Weekly Wrap-up: Mother’s Day Contest and Frappuccinos
Let’s start with the good stuff, shall we: FREE sweets! In honor of Mother’s Day, Allison would like to give away some of her favorite, hand-selected sweets. You’ve got to earn them, but don’t worry, it’s easy: just tell us about an outstanding mom in your life, it can be your mother, grandmother, a friend, or even you!
Simply go to our Facebook Fan Page and post to our wall. We are looking for heart-warming stories (get creative with videos, pictures, and songs too!) about an amazing mom that you know! Entries started coming in yesterday and the contest closes at 5PM Pacific on Thursday, April 29th. The lucky winner will be announced on Friday via our Facebook Fan Page and Blog.
Speaking of Facebook, on Tuesday I asked if you work in a vegan-friendly environment and we had a mixed response. Aside from the lovely Angel McNall who works from home (lucky!), most of you weren’t thrilled with the lack of vegan-friendliness in your work place. But don’t be blue, you’re not alone! Check out this helpful blog post: Top 10 Bad Experiences of Vegan Professionals in the Workplace – and how best to deal with them.
Vegan chatter on Twitter was pretty slow across the board this week (everyone on vacation?). Wednesdays are usually vegan mania but this week: not so much. Despite that, @allisonsgourmet had some amazing and ongoing RTs from @weeklyadventure and @adukipress. Thank you so much for your support, Friends!
Photo from QuarryGirl Blog
On to one of the most talked about topics this week: Starbucks’ vegan frappuccinos. It seemed like everyone and their mother were blogging about Starbucks this week. And I will admit, even though I’m not a coffee drinker I did go into a Starbucks this week and order their new vegan frappuccino, simply because I wanted to show my support. It was just okay. But for those of you who are super excited about this: hooray! And for those of you who’d rather not support the Starbucks franchise, click here to check out Allison’s Gourmet Peruvian Femenino certified organic fair-trade coffee.
Well, that’s about it for this week. Don’t forget to enter our awesomely delicious Mother’s Day contest and happy social networking!
Happy Earth Day!
For Earth Day this year, I’m encouraging everyone to go vegan! Did you know that a vegan diet saves nearly 1.5 tons of carbon dioxide per person per year when compared with the average American diet? That is more carbon savings than switching to a hybrid car! Yes, drive a hybrid if you can–but if you want to make a really big investment in your health and the health of the planet without making a large financial investment, go vegan and encourage all your friends to join you! 
With summer on its way, and more and more farmer’s markets springing up all over the country, as well as new vegan products like Daiya and Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet Cheese coming out every day, it’s easier than ever to live a happy, healthy plant-based life.
Whether you’re new to veganism or have been vegan for some time and are missing your old favorites, be sure to check out recipes from my vegan comfort food column, ‘Veganize It!’ in VegNews Magazine.
Enter to Win Mother’s Day Sweets!
Mother’s Day is coming up on Sunday, May 9th. In honor of the amazing moms in our lives (whether it be your mom, grandmother, or even yourself), Allison is giving one lucky winner a hand-selected assortment of Allison’s Gourmet treats!
Here’s how to enter the contest:
Go to our Facebook fan page and post your story of amazing mothering on our wall. Feel free to simply write it, or get more creative by uploading a video, pictures, or even an original song. The more inspired the better! The most heart-warming entry wins!
Enter by 5pm Pacific on Thursday, April 29th.
The winner will be announced the following day on our blog and Facebook fan page.
Allison’s Test Kitchen Update: Wheat-Free, Sugar-Free Cookies
One of my favorite jobs at Allison’s Gourmet is baking tests of Allison’s new recipes (and taste-testing them, too, of course). 
Recently I’ve started testing Allison’s latest project, wheat-free organic cookies made with coconut sugar. These cookies are delicious, and while they’re still too delicate to withstand being shipped anywhere, they are a promising beginning to our eventual switch to wheat-free and possibly even sugar-free organic cookies. So, we’re curious about something: Would you consider baked goods made with coconut sugar to be sugar-free? Does the difference between coconut sugar and cane sugar matter to you? Tell us what you think!
Strong Women, Great Coffee
Did you know that the majority of the world’s coffee is grown by small farms and cooperatives, and that coffee is the second most traded commodity in the world next to oil? These two factors combine to create widespread abuse and exploitation of the people who grow, harvest and process most coffee. 
Harsh gender inequality, poverty, and abuse are rampant in the coffee producing regions of the world, especially for the 30% of small farmers who are women. Most women coffee producers have no rights, little income, and are raising families by themselves. To help support these women, we are proud to offer Peruvian Femenino certified organic fair-trade coffee. This exciting coffee variety is grown on woman-owned and operated farms along the Incan Trail in the Northern Andean Rainforest as part of the Café Femenino Project.
Founded in 2004, the Café Femenino Project now includes more than 1,500 women in Bolivia, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Mexico and Peru who work together to achieve empowerment, build supportive social networks, and earn decent incomes through the production and sale of their own fair-trade coffee. Let’s drink to social equality!
