Animal Welfare Hub Köln

Why a hub?

Starting your own project to reduce animal product consumption can be incredibly effective, and deeply fulfilling. It can also be lonely. With no one around you, motivation and drive are hard to keep up.

The hub is here to close that gap. It gives the people behind these projects a place to keep going, stay motivated and grow, so that the projects themselves last.

Anyone working at an NGO has colleagues to learn from. Working on your own project shouldn’t mean going without that.

For people who are serious about it

You’re working to reduce animal product consumption or to make plant-based food more widespread.
You already put a considerable amount of time into it, or you’re about to start something.
You live in Cologne or can get here regularly.
You want to learn from others and are happy to share what you know.

Your project might be a campaign to make university catering plant-based, a paper on the advantages of plant-based food over animal products along the supply chain, lobbying, or research.

What we do

We meet regularly to work side by side. We hold each other accountable, share what we’re working on and talk through where we’re stuck.

Everyone keeps working on their own project, but with peers to turn to.

Where things stand

The hub started with an idea and a need of my own: to be surrounded by people who work on something similar, with the same ambition. Now I’m bringing together the first group.

Group: Five to eight people to start
Days: One or two a week at first, two or three later
Place: Still being arranged, ideally at the University of Cologne

In the long run, I want the hub to become a home for people working for animals.

Questions

Do I have to be vegan?: No. What matters is that you’re serious about changing the food system.
Does it cost anything?: No, it’s free.
How much do I have to commit?: Very little for now: come when it suits you. If the room fills up, we may have to become more selective.
What happens after I sign up?: I’ll email you. If it sounds like a good fit, I’ll invite you to a coworking session and send you the address and time. If you’d like to talk first, we can have a call.
Who is behind it?: I’m Flo (Florian Burger), a student in Cologne. I’m switching to working exclusively on food system change, and I’ve realised how hard it is to stay on track with so little external structure. The hub is an independent project.

Working for animals, together.