New Website Explains Why and How to Eat Vegetarian for Charity

DAYTON, OHIO -- Veg-a-Thons are popular in fundraising. Many people collect pledges to their favorite organizations for running, walking, reading and more. A new website, veg-a-thon.com asks, " Why not collect pledges for eating vegetarian?" A veg-a-thon entails collecting pledges to the nonprofit organization of one's choice for eating a vegetarian diet for one to eight weeks. Says the site's creator, Maura McCormick, "I hope that the site will attract people who are concerned about their health, the environment or animals and want their food choices to reflect that concern, but don't know where to start and need another incentive and personal support."

Veg-a-thon.com features links to several sites on vegetarianism, a vegetarian resource guide, tips on getting pledges and a forum where veg-a-thoners can get answers to their questions about eating vegetarian and moral support from other veg-a-thoners and long-time vegetarians.

Veg-a-thoners can collect pledges in person with a printable pledge form or online with personal fundraising pages that they can create on FirstGiving.com or other sites. The site also includes a message board where they can list the details of their veg-a-thon, provided that the organization or organizations benefiting from the veg-a-thon meet certain requirements to avoid promoting organizations that harm animals. An "Animal-Friendly Giving Guide" is currently in development. In the future only veg-a-thons benefiting organizations that link to the site and have a grade of C or better in the guide will be listed.

Veg-a-thon.com also includes a detailed guide to holding a group veg-a-thon: a veg-a-thon that a group of people do at the same time. The guide offers advice for all sizes of group veg-a-thons from small ones among friends, family or coworkers to large and elaborate ones with multiple events.

Veg-a-thon.com and the Animal-Friendly Giving Guide are campaigns of Kind Choices. To learn more about Kind Choices, its goals and campaigns, visit, KindChoices.org.

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