Guest Post by Heidi Rogers
My 3 year old daughter Elizabeth honored me with an invitation to her nursery school’s Special Person’s Lunch. What would be on the menu? It was a valid question. It was, in fact, 3 year olds cooking!  All I knew was that Elizabeth needed to bring a vegetable to school that day. I sent her with 3 potatoes!

Well, as all the “Special People” sat down for lunch, my question was answered. We were served Friendship Soup that her class had cooked. Each child contributed a vegetable and a soup was created; a vegan soup made with love. The children were so proud to be serving us their own cooking creation.

The following weekend, my daughter wanted to make Friendship Soup at home, for Robyn and her daughter, Charlotte. They were coming to visit for a few days. So here is our creation. I think it was a big hit because Robyn and Charlotte ate it for 3 meals during their stay! Please notice that the ingredients are very flexible. Use what you have in your fridge and cabinet, use what is in-season, and use what you were given in your CSA.


                                   FRIENDSHIP SOUP

INGREDIENTS:
Olive oil
2 onions- chopped
4 cloves of garlic
(2) 32 oz boxes of vegetable stock*
6-8 carrots cut into small pieces
1 small eggplant cut into small pieces
2 large zucchini cut into small pieces
2-3 celery stalks cut into small  pieces
29 oz can of tomato puree
28 oz can of San Marzano tomatoes
2 cans 15 oz cannellini beans - washed and drained
2 cans 15 oz red kidney beans- washed and drained
Package of baby spinach
Salt and pepper to taste
Pasta of your choice: my daughter chose a box of pasta that looked like wheels!

Other options: mushrooms, different beans, French style green beans, quinoa, lentils, and/or basil.


DIRECTIONS:
In a large saucepan on medium begin to heat the olive oil. Cut onions and saute in the olive oil. When onions are just cooked (5-7 minutes) add garlic. Cook for 1 minute. Add a splash of vegetable stock to slow the garlic’s cooking process. Add all the chopped vegetables and saute over medium heat. Continue to stir and add stock to help vegetables cook. When carrots begin to soften add the remainder of the stock (one or two boxes*), puree, tomatoes, beans, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil. Pile spinach on top of soup and cover for a few minutes until spinach is wilted and can be stirred easily into soup.

Reduce the heat, cover and let simmer for approximately 1 hour until the vegetables are tender. Check soup every once in a while, stir and adjust stock to your preference.

I cook the pasta separately and add it into soup bowls individually. This allows you to easily freeze any left over soup and make fresh pasta each time you want soup.

*The amount of stock added is up to you. Do you want soup? Or stew?

*Favorite kitchen tool -- Rachael Ray’s Bench Scrape 
 

 
Enjoy the Friendship Soup!

Editor's Note: After (or even before) making this wonderful soup, you can read, Growing Vegetable Soup by Lois Ehlert together. It's the perfect book! Read the review at Vegbooks.org. Also click here for lots of fun vegetable-related games and crafts, and printable coloring pages.

So, what else can you do when your child refuses to eat anything green and seems to subsist on chicken-fingers and French fries alone? 

1)    Educate your kids about nutrition.The more they know the easier it will be to guide them into making good choices. Remember how smart kids really are. Don’t sell them short. If they enjoy sports, are interested in beauty, or want more energy, teach them how the foods they eat will help them do what matters to them most. 

2)    Make food preparation a family affair.The more you involve your kids in the preparation and selection of meals and snacks, the more willing they are to try healthy foods. Even a simple trip to the grocery store to allow them to pick out the fruits and vegetables for the week (each child in the family should get his/her own choice) can make a world of difference. Let older children find recipes online that sound good to them using healthy foods. Allow them to choose how the vegetable of the day is prepared and even help in the preparation.  

3)    Have a make-your-own smoothie party. Fill bowls with various ingredients, such as berries, mango, spinach, broccoli, flax or chia seeds, and let kids pick what they want. They can even turn the blender on! They love to be in control!

4)    Make your own salad. The same trick will work for salads. But don’t just include lettuce. Use seeds, fruit, dried peas, anything goes!

5)    Let them dip. Make a dip like hummus or use a healthy store-bought version and watch them eat string beans, carrots, celery, cucumbers, and any other veggie that you cut into strips for dipping. 

6)    Make veggie and fruit shapes. Thinly slice carrots and cucumbers and use tiny cookie cutters to make shapes. Everything is more fun when it’s in a shape (think silly bands).

7)    Make a vegetarian soup at least one night of the week. Pureed soups are great because you can’t see what’s in them (kale is easy to use this way). You’ll be amazed what they’ll eat when it’s been whizzed in the blender or  mixed with an immersion blender.

8)    Remember that food preferences are formed by one’s environment and taste is a learned phenomenon. In fact, studies show it take 8-15 times before a child accepts a new food. Try a different way of preparing the same food. Once you find a way that your child likes that food, you can branch out and experiment with it because their taste buds have already adjusted to it. Food preferences and tastes are formed early in life, so it is important to introduce your children to a variety of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.

9)    Don't make excuses. Don't say, "My kid only eats chicken fingers." He/she is not purchasing those chicken fingers with his/her allowance. You make the rules in your house. You purchase the food. Don't buy the junk! Kids are born with survival instincts. They will not starve themselves. True hunger is difficult to deny, and when children are faced only with healthy food
options their natural hunger will drive them to eat the healthy foods available, without bribing, coercing or any other schemes. Scientific research shows that children most often take on the eating habits of their parents. Once they realize that there are no other options, they will eat, and then they will begin to change their habits. So will you. 

10)    Lead by example. If you permit only healthy foods in the house the entire family will learn to eat properly. You can't tell your children to eat broccoli while you are eating French fries. You must show them how to eat by doing it yourself. The entire family needs to eat the same foods at mealtime. The food that is being served is the only option. Include a number of choices so
that children maintain some feeling of autonomy in what they eat, but NEVER make a separate kids’ meal or allow them to order off of the kids’ menus at a restaurant. Mealtime is a communal, family time to come together. Let that attitude be reflected in the sharing of the meal. Kids’ menus are rife with terrible food. Stay away from them an order from the sides for your kids or share what you order (the portions are usually too big for one adult anyway).

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The Secret Life of Mitch Spinach was written in collaboration with renowned, board-certified family physician, Joel Fuhrman, M.D., who specializes in preventing and reversing disease through nutritional and natural methods.


To get kids on the right track with healthy eating, order the Mitch Spinach book series at www.Mitchspinach.com 

Guest Post by Hillary Feerick and Jeff Hillenbrand
As parents, we want what is best for our children. We take the role of protecting them very seriously, and we would never intentionally harm them. We read to them at bedtime, provide them with the best education, insist that they wear their
seatbelts, but when it comes to food, somehow many of us falter. In this country, however, we have failed so significantly to nourish our children that the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) has predicted that this is the first generation of children that may NOT outlive their parents. The latest scientific research has shown that the foods our children eat in the first 10 years of their lives has a critical and profound effect on their lifelong health, but we have not fully comprehended the gravity of these findings. As a result, the number of obese and overweight children has tripled in the last thirty years, and the number of cases of type 2 diabetes (a disease once called “adult onset diabetes” and linked to high sugar intake) has increased at an alarming rate. And the list of frightening statistics goes on: The results reported by the 1992 Bogalusa Heart Study confirmed that most children and teenagers already had significant plaque buildup in their arteries (a precursor to heart disease). American children consume less than 2% of their diet from fruits and vegetables. About 25% of toddlers between ages one and two eat no fruits and vegetables at all. By the time American children are 15 months old, French fries have become their most commonly consumed vegetable. They move into adulthood eating 90% of their calories from dairy products, white flour, sugar, and oil.

While we have educated our children about the dangers of smoking cigarettes and the use of recreational drugs, we just don’t realize how damaging eating foods on the kids’ menu really is. In fact, The World Health Organization (WHO) has recently stated that more people die today from eating a diet full of junk and processed foods than from cigarette and illegal drug use combined. We wouldn’t allow our children to sit at the table, smoking cigarettes and drinking whisky, but we don’t think twice about regularly giving them candy, soda, fries and cheeseburgers, foods that are shockingly more harmful. Although we would
never mean to do anything to hurt our children, every day we are unknowingly causing significant harm.

This heavy emphasis on candy, junk food, and other forms of junk foods does not help our children reach their potential. In fact, a recent study published in The Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health suggests that it limits their brain development. The study followed the dietary patterns of nearly 4,000 children from birth for over eight years and found that toddlers who ate a nutrient-rich diet full of fruits and vegetables had higher IQ scores when they reached 8 years of age compared to the toddlers who consumed processed foods full of fat and sugar.

In response to the current health crisis in America, many counties and states have written laws that prohibit parents and teachers from serving foods or beverages whose first ingredient is sugar. (Please see attached example of New Jersey's policy.) Some states, school boards, and individual schools have implemented additional limits on trans fats and prohibit candy and sugared beverages in any form. The Broward County Schools Wellness Policy (the county in which we live and our children attend elementary school) states that “Schools shall encourage fundraisers that promote positive health habits such as the sale of non-food and nutritious food items as well as fundraising to support physical activities.” Michelle Obama has launched the Let’s Move Campaign to get kids exercising and making healthier choices.
 

These are all steps in the right direction. However, as parents of a first-grader and a Kindergartener, we know first-hand how difficult it really is to raise healthy kids in a fast-food and junk-food filled world. Adults know that good nutrition fosters academic and athletic performance, but getting children to understand the importance of a healthy diet can be a daunting task. Children need fun and entertaining ways to learn about healthy eating. Many parents recognize the problem but find it difficult to implement change. Frustrated by the lack of a healthy, smart, cool role model for our 5 and 6 years old children, we created a
super hero who gains powers from fruits and vegetables: Mitch Spinach. When children read about his adventures, THEY ask YOU for fruits and vegetables. The subtlety of fiction enables children to learn without even realizing that they are learning.

In the first book in the series, The Secret Life of Mitch Spinach: 
  
Mitch Spinach seems to be an ordinary kid, but his classmates have begun to suspect something. The notes in his custom-made, temperature-controlled Nutripak-lunchbox appear to have been written in code. While other kids eat their usual   chicken fingers and pepperoni pizza, Mitch Spinach mixes up his meal in a battery-powered blender before their curious and envious eyes. Although he is the smartest, nicest, strongest kid in Ms. Radicchio’s class, he often misses recess when he is called to Principal Lycopene’s office. The truth is that his high- powered fruit and vegetable smoothies give him special powers, such as super-sonic hearing and amazing night vision, which help him tackle problems and solve mysteries at Sunchoke Elementary.

Written in collaboration with renowned family physician and best selling author Joel Fuhrman, M.D, The Secret Life of Mitch Spinach provides a perfect way for kids to learn about healthy eating while enjoying exciting  adventures and mysteries. Each book in the series contains a healthy recipe and a “Secrets for Parents and Teachers”section, written by Dr. Fuhrman, that explains many of the nutritional concepts alluded to in the book. Dr. Fuhrman is a board-certified family physician, author, and nutritional researcher who specializes in preventing and reversing disease through nutritional and natural methods. 
 
While many books focus on a child’s dislike of a certain food (usually a vegetable), this book series is devoid of that type of negativity and instead transforms healthy eating into a behavior to be copied in order to gain “super” powers like those of Mitch Spinach. The Mitch Spinach children’s book series has the power to significantly change the way that children eat because it actually prompts children to ask for healthy food without preaching to them about the benefits of a healthy diet. 
 
The Mitch Spinach website features creative, multidisciplinary lesson plans and outlines the importance of sound nutrition. Kids can print educational games, such as crossword puzzles and word searches that pertain to the healthy foods used in the books to reinforce what they have learned.

A new resource to help you in your quest to adopt a healthy lifestyle as a family, the Mitch Spinach book series can make your transition even easier. When kids start asking their parents for broccoli, carrots, or flax seeds because they want to be like Mitch Spinach, your own healthy choices will seem effortless and fun!

To get kids on the right track with healthy eating, order your copy of The Secret Life of Mitch Spinach and the brand new Mitch
Spinach and the Smell of Victory by visiting the website.

Stay tuned for Part II:  10 Secrets to Get Your Kids to Eat More Fruits and Veggies



Editor's Note: A big thank you to the authors for addressing such a timely issue, and working to fix the problem by creating a tool for parents (and teachers) to use to encourage kids to eat their fruits and vegetables. I highly recommend this wonderful book. Check out my review on Vegbooks. Here is a printable memory card game that features fruits and vegetables.


Hillary Feerick and Jeff Hillenbrand have been married for 15 years and have two young children, a girl and a boy. Months before their first child was born, they began to delve more deeply into infant and maternal nutrition. Compelled by the difficulties of raising healthy children in a fast-paced, junk-food-filled world, they decided to combine their expertise in health (Jeff holds a BS in exercise science) and writing (Hillary holds a BA and MA in English and is an English teacher) to create Mitch Spinach, a healthy role model for children.

Guest post by Liz Longacre, founder of Gentle Living
Traveling abroad as a vegan can get tricky. Some countries just aren’t as vegan-friendly as others. Traveling with vegan children gets even more complicated. Going on an African safari as a vegan family? Impossible?

Where are you going to find food? Will your tour guides make sure your vegan requirements are taken care of? Will you have to feed your children junk food the whole time to get by? 
 
While veganism is growing, the travel industry is a long way away from truly recognizing this market. And unfortunately, animals are often exploited through tourism instead of protected by it.

When I started selling vegan safaris in Tanzania through my boutique travel company, Your Time Travels, I had no idea if they were going to work well. Would my local guides take vegan restrictions seriously? Is veganism even understood in Tanzania? Would they really deliver on everything I was asking them to do?

Somehow I serendipitously lucked out and found local guides in Tanzania, a top safari destination, who go above and beyond when it comes to my very detailed vegan safari food requirements. Unlike most local guides who I’ve presented this request to, they actually seem to enjoy the challenge of creating vegan safaris. They’ve been the most amazing people to work with and have delivered over and over again when it comes to making sure vegan clients are well fed. 
 
To my surprise my local guides recently invited me on a vegan safari so I could experience what I’ve been selling firsthand. Needless to say, our safari was amazing and the people I work with were even more wonderful than I imagined. Below are some pictures of the amazing, healthy and fresh food we ate in Tanzania. 
 
Traveling on safari with a company that doesn’t take your food requirements seriously can be tricky. You can’t walk to a nearby restaurant, you have to rely on your guides, your private chefs, and/or the hotels you’re staying at to make sure your food needs are being met. 

While in Africa I met another vegan couple on safari who said that once the travel company they hired took their money, they no longer cared about their food restrictions. They were not given vegan meals and they both ended up getting food poisoning and being sick for four days straight. What a way to ruin a safari!

Family Safaris
Safaris are a great travel option for families (provided a doctor approves any necessary vaccinations and malaria pills for your children). If you’re vegan, you likely don’t take your children to many zoos or circuses to see animals, as so many other parents do. On safari you get to introduce your children to the animal world as it should be, where animals are roaming free in protected parks living the way nature intended. Tourist dollars are what protect these parks from poachers and land destruction.   
 
Note: Unfortunately there are some people who choose to go to Africa to kill its animals, through hunting safaris (in designated parks).
Tourism allows for that. As long as you’re spending your money responsibly, you can help use tourism as a tool for animal welfare, not as a weapon against it.


 

A few ways to ensure your children love their safari adventure:

•      Go on shorter safari drives so children don’t get antsy. During the safari drives the guides make sure to educate the children on everything they’re seeing to keep them engaged. Some of the animals they’ll see in Tanzania include elephants, zebras, giraffes, buffaloes, wildebeests, hippos, rhinos, lions, leopards, cheetahs, monkeys, gazelles, elands, hyenas, ostriches, and an endless variety of bird species.

•      Entertain them with a camera, binoculars and games while on safari.

•      Stay in family friendly hotels with swimming pools, TVs, soccer, cards, arts & crafts, games, and live entertainment. There are even babysitting options so parents can have some time alone.

•      Introduce them to local tribes to learn cultural dances and traditions.

•      Explore different national parks each day with different
concentrations of animal species.

•      Arrange outdoor picnic lunches.

•      Visit a local orphanage.

•      End your vacation on the beautiful beaches of Zanzibar, islands off the coast of Tanzania, where children can enjoy the beach and swimming pool.

As an animal lover, being on safari was an emotionally moving experience. You’re surrounded by animals and nature for as
far as you can see. It was so nice to be in a country where there were no elephant rides or other animal performances. Just animals roaming freely. A lion even walked over to our truck to lie in the shade of our vehicle after it was done eating (not a usual occurrence) and herds of elephants seemed to constantly appear out of nowhere. What a great way to educate your children on the animal kingdom.


If you are interested in booking a vegan family safari, you can contact Liz at liz@gentlelivingonline.com. For more information on these safaris click here. To see a sample family safari itinerary click here. 
 
Editor's Note: Having been to Africa, I can attest to the fact that there is no place on earth like it. In 2002, I went to South Africa for 9-weeks and volunteered helping animals. It was one of the best experiences of my life. That is why I plan on taking my daughter there once she gets a little bit older. I want her to see wild animals living in their natural environment. As she gets older she will understand (and hopefully embrace) the many reasons why we avoid artifical places where animals live such as zoos, aquariums, circuses and other venues in which animals are denied many of their basic instincts, desires, and needs, and often suffer from loneliness, fear, anxiety and despair.

Liz Longacre is the founder of Gentle Living. Gentle Living addresses all aspects of living a gentle but powerful life. From self-love, to animal welfare, to travel, to home decor, to ethical beauty & fashion, to an advice column, it’s all gentle; not weak, just gentle. Being
gentle is sometimes the most powerful thing you can do for yourself and the world around you. Gentle Living has a travel department called Your Time Travels. 

Guest post by Zoe Weil, co-founder and president of the Institute for Humane Education

When asked about their deepest hopes for their children, most parents don’t mention elite colleges, the best outfits, high SAT scores, athletic prowess, or future prom queens. Above all, most parents want their children to be happy and kind. They want them to have abiding values that will carry them through life and enable them to be good, hard-working, successful people whom others like and respect. They want them to make healthy and wise choices and put their talents and skills into practice in meaningful ways. In a word, they want their children to be humane, embodying the best qualities of human beings.

Raising a humane child is challenging in today’s world. Parents are often raising their children in opposition to cultural norms. While today’s society promotes materialism, junk food, myopia, and endless competition, many parents want their children to experience wonder, to be healthy and wise, and to learn to collaborate. These parents are often trying to inculcate awe, compassion, gratitude and respect for self and others (including the natural world and other species), while their culture is busy producing ever more entitled,“screen-addicted” teenagers. It’s not an easy task to raise children even within a culture that supports one’s values, but it’s much harder when one’s deepest values are contradicted daily, in school, through the media, and within mainstream culture.

What’s a parent to do?

By utilizing the tools of the humane educator, parents can challenge cultural norms and raise their children to embrace those values their family holds dear. Humane educators rely on four key elements to teach children how they can be conscientious choicemakers and engaged changemakers and to put their deepest values into practice in concrete, practical ways. They are:

• To provide accurate information (in age appropriate ways) about the challenges of our time
• To foster the 3 Cs of curiosity, creativity, and critical thinking
• To instill the 3 Rs of reverence, respect, and responsibility
• To offer positive choices and the tools for problem-solving

Finally, humane educators seek to model their message for their students by cultivating the 3 Is of inquiry, introspection, and integrity so that they, themselves, are lifelong learners who seek out knowledge that will allow them to live more humanely, who self reflect to understand where the confluence of their new knowledge and their actions lies, and who live with integrity to the best of their ability putting their values into action.

Parents can do this, too. By choosing humane products and foods, going outside in nature instead of to the mall, living consciously and conscientiously, they will model their own message of humane living. The next step is becoming their children’s first humane educator and teaching them about the challenges of our time. While it’s very important that parents don’t expose
their young children to atrocities, by nurturing their reverence for others, human and nonhuman as well as the natural world, and by slowly introducing information in age appropriate ways, fostering their critical and creative thinking about that information, and offering them opportunities to make a difference, parents can raise their children to be humane. 

For those parents interested in learning more about how to do this, I invite you to read my book, Above All, Be Kind: Raising a Humane Child in Challenging Times and to register for the Institute for Humane Education’s online course for parents, “Raising a Humane Child.”



Editor's Note: If you are an educator, please sign up for Teaching for a Positive Future - a 6-week online course for only $135 to learn skills, tools and insight for teaching students critical and creative thinking about social justice, environmental  ethics and animal protection. It's money well spent.

I've read both, Above All, Be Kind: Raising a Humane Child in Challenging Times and Most Good, Least Harm: A Simple Principle for a Better World and Meaningful Life by Zoe Weil and they are both excellent books. They will inspire you to change your way of thinking, and you'll look at many things including current systems, industries, products and habits/traditions in a new light. I highly recommend these books for individuals, parents and educators who want to make the world a better place for all.

You can follow the Institute for Humane Education's blog: Humane Connection.




Zoe Weil is the president of the Institute for Humane Education, which offers online graduate programs in humane education through an affiliation with Valparaiso University, online professional development courses, Summer Institutes for educators, and free, downloadable activities and lesson plans at its awarding winning resource center on its website: www.HumaneEducation.org. Zoe is the author of The Power and Promise of Humane Education; Nautilus Silver Medal winner Most Good, Least Harm: A Simple Principle for a Better World and Meaningful Life; Above All, Be Kind:Raising a Humane Child in Challenging Times, and Moonbeam Gold Medal winner for juvenile fiction, Claude and Medea, which follows the adventures of 12-year-olds in New York City who are inspired by an eccentric teacher to right wrongs where they find them. She has given an acclaimed TEDx talk, “The World Becomes What You Teach” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5HEV96dIuYand blogs at www.zoeweil.com. Zoe holds master’s degrees from Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania. You can follow her on Twitter at ZoeWeil and become her friend on Facebook.

Guest post by Celeste Hill, organizer of Vegkins
Way back before Vegkins came into existence, my husband and I lost touch with the vegan community. There was no Facebook back then. Hard to imagine I know.

Once our son was born, we became cognizant of this missing part of our life. Having children has a way of bringing your beliefs, whatever they may be, into sharp focus. Thus began our search for fellow vegan parents.

After meeting a few local vegan families like the one from These Little Piggies Have Tofu, we were lucky enough to run into Dallas Rising from the Animal Rights Coalition (ARC). She was collecting names to start a vegan/vegetarian family group. We were simply ecstatic. It is all history from there.

Vegkins is a program of ARC, for parent(s) of vegan and vegetarian kids. It meets on a monthly basis within the twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. The activities include story hours, playground play dates, holiday parties, vegan soft serve meet-ups, a visit to a no-kill animal shelter, waffle parties, puppet shows, music classes and potlucks.

As a parent, I've found it endlessly helpful to provide my children with a supportive vegan/vegetarian family community. What kid wouldn't enjoy a vegan Halloween party or a waffle party?

 

What you can't see on a web site or fan page are the friendships which have blossomed from ARC's Vegkins. Many families attend each other's birthday parties and get together socially outside of Vegkins.
 
Frankly I can't tell you how much it means to our kids to interact with vegan peers. The supportive nature of the group has been amazing. We share advice on handling difficult situations, school activities, as well as recommend books and movies to each other.
 
Each year, more families join our group and find that niche they've been seeking. It is an integral part of helping our children maintain their veg lifestyle, as well as normalize it. They know other kids out there who are thriving, as they are too.
 
Lastly, I'll end with a book recommendation, which my young kids love. It is called Happy, Healthy, Vegan Kids. There are beautiful pictures of rescued farm animals living happy and peaceful lives at sanctuaries. My kids are apt listeners when we read this story. It also contains some simple veg recipes. We appreciate the focus on positive pictures since the kids are still young. 

Editor’s Note: As Celeste mentions above, it is really important for vegetarian, and especially vegan parents to meet other parents who are also raising veg kids. You can learn so much from eachother, and kids can meet and play with other kids who share a similar core value. Check your local community to see if a veg group already exists (if you live in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, join Vegkins, and if you live in the NYC area, join NYC Vegetarian and Vegan Families Meetup) and if not, start your own! Make flyers, run an ad in the newspaper, coordinate it through your child’s school or day care center, or approach a local veg restaurant for help getting the word out. Read my “Start a Group For Vegan Parents and Kids In Your City” blog post on Girlie Girl Army for some inspiration. 

Celeste Hill has been vegan for more than a decade and is the proud mother of two vegan kids, as well as an assistant early childhood family education teacher. She has a serious cookbook collection addiction, in fact she won the VegNews Holiday Cookie contest, so definitely check out some of the recipes on her website, Growing Up Veg--a wonderful resource for vegan parents. 

Guest post by Kathy Stevens, founder and director of Catskill Animal Sanctuary
It’s seven in the morning. Kathy Keefe, Catskill Animal Sanctuary’s (CAS) farm manager, is stacking dishes on a cart inside the
main barn’s spacious feed room. The pig dishes are piled and overflowing with broccoli, apples, tomatoes, beans, and pumpkin; the horse dishes are each different from the other, depending on the nutritional needs of the Sanctuary’s resident equines, and the same is true for the chicken dishes. Heavy broiler chickens who struggle under industry-induced obesity get a low-calorie diet, while others get calorie-dense sunflower seeds and cracked corn mixed in with their grain-based diet. All the chickens get leafy greens, too, and even the broilers get to snack on an occasional grape or banana slice. One dish gets glucosamine, another an iron supplement, electrolytes in a third and Omega 3’s in a fourth. That’s the level of individual care the animals at Catskill Animal Sanctuary receive.

The notion that whether human or hen, we are all individuals and should be treated as such permeates every aspect of CAS, and I believe it’s the main reason families flock to us.

When you bring your kids to CAS, for instance, you’ll find that there’s no such thing as a “standard tour” at our 110-acre farm animal sanctuary. Instead, your family is apt to be greeted in the parking lot by a member of the Underfoot Family-- a pig or chicken, turkey or goat who, for one reason or another, is happier roaming freely than living among members of his/her species. So be forewarned, a human may well walk out to greet you, but so might Rambo the sheep, Mike the rooster,or Arthur the goat.

Next, you’ll find that your tour guide will want to know the names of your children, how old they are, and whether they’ve ever kissed a pig or napped with a cow. There’s no “script” at CAS, so I can’t promise that these will be the exact questions; but what I can promise is this: that from the moment you arrive, your child will be actively included in the experience of visiting Catskill Animal Sanctuary. In fact, when tour groups are filled with families with young children, they often don’t move too far and definitely don’t move too fast. Why? Because kids need to sit on the ground, eye to eye, with Ethel the turkey. Because kids need to walk slowly into the rabbit enclosure and sit quietly (“Pretend to be a rock,” we say) as the shy creatures inch closer, perhaps sniffing a knee, before hopping away. And because kids need to lie on their bellies, heads in their hands, watching the pigs do what pigs do: root, flop down in the pond on a hot day, press their cool wet snouts through the fence to say hello. 
 
When you’re raising vegetarian/vegan kids, or moving along that path, visiting places where food animals are happy and right there, in your face, reinforces all that you’re doing at home. When children have had the chance to be kissed by a cow, choosing a different meal simply affirms their innate kindness and deepens their bond with our animal friends. 

We recently received an e-mail from a proud mom. Her son Henry, now ten years old, has attended our children’s day camp,
Camp Kindness, for two summers in a row, and has since become a passionate and committed vegan. Henry and his family were recently out at dinner with family friends, and Henry was questioned by the grown-ups about his diet. According to his mom, after very eloquently listing several animal, health, and environmental reasons for his decision, Henry looked at the grown-ups and said, “So I think that the question shouldn’t be about why I’m vegetarian…the question should be about why you aren’t.”

Come share the love. Catskill Animal Sanctuary in Saugerties, NY is open for tours Saturdays and Sundays April through October. The Homestead, our four-room inn, will be open year-round, seven days a week, beginning in March so you can plan your trip and stay right at the farm! Camp Kindness, which holds week-long sessions in July and August, will begin registering children in April. We hope to see you soon!


Note from Editor: My husband and I visited CAS a few years before our daughter, Charlotte was born, and can attest to the fact that it is truly a beautiful haven for rescued farm animals. The animals who live there receive so much love and attention. We can't wait to bring Charlotte this summer! The sanctuary is located within 1/2hr of the historic town of Woodstock. So make a family vacation out of it; visit the sanctuary (sleep on site), go hiking, go tubing down the Esopus River, take a train ride on the Catskill Mountain Railroad, shop, and eat at one of the many vegetarian restaurants in the area.