Jain Vegans at Oshwal & Navnat Melas (UK) in 2011

With the help of a grant from The Vegan Society and lots of food donations from food manufacturers, retailers, friends and family the Jain Vegans team hosted a food and information stall at the event.

The stall had a host of Vegan Society leaflets, Jain Vegans information leaflets (in which the Vegan Society is promoted), "Making the Connection" DVDs and copies of Will Tuttle's "Living in Harmony with All Life" CDs. We also had Vegan Society Vegl tablets and the Animal Free Shopper available for sale.

Our initial strategy was to lure people in by offering free vegan hot drinks and treats in exchange for answering a short questionnaire with three simple yes or no questions.  The survey asked whether the person was aware that cows are killed in the milk production process, whether they felt it was acceptable for Jains to consume milk products and whether they wanted to take action to help reduce the suffering imposed on cows. The questionnaire invited those who wanted to take action to speak to a member of the Jain Vegans team to find out what they could do and to leave behind their e-mail addresses.

The survey forms turned out to be a great success. After answering the questions, participants asked us questions about the milk production process (rather than us imposing the information on them) and were very interested in trying out plant-based foods. We received more than 180 e-mail addresses from the survey forms (which, when added to the 70 e-mail addresses from our sign-up sheets is more e-mail addresses than the Jain Vegans team had collected over the previous 2 years). And the responses provided us with powerful information that we can use to persuade leaders of Jain organisations that all food served at future events should be vegan.

Survey forms aside, the stall was a great success. We constantly had a crowd around us sampling the delicious vegan treats. Despite having about nine volunteers manning the stall throughout the day, we always seemed to have more visitors than we could talk to at any point in time. While it is hard to pinpoint an exact number, I wouldn't be surprised if we had over 1500 visitors over the course of the day.

A majority of visitors were pleasantly surprised about just how great the dairy-free versions of the traditional Indian dishes tasted and many took home a handful of Vegan Society leaflets and some bought Veg1 tablets and/or a copy of the Animal Free Shopper.

The day after the event, Dr Atul Shah (founder of Young Jains and CEO of Diverse Ethics) left the following feedback about our stall on the Jain Vegans e-group:

I was one of the visitors to the stall, and hugely impressed by the variety, the information, the enthusiasm and sheer positive compassion which flowed. I agree that it was one of the most popular stalls - which speaks volumes.

I would like to echo your sentiments - it was an excellent statement of how genuine positive effort and compassion can pour out such creativity and synergy. Truly well done. I thought your idea of making traditional foods like chaas and ondwo in a vegan way was a classic way of breaking the taboos. It was fascinating to see that in the compound of the London Jain Temple, you were evolving Jainism to a new level through your work - it is a tradition which has never been static and your stall was living proof. I agree that the whole mela was very well organised and executed and that itself is evidence that the Jain community is very much alive, vibrant and engaged. It is also looking for meaning and purpose and charities provide this.

Navnat Mela

Jain Vegans ran a very similar information and food tasting stall at the Navnet Mela on14 August and The Vegan Society also sponsored this event while other companies gave free samples.

This Mela was aimed primarily at the Navnat community, a smaller Jain community. This was a smaller event but we none the less talked to about 100 visitors and received approximately 70 e-mail addresses.