✊💚🐮 Thank you to the seven superb activists who joined us for our third annual March to Close All Slaughterhouses!

Together, we reached hundreds of passersby, championed a plant-based food system free from the atrocities of the abattoir, and built momentum for a slaughter-free St. Louis.

Slaughterhouses are indeed a strategic weak point for the animal abuse industry: the public already widely recognizes their cruelty, and support for phasing them out is growing.

By targeting slaughterhouses, we threaten the entire system of animal abuse. We weaken the economies of scale central to its success, making animal agriculture increasingly unprofitable and untenable as a business model.

But perhaps most importantly, we highlight the foundational cruelty of animal agriculture: the needless killing of innocents that drives animal commodification and consumption. The reality becomes inescapable; consumers can no longer deny the cruelty inherent to a system founded upon systemic violence.

And if we convince consumers that all slaughter is fundamentally unjustified, that slaughterhouses are moral abominations that must be ended through individual action paired with vigorous legal intervention, we can grind the system to a halt, ending the violent institution of the abattoir forever. And it all begins by spotlighting the undeniable violence, cruelty, and overall depravity inherent to the slaughterhouse model.

By opposing slaughterhouses, we therefore strike at the most foundational roots of animal oppression, challenging assumptions about human supremacy and demanding we properly value—and diligently protect—animal lives.

🥳💚🎶 Thank you to the over 400 people who joined us on Labor Day weekend for our first annual Vegan Block Party at Bougie Bites!

Together, we savored vegan takes on American classics, including burgers, pancakes, ice cream, nachos, and more. We relaxed, partied, and refueled our souls for challenges and opportunities to come. And we celebrated vegan community while uplifting St. Louis’ newest vegan restaurant.

We provided a vibrant, joy-filled alternative to a traditionally meat-centric holiday, reaching over 26,000 St. Louisans and generating over 35,000 views between Facebook and Instagram alone. Our KMOV article performed even better, generating over 400,000 views and achieving a 1.46% click-through rate.

Each view represents a seed of compassion being planted in the minds of over a quarter million St. Louisans. These gentle reminders, small nudges, and mini motivators increase the salience of veganism in our community, slowly but surely inspiring diet change as veganism becomes more relevant, accessible, and attractive to fellow St. Louisans.

A special thank you to Bougie Bites for hosting our event and accommodating all 400+ guests, alongside our wonderful vendors who helped make this event so exciting and rewarding to attend.

Please join us again next Saturday at STL Vegan Market - September 2025!

✊⚖️🌎 Thank you to the eight excellent activists who joined us as we demanded justice for all beings on World Day for the End of Speciesism!

Together, we reached roughly 12,000 passersby with our anti-speciesist, pro-justice message; raised awareness about the injustice of speciesism; and championed a future where all beings live safe, happy, and free.

Over 100 organizations participated in this worldwide day of action, united around five core demands:

• 1️⃣ Create a new legal category for animals that abolishes their property status

• 2️⃣ Launch global education campaigns against speciesism and for nonviolence

• 3️⃣ Build a nonviolent dietary culture free from fishing, slaughter, and other cruelty

• 4️⃣ Advance ethical research without animal exploitation or torture

• 5️⃣ Ensure all environmental decisions consider animals’ interests, including those of wildlife

With a giant banner that PETA loaned us, we made our position clear: end speciesism—and with it, all forms of oppression, including racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, and xenophobia.

At this political moment, a consistent anti-oppression message has never been more critical, urgent, or necessary. We are proud to have represented the cause for a united social justice movement that champions the rights of all beings, regardless of sex, sexuality, or species.

Please join us again at our March to Close All Slaughterhouses as we fight to build a #SlaughterFreeSTL!

🍕💚🤤 Thank you to the 50 pizza connoisseurs who joined us for our Vegan Pizza Party at Seedz Cafe yesterday evening!

It was a highly enjoyable, relaxing night filled with friends and brimming with arguably the best vegan pizza in all of St. Louis.

Together, we savored six unique pizza combos, delighted in each other’s company, and enjoyed the cool, comforting weather.

Even more importantly, we supported a phenomenal local business and jump-started our K-12 and college outreach programs for the Fall 2025 season.

From building allyships with K-12 and college students to meeting a teacher at a local high school trying to deliver vegan education to her students, we made meaningful progress toward kinder, more compassionate campus communities in the St. Louis region.

Please join us at future outreach events, such as our upcoming March to Close All Slaughterhouses!

🐥💚🐷 Thank you to the five phenomenal leafleters who joined us for our SLU Leafleting Field Trip with Vegan Outreach!

Together, we distributed over 3,400 leaflets, spared an estimated 1,700-2,400 animals from a lifetime of suffering, and started the semester strong.

Research conducted by Vegan Outreach, Mercy For Animals, and The Humane League, for example, has consistently found that roughly one animal is spared from a lifetime of suffering for every two booklets distributed. Distributing leaflets at colleges and universities can be especially impactful.

In a single minute during a class change, you can easily distribute several leaflets, sparing multiple animals from horrors, injustices, and atrocities so profound, our language can hardly accommodate their excesses. Leafleting is therefore one of the simplest, most effective actions you can take to reduce animal suffering en route to building a just, sustainable world.

It’s astonishing that just five people could meaningfully impact this many lives in just four hours. Imagine what we could accomplish if the estimated 168,000 vegetarians and vegans in the St. Louis region consistently took action for animals beyond simply not eating them.

There is massive, pent-up potential for transformative change in our community. Be one more changemaker unlocking that potential: make a commitment today to attend our next outreach event!

😍💚🛒 Thank you to the over 500 attendees who joined us for our August market!

Like roughly half our markets so far this year, this market proved challenging:

The heat index was 107°. A storm rolled through and destroyed several tents. Vendors skipped due to the extreme weather. And over half a dozen other major events took place in St. Louis on the same day, including four large food festivals.

But we still found a way to throw a successful event where vendors enjoyed good business, we celebrated stellar vegan vibes, and we built a more vegan- and animal-friendly St. Louis—together!

A special thank you to our steadfast vendors and attendees who braved the hot weather to participate in our August market. We would also like to thank our sponsors—Carol House Furniture, Bougie Bites, Bombay Food Junkies, Sun Solar, Harvest Shreds, Seedz Cafe, Pieces Board Game Bar and Cafe, and Pearl’s Plant Kitchen—for continuing to make the market possible.

The market is a labor of love that has become a vegan awareness-raising powerhouse, generating over 1.5 million views and reaching over 310,000 St. Louisans so far this year alone. But we couldn’t do it without the hundreds of faithful supporters who show up, market after market.

Thank you for making this community event so vibrant, impactful, and joyous, and see you again at our September market!

🥳🍦💚 Thank you to the 237 people who joined us for our final Vegan Ice Cream Social of the season at Bombay Food Junkies!

This event was our largest ice cream social ever, our largest restaurant meetup ever, and the largest restaurant meetup in St. Louis history, obliterating our previous record of 180 attendees.

Together, we celebrated National Ice Cream Day, savored the best vegan ice cream in St. Louis, and helped build a world where animals no longer suffer and die in the dairy industry.

But more than anything, this mighty turnout signified the enormous potential of our local vegan community and the growing strength of our local animal freedom movement.

At Project Animal Freedom, we will continue to steward our community forward and unlock the vast untapped potential not only here in St. Louis, but also across the broader Midwest.

What are you waiting for? Join the fight for animal freedom today!

Our Vegan BBQ Fest attracted just under 1,300 attendees, making it our largest, most successful market ever.

40+ vendors participated, and nearly a dozen of them sold out, including some vendors like Paradise Coconut Drinks who had never sold out at one of our markets before.

Better yet, this market reached more St. Louisans than any previous market, accumulating a jaw-dropping 590,000 views between Facebook, Instagram, and our KMOV article, which alone accounted for 259,000 of those views.

While we don’t have the exact number, this one event likely reached over a quarter million St. Louisans, showcasing what an awareness-raising powerhouse our markets can be. That’s 250,000+ seeds of compassion planted and more than 500,000+ gentle nudges to go and stay vegan, aiding people along their vegan journey.

Our second annual Vegan BBQ Fest has redefined what our markets can achieve, and we’re already planning to expand its reach even further, paving the way for continued, robust growth.

🗽⚖️🦅 Today is Animal Freedom Day, which, for Project Animal Freedom, is the biggest animal rights holiday of the year!

“What is Animal Freedom Day,” you ask? It’s a celebration of freedom for all, honoring our collective struggle for total liberation and the progress we make as a movement toward a just, compassionate world.

Coinciding with the 4th of July, this new animal rights holiday celebrates the values most Americans hold dear: freedom, equality, and justice for all. It appeals to our shared desire for freedom by expanding that vision to include all sentient beings, human and nonhuman alike.

Steeped in these values, veganism represents a true American ideal: a world where everyone can enjoy the riches of life, the joys of freedom, and the securities of justice.

Animal Freedom Day traces its roots back to 2021, but it was not until 2023 that we officially began celebrating it. You can celebrate Animal Freedom Day by:

• 🍔 savoring vegan BBQ on the 4th of July

• 🌭 organizing a vegan BBQ potluck or other vegan event

• ❌ refraining from shooting off fireworks

• ✊ protesting 4th of July cruelty

• 🗽 joining Vegan USA on Facebook

• ➕ inviting 10+ of your friends to join Vegan USA

• 😸 honoring the struggle for animal freedom in your own way

Animal freedom is a cause worth celebrating. Let’s transform the 4th of July—a traditionally meat-centric holiday—into a resounding call for freedom for all, nonhuman animals included.

Take pride in being vegan. Take pride in being an animal rights activist. Take pride in fighting for the most innocent, vulnerable, and defenseless among us, and celebrate our wins.

Because one day, these small victories will add up to total animal liberation. And that is something worth rejoicing over!

🍣💚🤤 Thank you to the 40+ vegan sushi connoisseurs who joined us last night for Vegan Sushi in the Park!

Together, we savored chef-prepared vegan eats, sipped Bo.co Boba’s delightful bubble teas, and enjoyed the lovely evening weather in historic Tower Grove Park.

This community-building event was the perfect opportunity to relax with vegetarians, vegans, and other veg-curious folk, nestled among the trees in a peaceful, secluded area of one of St. Louis’ most beautiful parks.

A special shout-out to Chef Kris for catering this event; people loved the food and delighted in each other’s company!

Please join us again later this month for our Vegan Ice Cream Social at Bombay Food Junkies.

🏳️‍🌈💚🐷 Thank you to everyone who joined for our Vegan Pride Parade at St. Louis PrideFest last Sunday!

Together, we championed animal rights as a vital social justice issue, represented our local vegan community, and reached tens of thousands of St. Louisans with our message of compassionate, plant-based living.

Throughout our Vegan Pride Parade, “Go vegan!” cheers broke out several times, with dozens of people shouting their support. Vegetarians, vegans, and nonvegans alike were thrilled to see our “Eat 🍑, not Animals” banner, laughing heartily and snapping photos to share with friends and family.

The experience was overwhelmingly positive, reaffirming the power of queer vegan outreach. The LGBTQIA+ community and its allies are uniquely receptive to calls for justice, love, respect, and compassion for all beings, nonhuman animals included, making this outreach especially impactful.

At Project Animal Freedom, we’re proud to celebrate Pride Month in ways both big and small. Please join us again on National Coming Out Day for our Gay Vegan Expo!

🤓💚🐷 Thank you to the 20 prospective volunteers who joined us for our Vegan Volunteer Meeting at Bombay Food Junkies!

Together, we:

1. 🙋‍♀️ explored opportunities for local vegan outreach, advocacy, and activism

2. 🧠 brainstormed bold ideas to boost our impact in St. Louis and beyond

3. 💪 strengthened our foundation for a Midwestern animal rights revolution

Most attendees were relatively new to Project Animal Freedom, and many had little to no prior experience in animal advocacy. That means with just one volunteer meeting, we injected nearly a dozen new activists into the movement!

Thanks to this event, we expanded our committees, infused our St. Louis chapter with new energy, increased our capacity, and laid the groundwork for deepening our impact across the St. Louis region.

We are proud of all 20 animal rights advocates who took the initiative to make a meaningful difference in the fight for animal freedom. We’re deeply grateful for their dedication to building a just, compassionate world where animals no longer suffer and die needlessly, and we commend their enthusiasm for helping achieve a fully vegan Midwest by 2056.

You, too, can volunteer with our St. Louis chapter, our flagship chapter whose strength sustains our entire network. What happens here ripples outward, making your support absolutely critical as we transform the Midwest, one city at a time.

By volunteering with us, you can have an outsized impact not only in St. Louis but across the entire Midwest as you help build momentum for our chapter network.

👉 Apply to volunteer with us here.

The animals are counting on you, and they cannot bear to suffer any longer. What are you waiting for? Get active for the animals today!

STL Vegan Market just hit a major milestone: over 1,000,000 views (and counting!)

That’s right—STL Vegan Market content has been viewed more than one million times in 2025, with over 750,000 of those views happening in just the past 90 days.

Since its launch three years ago, STL Vegan Market has reached more than 370,000 St. Louisans, becoming a true powerhouse for awareness, education, and community-building around sustainable, plant-based living in the St. Louis region.

Think of it this way: we’ve planted over one million seeds in 2025 alone, and each one holds the power to gently guide someone toward a more compassionate way of life. This kind of exposure doesn’t just raise visibility; it sparks change, bit by bit, person by person.

How? By:

• 🌱 Raising awareness about veganism and its connection to environmental sustainability and animal wellbeing, empowering people to make more thoughtful, informed choices

• 🌟 Showcasing the vibrancy of a vegan lifestyle, giving people an aspirational vision of vegan living and in turn inspiring more people to go vegan

• 💚 Reinforcing the value of veganism for both new and longtime vegans, strengthening commitment and reducing the rate of dietary relapse

• 🤝 Energizing the community through connection, purpose, and collective action, leading to greater impact

• 🐷 And helping build a humane economy where animals no longer suffer and die for profit

We’re incredibly grateful for the impact STL Vegan Market is having on our local community, and we look forward to stewarding its continued growth.

Thank you for helping turn this market into a thriving tradition rooted in compassion, sustainability, and justice for all.

Together, we’re growing something beautiful, and we couldn’t be more proud!

🥳🏳️‍🌈💚 Thank you to the over 500 people who joined us for our June market!

Many people joined us after protesting earlier in the day, and we are grateful to have provided an outlet for joy amidst all the uncertainty in our country right now.

30+ vendors participated, selling everything from lasagna bites and vegan cinnamon rolls, to guava juice and fresh-squeezed limeade, to canvas art and gemstones.

While not as many people participated as usual due to the protests, the weather report, and Father’s Day weekend, we are proud to have celebrated Pride at our market.

100+ guests came dressed in their Pride gear, and at least half a dozen vendors sported Pride-themed merchandise at their booth. From Pride-themed vegan t-shirts to rainbow-adorned essential oil blends being sold as a fundraiser for The Trevor Project, this was our most colorful, pro-queer market yet!

Please join us again next month for our second annual Vegan BBQ Fest, St. Louis’ only 100%-vegan BBQ festival!

😍💚🛒 Thank you to the nearly 800 people who joined us Mother’s Day weekend for our latest STL Vegan Market!

40+ vendors participated. From flower bouquets, to scented bars of soap, to scrumptious cookies, there was something for everyone to enjoy!

Many attendees bought gifts for their mothers, friends, and loved ones while at the market; our flower vendor, Sophia’s Crowns Flower Shop, sold out in record time!

Together, we enjoyed the beautiful spring weather; supported small, local businesses; and helped build a world where animals no longer suffer and die for profit.

Please join us again at STL Vegan Market - June 2025 and our upcoming Vegan BBQ Fest!

😄🍦💚 Thank you to the nearly 170 people who joined us yesterday for our latest Vegan Ice Cream Social at Bombay Food Junkies!

Despite being overcast and a chilly 57°, we had our second largest turnout ever, showcasing the growing strength of our community!

While it was not a glorious, warm, sunny day like usual, we still had a riotously fun time, relishing Froyo-style ice cream, Bombay Food Junkies’ spectacular eats, and each other's company.

It is deeply meaningful that even during a time of significant economic uncertainty, such a large crowd still showed up to support.

Together, we celebrated our vibrant community, rallied around a phenomenal local business, and helped build a dairy-free future, one bowl of vegan ice cream at a time!

Please join us again for our Vegan Ice Cream Social on National Ice Cream Day!

🐮💚🌎 Thank you to the six stupendous activists who joined us as we tabled at St. Louis Earth Day Festival!

Together, we showcased the growing strength of the vegan movement, raised awareness about the many environmental benefits of a plant-based lifestyle, and championed veganism as an essential solution to the climate crisis.

We not only repped our St. Louis chapter, but also STL Vegan Market, our largest community-building event. Hundreds of curious, enthusiastic people approached our booth to learn more about the market, and nearly 50 new people joined our mailing list.

By building the vegan presence at events like St. Louis Earth Day Festival, we are not only raising awareness, but also mainstreaming veganism as a meaningful part of the conversation around environmental justice.

The inroads we build into the environmental justice community, in turn, strengthen the animal rights movement and our ability to enact sweeping change for animals.

🐰💚✊ Thank you to the five fearless animal advocates who braved the rain last weekend as we protested Pet Connection, a local pet store that sources bunnies from breeders!

Together, we pressured Pet Connection to stop selling rabbits from breeders, raised awareness about the problems associated with selling bunnies for profit, and encouraged people to adopt rabbits from local shelters instead.

At the time of this protest, nearly 160 rabbits await adoption in the St. Louis area, a number that will swell in the coming weeks as St. Louisans realize they cannot properly care for the delicate beings they bought as “gifts” for Easter. And those are just the rabbits listed on registries!

We held this protest despite the rain on both Friday and Saturday. On both occasions, we were verbally assaulted by the staff at Pet Connection, who repeatedly cussed at us, ridiculed us, and even threatened to physically assault us.

While we have much further to go with Pet Connection, we did secure a significant victory: Lynn's Exotics & Aquatics has begun reaching out to rescues, and they plan to source rabbits from rescues instead of breeders moving forward!

Whether we’re protesting a problem company or writing a letter that inspires a local pet store to begin cutting breeders out of their supply chain, we have shown that just a handful of people working on a pressure campaign can secure meaningful victories for the animals.

After all, even large corporations source their bunnies from local rescues now. If Petco and PetSmart can do it, so can Pet Connection!

🐣🧇💚 Thank you to the 47 phenomenal vegan foodies who joined us today at our first annual Vegster celebration!

Vegster is a vegan Easter celebration about hope, renewal, and the return of spring. It is a sibling to Vegmas, a vegan Christmas celebration, that we have dreamed of hosting for over six years.

Thanks to Big Mama’s House, this dream finally came true, and the food could hardly have been more delightful. From the soul-warming waffles and tofu scramble to the sprightly mimosas and pineapple upside-down bundt cakes, Big Mama’s House prepared a feast worthy of this sacred holiday.

In fact, many people got seconds and even thirds and left with to-go plates; Big Mama’s House truly made heaping plates of delicious food for everyone to enjoy, all of it 100% vegan, free of refined sugar, and 100% gluten-free!

A special shout-out to Joy Gioia of Missouri House Rabbit Rescue for presenting about the need to rescue domestic rabbits during the Easter season, when millions of rabbits are abandoned at shelters across the country.

Whether or not you celebrated with us, we hope you all had a happy, restful, and fulfilling Easter with friends, family, and loved ones.

Join us again next month at our Vegan Ice Cream Social!

🥳💚🛒 Thank you to the nearly 1,300 people who joined us yesterday for our largest STL Vegan Market ever!

For the first time in our history, we not only crossed the 1,000-person threshold, we blew past it, attracting nearly 50% more people than at our next largest market!

It was an exhilarating experience watching our community come together to support exceptional local vegan and vegan-friendly businesses. The support was so overwhelming, in fact, that many vendors had near nonstop lines, and at least half a dozen sold out altogether!

Visitors, vendors, and volunteers alike all relished the market, and we could have hardly asked for more beautiful weather.

A special shout-out to the following sponsors who helped make this thriving community event possible: Carol House Furniture, Bombay Food Junkies, Bougie Bites STL, Seedz Cafe, Harvest Shreds, Sun Solar, and Pieces: The St. Louis Board Game Bar & Cafe.

We would like to thank everyone who came together to make yesterday’s market possible. Together, we are building a world where animals no longer suffer and die needlessly for profit!

Please join us again next month at STL Vegan Market - May 2025, and don't miss Vegster: A Vegan Easter Brunch and Pet Connection Protest: Save the Bunnies!