There are people who talk about changing the world and then there are people who roll up their sleeves and create the change they wish existed. Michelle Fasnacht falls firmly into the second group. What started as a personal mission to give her children a kinder, safer learning environment has grown into one of the most innovative educational models in the country. Solid Rock Community School and the Sanctuary at Solid Rock are living proof that compassion can be the foundation of a child’s education.
The Roots of a Vision
Michelle’s story begins long before the school opened its doors. As a child, she experienced bullying, abuse, and trauma. Those experiences shaped her understanding of what children need in order to feel safe. When she became a mother, she saw immediately that the educational systems available did not reflect the environment she wanted for her children. Every option had pieces she appreciated, but none upheld the values of kindness, safety, and integrity she held dear. Instead of compromising, she built what she could not find.
Why Animals Became Teachers
Animals were woven into the school experience from the earliest days. Michelle believed that spending time with animals naturally teaches compassion, empathy, patience, and responsibility. This belief eventually evolved into the Sanctuary at Solid Rock, a forever home for rescued pigs, turkeys, ducks, primates, lemurs, wallabies, and more. These animals are survivors of neglect, abandonment, and illegal wildlife trafficking.
Students learn with them and from them. Through the SAVE program, some students gain hands-on veterinary and animal care skills. Others connect by reading to the animals, observing quietly, or simply sitting beside them. The relationships that form between children and animals create mutual healing and a deep sense of connection.
The Turning Point That Changed Everything
For most of her life, Michelle had been vegetarian, but one video changed her understanding of dairy in a profound way. A mother cow crying for her baby, and a baby crying back, opened the door to a truth she had never been taught. She stopped consuming dairy that day. Within 48 hours, many of her MS symptoms began to disappear.
This became a moment of clarity. She became vegan for the animals and plant-based for her health. That shift transformed her personal life and reshaped how she led the school community.
Reinventing the School Lunch
Once Michelle understood the suffering behind the meals served in most schools, she could not continue offering them. When Solid Rock purchased its own building with a commercial kitchen in 2019, she made a bold decision. The school transitioned to a fully plant based cafeteria.
Not everyone welcomed the change at first. Some families and staff resisted, and the transition was difficult. Over time, the community adapted and embraced it. Today, the plant-based meals reflect the values the school teaches every day and have become a point of pride.
Compassionate Humane Education
Michelle spent years developing Compassionate Humane Education, known as CHE. This framework infuses kindness, responsibility, sustainability, and critical thinking into every subject. Science lessons explore ecosystems and animal habitats. Math lessons include calculating feed ratios for rescued animals. Gardening teaches connection to food and the planet.
CHE is now being prepared for schools, churches, afterschool programs, sanctuaries, and families across the country. The idea is simple. Kindness belongs everywhere, not as an occasional addition but as a core part of how we learn and live.
Plant the Change
Everything Michelle does circles back to the same mission. The school teaches children how to live with compassion. The sanctuary provides rescued animals with dignity and safety. The CHE framework gives others a blueprint to bring humane education into their own spaces.
Her podcast, Plant the Change, expands her reach across the globe. The podcast features doctors, activists, educators, and changemakers who share stories of healing, plant based living, and compassionate action. Each episode reflects the belief that meaningful change begins with a single choice.
A Call for a Kinder Future
Michelle’s message is strong and clear. Compassion should not be optional. It should be part of the classroom, the cafeteria, the home, and the community. If we want a better future, we need to raise children who understand what kindness looks like in action.
Solid Rock Community School and the Sanctuary at Solid Rock show what becomes possible when someone refuses to accept the world as it is and instead creates the world as it could be. Michelle Fasnacht is helping raise a generation of children who know how to care for animals, care for each other, and take responsibility for the impact they make. The world needs more of that, and Michelle is showing what it takes to build it.
The Funding Blueprint for Sanctuaries
Michele is one of the esteemed presenters for the Funding Blueprint for Sanctuaries Virtual Summitn. This is a one-Day online event for animal sanctuary leaders and advocates featuring expert speakers who will share proven strategies and practical insights to accelerate your fundraising success, strengthen your mission, and help you create long-term financial sustainability.
Episode Highlights
[00:00] Introduction
[04:00] Expanding from the school to a sanctuary.
[05:45] The S.A.F.E. program.
[09:30] Understanding that animals are beings… not “others”.
[11:00] The catalyst for Michele becoming vegan.
[14:30] Reversing symptoms of MS.
[18:40] Once you know the truth, you can’t go back.
[23:00] Detached, disconnected and affiliated with cognitive dissonance.
[28:00] Compassionate Humane Education normalizes kindness.
[32:00] Plant the Change Podcast is part of the plan.
About Michele Fasnacht
Michele Fasnacht is the creator and host of the Plant the Change podcast and the Founder of Solid Rock Community School and the Sanctuary at Solid Rock. Her work is grounded in Compassionate Humane Education, an innovative approach that brings kindness, eco-friendly practices, and real-world responsibility into the heart of how we raise and educate children.
Michele’s voice is shaped by lived experience. As a child, she endured relentless bullying and school-related trauma, including the devastating loss of her high school boyfriend to violence. After having children of her own and witnessing those same cycles of cruelty and exclusion repeat in schools, she knew something had to change, and went on to start a school built around compassion, inclusion, and purposeful learning.
Later in life, Michele was diagnosed with progressive MS and began preparing for a future of increasing disability. But during that time, she came across a Facebook video about the dairy industry, a moment that would change her life forever.
That transformation became a mission. Today, Michele leads a school where compassion is part of the culture and a podcast where real talk meets real change. Through Plant the Change, she invites others to rethink how we live, what we teach, and how we can build a kinder, more conscious world.
About Cheryl Moss
Cheryl Moss is the host of the Better Life for Animals podcast, where she shares uplifting stories from sanctuaries and highlights the work of vegan activists, ethical consumers, and animal welfare leaders. A passionate advocate for animal welfare, she is dedicated to ending factory farming and is working to raise $100,000 for Mercy For Animals to support underrepresented sanctuaries.
Beyond podcasting, Cheryl is a banking professional and an accomplished children’s author. A graduate of Main Street Vegan Academy, she promotes plant-based living through her books, Gabriel, Cluck, and Pickle the Pig, which inspire young readers to embrace kindness, sustainability, and compassion for animals.
When not advocating, she enjoys Pilates, and spending time with her rescue dogs and grandchildren. Through her work, writing, and activism, Cheryl continues to inspire positive change for animals and the planet.
https://www.facebook.com/BLFAnimals/
https://x.com/betterlife4anim
https://www.instagram.com/betterlife4animals/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/cherylmossabetterlifeforanimals/
