Students for Compassionate Living at Calvin College will team with a variety of local activist organizations for a weekend of events geared toward alternative eating.

The Calvin group joins ExtraVEGANza!, G-RAD, Grand Rapids For Animals, Farms Without Harm to present workshops, films, a vegan chili cook-off and more January 19-20.

The weekend begins on January 19 from 2 to 5 pm with a panel discussion on "Animal Rights Activism: What, Why, and Who?" The panel discussion will feature Harold Brown (Farm Sanctuary), Adam Durand (Compassionate Consumers), Nicole Matthews (PETA) and Nathan Runkle (Mercy For Animals).

That will be followed by a 5:30 to 6:30 pm "Compassionate Comestibles" Vegan Potluck. That evening from 7:30 to 10 pm there will be a film festival at the Bytwerk Video Theater at Calvin, featuring Peaceable Kingdom and Wegman's Cruelty.

The next day will feature a brunch at Marie Catrib's and then a vegan chili cook-off and art auction to benefit Farm Sanctuary and Mercy for Animals.

The auction will include original works by Calvin students in professor Adam Wolpa's interim printmaking course, along with an array of pieces donated by established artists including Calvin professors Wolpa and Jeremy Chen, Calvin alumnus Kevin Buist, and New York artist and animal advocate Sue Coe.

Calvin philosophy professor Matt Halteman is the mentor for the student-run group at Calvin and says the group exists to "educate the Calvin community, and beyond, about the practical implications of its daily choices for non-human animals, and provide support for those who strive to redeem fallen structures as they explore issues of animal welfare."

Each school year the group sponsors educational workshops, films, speakers, dinners, a food cooperative, and weekly meetings in an effort to raise awareness about the ways in which people use animals.

Halteman notes that "there's no one set commitment that defines compassionate treatment of animals," adding that the group's 40 members embrace a range of eating habits from vegan (Halteman's adopted lifestyle) to omnivore.

What the group's members do hold in common is a desire to redefine the terms on which human beings relate to non-human animals. They explore subjects like sustainable agriculture and animal rights advocacy.

Students for Compassionate Living sprang from an interim class Halteman taught the last two years (and is teaching again this year) on stewardship of the animal kingdom.

One of the goals of the "Peaceable Kingdom" interim was to found a student organization, and the SCL grew quite naturally from that class, Halteman says.