Vegan Potlucks

Potluck Celebrations for the Turkeys

Thanksgiving’s focus on food provides many opportunities for advocates to educate others about how their choices affect farm animals. Not only do you have a platform to talk about turkeys, but you can also share terrific turkey-free meals with your family, friends and neighbors. Hosting or attending vegan potlucks are fun ways to speak out for farm animals; around Thanksgiving, specifically, these are  also great ways to show your friends and family how delicious compassion can taste!

Here are some tips to get you started!

• Look for vegan Thanksgiving dinners in your community and plan to attend. They are often hosted by local vegetarian or vegan societies, veg or animal rights Meet-Up groups, or other compassionate members of your community.
• Bring Farm Sanctuary’s Adopt-a-Turkey brochures to share with other guests.
• Join us for Farm Sanctuary’s Celebration FOR the Turkeys, held the Saturday before Thanksgiving at both our New York and California Shelters.

Here are some tips for hosting your own turkey celebration:

• Coordinate potluck participants so that your meal is balanced with appetizers, entrées, side dishes, and desserts. Check out our extensive Thanksgiving recipe collection.
• Share these formulas for a turkey-friendly feast with your guests – just send them the link with their invitation.

Plan a time during the event to talk to your guests about Farm Sanctuary’s Adopt-a-Turkey Project. Here are some tips:

• Thank your guests for coming to share compassion with you, then share some of the truth behind industrial turkey production.
• Keep the event positive by including turkey rescue stories and other facts about these fabulous birds.
• Pass out Adopt-A-Turkey brochures and encourage each person to give thanks by sponsoring one of the turkey residents of Farm Sanctuary. You can facilitate these adoptions by collecting the forms and donations and mailing them all in one envelope.
• Make it a multi-media event by showing Farm Sanctuary’s public service announcements. Just download them onto your computer.

Some additional tips:

• Don’t forget the environment – avoid disposable dinnerware.
• If you don’t have enough dishes or silverware for all your guests, ask them to bring their own set.
• While you are at it, ask your guests to bring a container to take home a sampling of leftovers (if there are any!).
• Have fun! This should be a celebratory event that leaves you with a full belly, new friends and comrades, and a happy heart.