RAVS Weekly Update: May 12, 2015

We had several outreach events in April and early May:

-On Saturday, April 18, Kimber Gorall and  Phyllis Fleischman staffed a table at an Earth Day event at the University of Rochester,  hosted by Grassroots, the environmental and sustainability group.

-On Thursday, April 23, Carol Barnett staffed a table at a Wellness Fair at the SUNY Brockport MetroCenter (the downtown campus on St. Paul Street).

-On Friday, May 1, Ted Barnett, MD gave a talk on Plant-Based Diet (with special focus on its role in preventing and reversing heart disease, diabetes, and prostate cancer) to the Canandaigua Medical Society, a physicians’ social group which has general-interest programs, and sometimes programs with a medical topic, at its monthly meetings. The attendees were regaled with a vegan buffet at the India House in Victor.

-On Saturday, May 2, Ted Barnett gave a 4-hour workshop on Plant-Based Diet to Prevent and Reverse Diabetes, to the Diabetes Support Group at the Bethel CME Church in downtown Rochester. Carol Barnett made food samples for the breaks (Middle Eastern Lentils and Rice with special salad, Jambalaya) and provided recipes.

-On Saturday, May 9, Phyllis Fleischman and Scott Wagner were the Guest Chefs at the Flavors of the Market food tasting at the Rochester Public Market; Laurie Conrad helped with serving food samples. This event is sponsored jointly by the Rochester Public Market and the Democrat and Chronicle, and takes place outside the Public Market office building every Saturday throughout the season. Scott, Phyllis and Laurie deserve special appreciation because RAVS was asked to pitch in at the last minute after another organization canceled; so they did their planning, shopping and cooking with very little notice. The organizers at the Public Market loved our food sampling and they want RAVS to return, so many thanks! Food is always a great persuader.

Our meeting on May 3, featuring Marty Davey, RD, otherwise known as La Diva Dietitian, was a huge success. Marty gave a very enlightening Powerpoint presentation on being a healthy vegan over the age of 50 (the title of her lecture was “You’re Not Dead Yet!”); and she took questions for a long time after the lecture. The presentation started out with a very entertaining tug-of-war between Marty and her screen persona, La Diva, who is “all about” the food and has limited patience with her alter ego Marty, who spouts all that boring nutrition information. To order Marty’s book or a subscription to her video series, visit http://ladivadietitian.com/ladivadietitian.com/Welcome.html  Please treat yourself to watching some of Marty/LaDiva’s videos on Youtube. If you haven’t seen it already, do watch Marty’s husband, Jim “Fitz” Fitxpatrick doing an impersonation of LaDiva, for a little “Mrs. Doubtfire” action. Marty, Fitz, and their teenage son Seamus are all actors.

Coming up: an outreach event at the Latino Family Fair on Saturday May 30; and our June meeting featuring a panel of vegan cooks, sharing secrets about how to cook “fresh, fast, and frugal” vegan meals.

–Carol Barnett, RAVS Co-coordinator