitaton.
- Wear vegan message gear like t-shirts, hoodies, wallets, etc.
Make Art
- Create a piece of performance art that raises awareness about animal exploitation.
- Create interactive social media that sheds light on the plight of non-human animals.
- If you’re graphically design-inclined, create visuals that shed light upon the exploitation of animals.
- If you’re musically inclined, write music that sheds light upon the plight of non-human animals.
- Launch an animal rights/vegan podcast.
- Make art that doubles as advocacy.
- Make vegan-friendly crafts and sell them on Etsy.
- Put the animal rights message into your stand-up comedy.
- Self-publish a zine.
- Write and perform an animal rights-related play/one-(wo)man show.
Organize
- Become a certified plant-based health coach through an online program and launch your own coaching program.
- Bring the animal rights message to Pride Parades.
- Bring the Factory Farming Awareness Coalition’s free presentations to your community.
- Collect related vegan/animal rights videos and curate them on a YouTube channel.
- Create and guide walking tours of your city that center on the roles of animals in our lives.
- Create a vegan mentorship program in your community.
- For all you law students, take classes in animal law.
- For all you teachers, become a certified humane educator.
- Get involved in legislative action for animals.
- Go on a virtual book tour – you don’t even have to be an author!
- Hold vigils to honor the billions of farmed animals slaughtered every year, like the folks at Toronto Pig Save.
- Host an animal rights speaker or documentary screening on your college campus/in your community.
- Host a pay-per-view in your community.
- Host a vegan/animal rights Twitter chat.
- Host a vegan dinner & a movie event.
- Host a vegan pop-up in your community.
- Host a vegan-themed costume party.
- Host a vegan tour of a grocery store.
- Host a vegan wine & cheese tasting.
- Host an event or organize an action for World Day for Farmed Animals.
- If you’re governmentally inclined, lobby for lawmakers to reform subsidies on animal agriculture and other policies.
- In hot weather, figure out where transport trucks will pass by, wait for them to come to an intersection, and give the animals water through the holes of the truck.
- Land a spot on the food committee for a party that your work, school, etc. is organizing.
- Open a vegan bed & breakfast.
- Organize a feed-in at your school/college or in your community.
- Organize a Veg Fest in your town.
- Organize a vegan book drive.
- Organize an event for U.S. VegWeek.
- Organize a vegan “Iron Chef” battle in your community.
- Participate in or organize a protest.
- Participate in the Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale.
- Set up an information table during community events and gatherings—anywhere that there are people to talk to about animal rights.
- Start a Meatless Monday campaign at your school, workplace, or even town.
- Start a petition for an animal rights cause.
- Start a vegan/animal advocacy hotline.
- Start a Veganize My Town campaign in your town.
- Start a vegan food truck in your community.
- Start a vegan meal group.
- Start a vegan meetup group, such as Vegan Drinks, in your community.
- Start an animal rights-themed book club in your community, or join an existing book club and suggest an AR book to read.
- Start an animal rights/vegan club at your school or college.
- Start or get involved with a Food Not Bombs chapter near you.
- Use Facebook as a jumping-off point for more direct forms of activism – what are you doing online that could be concretized?
- Work with local restaurants to implement vegan options on their menus.
- Work with local restaurants to offer a special vegan menu for a night and make an event out of it
- Work with your local public parks to start a wildlife task-force.
- Work with your school/college cafeteria to add vegan options.
Volunteer & Donate
- Adopt a companion animal from a shelter, or rescue one yourself!
- Donate old fur coats to animal shelters and wildlife rehabilitation centers.
- Donate to animal sanctuaries and/or advocacy organizations.
- For all you multi-linguists, provide free or low-cost translation services to animal organizations so that their literature can reach a wider audience.
- For all you runners, participate in VegRun.
- Foster a companion animal or animals until they find a forever home.
- Hold a yard sale, vegan bake sale, or car wash, and donate the proceeds to an animal rights group.
- If you own a business, consider donating a portion of your profits to animal organizations.
- If you see an animal in trouble, reach out to help them, or find someone who can.
- Participate in Farm Sanctuary’s Walk for Farm Animals.
- Photograph shelter animals to aid in their adoption.
- Promote companion animal adoption with “social pet-working“.
- Sell tchotchkes for high-ish prices and donate the money to animal organizations.
- Sew dog beds and other crafty items to sell, then donate the funds to animal charities/organizations.
- Spend your summer as a vegan camp counselor.
- Sponsor an animal at a sanctuary – ask your local sanctuary if they have a sponsorship program.
- Stack cages in your storefront window to raise awareness for the Beagle Freedom Project or other liberation organizations.
- Support animal rights/vegan crowdfunding campaigns (or start your own!).
- Volunteer at your local Whole Foods to give out samples of Just Mayo, Kite Hill cheese, and other vegan products.
- Volunteer (or intern!) at an animal sanctuary, shelter, or advocacy organization.
- Work as an undercover investigator for an animal advocacy organization.
Write
- Hone your writing skills to write well and often on animal issues.
- If you’re a student, include animal rights themes in your class assignments.
- Pitch an animal-related piece to a non-vegan/animal-related publication – and do it well!
- Sign up with the Vegan Pen Pals Project.
- Start an animal rights/vegan blog – try to come up with a unique point of view, because there are already tons out there!
- Submit animal-related op-eds and letters to the editor to your local newspapers.
- Submit a relevant animal rights-related academic paper to a non-animal-related conference.
- Write a letter for Animal Writes.
- Write fiction that doubles as advocacy.
- Write letters to major and/or local environmental organizations asking them to take a public stance on animal agriculture.
- Write letters to your local, state, and federal representatives regarding animal issues.
- Write to cooking shows and food magazines requesting that they feature more vegan food.
- Write to your local TV station asking that they air vegan cooking shows/animal rights-related shows (like Our Hen House!).