COK’s Guide to Organizing a Veggie Hot Dog Feed-In

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Many animal advocates agree that distributing free vegetarian food with literature and recipes is a great idea, but they aren’t sure how to hold feed-ins without the hassles of obtaining permits, grills, and so on.

Happily, organizing an effective feed-in is relatively simple. Once you have your location selected, all you need is some food to share, a bit of preparation time, and plenty of energy to spread the animals’ message.

Just follow the step-by-step guide below. If you plan to host an event, please register online. We’d be happy to help you in any way we can—feel free to contact us via email or 301-891-2458. We’d also love for you to send us photos of your feed-in!

Pick a Location to Host Your Event

There are so many great places to host a feed-in or distribute literature—on your school campus, at your office or in front of a busy restaurant that sells hot dogs. Here are a few suggestions.

What Do I Need?

• Veggie dogs
• Cooking pot
• Hot dog buns (save money by checking out bakeries that sell day-old bread)
• Condiments (ketchup, mustard, relish and/or sauerkraut)
• Several rags or hand towels
• Non-leakable plastic bags (large enough to hold a towel)
• Paper towels/napkins
• Tin foil
• Coolers
• Serving tray is optional

Do I Need to Know How to Cook? Not Really

Getting food ready for a feed-in is fairly easy. Depending on the quantity of food and commute time, you’ll need about two hours preparation time. By cooking everything in advance and taking it to your chosen location (instead of setting up a grill and cooking on-site), you can bypass food preparation rules and regulations.

1. Cooking the food
   • Begin cooking the veggie dogs put by boiling them in water. (If you plan to use a grill, follow the directions on the package and skip to step 2).
   • You can usually fit 2 packages (or up to 24 dogs) in a medium sized pot. It typically takes 3 to 5 minutes to cook them all.
   • While to food is cooking, start step 2.
2. Keeping the food warm
   • Take several hand towels and soak them in hot water.
   • Microwave the wet towels for five to ten minutes. Alternatively, boil the towels in a pot of water. (While warming the towels, you can start step 3.)
   • Carefully place the hot towels in non-leakable plastic bags and tie them tightly.
   • Line the bottom of an insulated cooler with a layer of hot, towel-filled bags. Save the rest for step 4.
3. Getting the food ready to go
   • Cut several pieces of tin foil into large enough to individually wrap the hot dog buns.
   • Lay out several open hot dog buns, each on a piece of cut foil.
   • When done cooking, remove the hot dogs from the water and let them dry for a few seconds so the buns don’t get wet.
   • Put one hot dog in each bun, and wrap them up with the foil.
     Option: to hand them out more quickly, put condiments on before wrapping.
4. Packing the cooler
   • Place a layer of wrapped hot dogs on top of the hot, towel-filled bags.
   • Put a second layer of hot, towel-filled bags directly over the hot dogs.
   • Put another layer of wrapped hot dogs … and so on.
   • Grab your extra condiments and napkins, and now you’re ready to go!

Tips:

• If possible, consider bringing relish and/or sauerkraut. Remember, people rarely eat meat-based hot dogs plain, so they are more likely to enjoy veggie dogs with toppings as well.
• Bring an empty wrapper of what you are serving so if people ask, you can show them what to look for when they go shopping.