The International Vegan Association’s Vegan Starter Kit: Respecting Animals Means Going Vegan (VSK) booklet is a 28-page, full-color guide to veganism, which includes the moral argument for veganism, information on vegan nutrition, a range of recipes, as well as advice on life as a vegan.

The IVA distributes VSKs to individuals around the world, especially people looking to make the change to veganism in their own lives and grassroots advocates promoting veganism to others. VSKs are distributed at the discretion of the IVA and its volunteers, who determine which applications to approve and in what volumes to share VSKs.

Because the VSK is a self-sufficient and expressly abolitionist document, and because it refers readers exclusively to abolitionist foundational sources, the IVA’s standards for distribution are liberal. In many cases, the IVA is willing to distribute VSKs to advocates whose views and approaches don’t entirely align with the IVA’s.

However, applying to receive VSKs does not guarantee that an applicant will receive VSKs. Although the IVA is confident in the clarity of the VSK as a stand-alone document, there are certain factors that may count decisively against an application. Such factors may include, but are not limited to:

• An applicant demonstrates a clear commitment to welfarism (e.g., the applicant explicitly promotes welfarist efforts or links to welfarist campaigns or organizations).
• An applicant implicitly or explicitly promotes, or supports the promotion of, violence (e.g., the applicant expresses admiration or support for advocates who promote violence against humans, or an applicant performs advocacy work on behalf of an organization who links to the work of individuals who have promoted violence).
• An applicant expresses views that are hateful, discriminatory, or otherwise marginalizing.

Additionally, VSKs are not intended to be handed out indiscriminately to passersby. They are meant for people who are actively interested in veganism, and so they should either be handed to someone after a conversation or taken intentionally by someone who is interested in veganism. As such, how an applicant intends to use the VSKs will be factored into the decision about whether to approve an application. Even for successful applications, the number of VSKs approved to be distributed to the applicant may be lower than the number requested, based on a range of factors and considerations.

The IVA and its volunteers do their best to respond to applications promptly. However, as an exclusively volunteer-operated non-profit organization with limited resources, there is no guaranteed period of time within which applicants can expect to receive a response; for approved applications there is no guaranteed period of time within which VSKs will be shipped and received.