How to Feed a Spay-and-Neuter Army

It wasn’t enough that longtime supporter anna j. ware donated a brand-new, state-of-the-art mobile spay-and-neuter clinic  to PETA. Nor was it enough for her to fly from her home in Atlanta, Georgia, to PETA’s headquarters, the Sam Simon Center in Norfolk, Virginia, for the clinic’s ribbon-cutting ceremony. And it wasn’t enough for her to hang around for the 24-hour “SNIP-a-thon” that we held to celebrate both World Spay Day and the new clinic’s debut. No, being the overachiever that she is, anna felt the need to cater the event with a carload of vegan goodies—all of which she prepared herself in PETA’s tiny kitchen with a hodgepodge of electric skillets, microwaves, crock pots, and toaster ovens and, most of all, her super-chef talents!

anna and vicki

anna hit the ground running on Monday morning, stocking up on supplies, piling so many yummy groceries into her rental car that she feared she might break the springs. It took three staffers several trips to get all the groceries into the kitchen.

kitchen food

anna started cooking immediately after the clinic’s ribbon-cutting ceremony, filling the entire building with the smell of sautéed onions, peppers, and vegan sausage. While the food was cooking, she commandeered a small army of “waiters” (i.e., PETA staffers who had wandered into the kitchen) to prowl the building, distributing hors d’oeuvres—chips, dips, bread, crackers, and spreads to hungry staff members busy working at their desks.

After the SNIP-a-thon officially got underway at 6 p.m., anna sent “meatball” subs, vegan coleslaw, and kale salad out to the staff members and volunteers working the event. She continued cooking virtually nonstop throughout the night (never going back to her hotel for so much as a catnap). Rumor has it that anna provided cakes and pies from local vegan bakery My Vegan Sweet Tooth as well as vegan banana splits for those who worked the graveyard shift.

anna 1

The following morning, staffers arriving to work were greeted by the smell of lemon-pepper popcorn and a steady stream of crackers, dips, bread, and spreads until lunchtime, when anna treated the entire staff to vegan “Sloppy Janes,” “chicken” salad, and a dizzying array of sides. She also continued to keep the SNIP-a-thon staff and volunteers fortified until the event finally wound down hours past the “24-hour” deadline on Tuesday night.

Dogs and cats are grateful to anna for her generosity in donating the new mobile clinic, which has the capacity to hold approximately 28 surgery patients at once. But it’s her cooking skills that will forever have a special place in the hearts of PETA staffers. Our stomachs, if not our waistlines, thank you, anna!