We at DVA send Metta to all of the US people and animals. May you all be healthy and safe.
Dharma Voices for Animals launches US Centers Project:
DVA is very excited to announce the launching of our fourth countrywide Project in the United States, joining our projects in Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam, which have been going strong for several years.
The focus and goals of the US Center’s Project are to speak up for farmed animals by inviting, encouraging, educating, and supporting Buddhist retreat centers across the United States to transition towards (or wholeheartedly adopt) healthy, compassionate, climate-friendly, plant-based menus for all of their events. We estimate that we will be connecting with well over 1000 Buddhist centers that serve meals during their daylong and residential retreats in North America to an estimated 4 million Buddhists.
In partnership with Audrey Sanchez of Balanced, we have created a website that is a resource for US Buddhist Centers. Here you can download our 43-page Plant-Rich Menus Guide and our 32-page Plant-Rich Recipe Guide. These guides include reasons to add more plant-based meals, meal ideas and recipes, retreat center guidelines and suggested things to consider when making a food policy, testimonials from other centers and endorsements for working with DVA and Balanced, plus so much more.
US Centers Project Launches Circle of Compassion Grant Program:
As part of our US Centers Project, we now offer financial incentives for US Buddhist centers to change their food policy and transition to providing vegan or vegetarian options to all yogis as part of our Circle of Compassion Grant Program. If you are part of a center or know of a center that could benefit from receiving a financial grant for reducing or eliminating all animal products, please visit our Circle of Compassion Grant Program page to learn more.
balanced:
Dharma Voices for Animals has collaborated with Audrey Lawson-Sanchez, Founder, and Executive Director at balanced in developing content for our cutting edge web-based resource to make transitioning to plant-rich menus easy for small or large retreat centers.
balanced is a network of public health professionals and nutrition science experts, working towards making healthier eating easier and more realistic for people within institutional food environments.
a well-fed world:
DVA received a grant from a well-fed world to provide financial support to retreat centers that are interested in sampling alternative vegan products before they start offering them to their yogis.
“a well-fed world is an international hunger relief and food security organization advancing plant-based foods and farming to create a sustainable, nourished, and climate-friendly future.”
Director of DVA’s US Centers Project, Carrie Thompson:
As a child, Carrie loved playing outside, and that’s when she started developing a deep respect for life on Earth. Out of compassion for other life, she became vegan in 1997 and has since continuously advocated for other species in many ways. She once raised $23K for two nonprofits while riding her bike across the US.
Carrie now lives with her rescued cat, Petey, in the high desert of Northern New Mexico in an off-grid Earthship home she built and has lived in since 2002. She understands the environmental and health benefits of choosing to live a vegan life, as well as the support it gives her as she strives to live a life of less harm. In 2007 she started meditating, and in 2009 she attended her 1st Goenka Vipassana Meditation retreat and has attended many Goenka retreats since then. She deeply appreciates the teachings of the Buddha and hopes to inspire and encourage centers and Dharma followers to look towards the suffering of animals and to extend their circle of compassion to all species. Carrie is grateful for this opportunity to bring right livelihood into her life by working with DVA.
Carrie welcomes you to connect with her if you’d like to help in any way or if you have a center or sangha in the US that you’d like to encourage to shift towards plant-based. You may contact Carrie directly using the form below or by calling 1-858-255-1174.
