Tentative: V.V.S. outreach tomorrow, Saturday, September 16, San
Gennaro Feast, 1 p.m.

(Call 646-633-0297 to confirm that you'll be there and to establish a
meeting place.)


The San Gennaro Feast is on, and the VivaVegie Society should be there
with informational literature for the sausage-eating throngs. And no,
we aren't kidding. Not at all, in fact. The San Gennaro Feast is,
believe it or not, one of the best venues for the efforts of the
VivaVegie Society. And all one can say about that is, "Go figure!"

Indeed, here's a venue where you can find people walking around with a
fat-dripping pork sausage sandwich in one hand and a bag of prosciutto
in the other and also interested in what you, the vegan activist,
might have to say about why they should should turn their oily jowls
away from meat. I (yours truly, Pamela Rice) could be wrong, but I
attribute this to the innate tendency, long lost, for Italians to
adhere to a vegetarian diet most of the time. Following is an EXCERPT
from a book, by Dom Deluise, Eat This ... It'll Make You Feel Better,
a source, it happens, of many great vegetarian recipes.

He says it all:

"When I was growing up in Brooklyn, a lot of our social life was
connected with the church and holidays and weddings and confirmations.
Life seemed wonderful and full. We'd eat "fancy" on those occasions,
but at home during the week our family would eat very simple dishes -
those peasant dishes that have turned out to be chic today: escarole
and beans, lentil soup frittatas, string beans and tomatoes, spinach
and potatoes - very little meat. Momma would often cook vegetable
stew, for example, and it was delicious. Then one day, when I was over
at a friend's house, I noticed his mother making her stew with meat in
it. "How long has this been going on?" I wondered. It was then that I
realized my momma's vegetable stew was unique. It was also very
economical; and, at that time, if you did it on Friday, very religious.

"You see, vegetables were the staple around my house. Even today, I'd
rather be seen with a bunch of broccoli than a side of beef!"

[end excerpt]


Go to
http://www.vivavegie.org/vvi/vva/vvi42/index.html#sangennaro
to see the original of the following excerpt from VivaVegie's
magazine, The VivaVine (Nov./Dec. 2000 edition), for proof that people
at the San Gennaro Feast are, in fact, an excellent target for the
vegetarian message.

The San Gennaro challenge

It may be a record! In a mere three hours, VivaVegie - along with its
"grande dame of vegetableland," Penelo Pea Pod--distributed one-by-one
over a thousand copies of "101 Reasons Why I'm a Vegetarian"! But
here's the good part: We did it at the San Gennaro Feast, the famous
Little Italy street fair. San Gennaro, as every New Yorker knows,
isn't just any food fest. It's a place where people come to worship
the pork-sausage sandwich. Now we know(!) there's a sleeping giant out
there. People you'd never expect are craving information about
vegetarianism.

[end excerpt]

Click:
http://www.vivavegie.org/vvi/pdf/vine42novdec00.pdf (PDF - See page
3), to find an archival image of Penelo Pea Pod at the San Gennaro
Feast and, as a bonus, a recipe for vegan sausage.