Hi everyone,

The following has been mailed out to our snail-mail subscribers today. Sorry about the length of this, there is just so much to say!! It contains details of forthcoming events and lots of items that we need your feedback on, either at next Wednesday`s meeting or via email, phone etc. Briefly, the items we need feedback on are:

1. Weekend ramble/meal in Studley

2. An audience with Benjamin Zephaniah in Stratford

3. Cookery demo options for June meeting

4. `Friends of the Sanctuary` meal/quiz/social night proposal

5. Volunteers/food for Redditch Green Fair - Sat 2 June

You will find lots more details on these events below. Have a good read and i hope to either see you next Wednesday evening, or receive an email/call from you on the above!  :)

Best wishes,

Kevin

Our next meeting/social will take place on Wednesday 4th April. Sadly, Ian Tasker is unable to attend with his Tasty Takeaways this time, due to his ongoing building work, but he promises to return for our May meeting. On the plus side, Lisa from Red Kite Health Foods will once again bring along a vast array of goodies from her shelves! This saves you a trip to Bromsgrove! If you particularly want something, give her a call in the shop on 01527 570671 and she`ll make sure she brings it for you! As usual, the meeting will start at 7.30pm at the usual venue, St Georges Community Hall, St Georges Road, Redditch. As always, there will be refreshments available from 7.15pm and you can choose from our `library` of veggie related books. Newcomers are more than welcome, it would be great to see some new faces there!! :)

We have spoke previously about meeting up for a weekend ramble by the river in Studley. This will be our first event of this kind and would be ideal to bring your children, dogs, family etc. We hope the ramble will end at The Little Lark pub for a meal, although of course this will be optional. We aim to set a convenient date/time for this event at next weeks meeting. Whether you can attend the meeting or not, please let us know if you`re interested in joining the ramble.

For our meeting on Wed 2 May, we hope to have a special guest speaker, possibly on the topic of alternative therapy. More details about this soon.

On Friday 11th May, we will be travelling to Stratford for `An Audience with Benjamin Zephaniah` from 7.30pm at the Civic Hall. Benjamin is a vegan poet, well known for his political and animal rights related poetry. Although the entrance fee is fairly expensive, £12, the Civic Hall are offering reductions for group bookings. If you would like to attend, please bring the money with you to the meeting, or send a cheque asap to the address above, made payable to `Redditch Vegetarians & Vegans`. Alternatively, if you`d like to go ahead and book your own tickets, phone the box office on 01789 207100. www.civichall.co.uk/  www.benjaminzephaniah.com/ 

Liz Hughes from Birmingham Veggies & Vegans has kindly agreed to give a cookery demonstration at our meeting in June. Who can forget her excellent tofu cookery demo last year!! We have various demo options that we need to choose from! Either Mexican food, Fairtrade food, cakes, cheatin` cheese recipes or quick & easy meals! So we need to decide which we would like at next weeks meeting, in order to give Liz plenty of notice. www.bvv.org.uk

Hillfields Animal Sanctuary are thinking of putting on a `Friends of the Sanctuary` evening. It will consist of a meal (vegan 3 course), live music, a quiz section and there`ll be a chance to take part in a raffle. It will take place at the church hall opposite the sanctuary, on a Saturday evening. It`s an opportunity to socialise with likeminded people, whilst at the same time, raise much needed funds for the sanctuary. No date fixed yet, but please let us know if you`re interested. www.hillfields-sanctuary.co.uk/ 

Sat 31st March - Leamington Free Veggie Food Fayre - There will be cookery demos, talks by staff from Viva and Animal Aid, alternative therapists, stalls and lots of delicious food! There will also be another screening of Jill`s Film for those who missed it at our meeting in February. RVV will have a stall ourselves. It`s all taking place in 3 separate rooms at Bath Place Community Venture, Bath Place, Leamington. For further details, contact Leamington Veggies on 01926 335826. www.leamingtonveggies.makessense.co.uk/index.html 

Sat 28th April - Cookery Demonstration Workshop in Lichfield - Animal Aid are holding a workshop to help to train school speakers who'd like to give short cookery demonstrations in Food Technology lessons. More and more Food Technology teachers are asking for cookery demonstrations as part of the sessions on vegetarianism. You may not want to go into schools, but this workshop could prove to be equally useful if you would like to learn how to show off your culinary skills at any event - at one of our meetings or a food fair for example!!! This is a free workshop but booking is essential. Please phone Diane Smith, Animal Aid's Regional Education Officer on 01543 264975 or email diane.smith@...   www.animalaid.co.uk

5th - 7th May - Ragley Green Fair - A big festival featuring green and local crafts, entertainment stage, `greening the home` awareness, healing area, workshops and talks, kids green zone and many stalls including ourselves!! From 10am - 6pm each day. For more details, see www.greenfuturesfestivals.org.uk or call 02085465202.

21st - 27th May - National Vegetarian Week - As yet, there are no plans to do anything in Redditch for this, but if you have any ideas, please let us know. Perhaps we could go for a meal somewhere??? All suggestions welcome! www.vegsoc.org/ 

Sat 2 June - Redditch Green Fair - A much smaller version of the Ragley event above. It will take place at St Stephens Church from 10.30am - 3pm. There will be stalls from a range of local `green` groups/companies including Redditch FOE, Freecycle, Red Kite Health Foods etc. You may recall that last years fair was a big success, with members of the public flocking to sample the delights of veggie/vegan cuisine on our stall. We shall need lots of help on our stall, serving refreshments in the kitchen and preparing food before the day! Please get in touch if you can help. www.redditchgreenfair.org.uk