Food not bombs
Posted by melthibs on Sep 21, 2008 · Member since Apr 2008 · 841 posts
We are trying to start a chapter of Food not bombs in our city and I was looking for ideas on how to reach people, how to distribute food and information. Anybody here ever has ever been active in such a group. This week, we'll be calling the local soup kitchens and food banks, the police, the city authorities, just to see when, where and how would the best way to do our thing.
What kind of actions did you take? Any suggestions for events?
You're in Canada, right? It might be different there, but the biggest problem in the States is that FNB will prep food at the distribution location in a manner not consistent with food safety regulations. I think that's where a lot of problem exist. You might be able to use one of those tent canopy with the net sides to comply with the regs. Also contact your Environmental Health Services equivalent.
Two outreach ideas are on-campus fliers and meetup.com.
its also not legal here because fnb does not have a resteraunt license or food license or something. i, personally, would not go to the police. but i dont know what the laws are in canada.
at one fnb that i helped with, the kids dumpstered all of the food
at a different one, all of the food was donated by the local co op
at a different one (we called it soup not bombs) because we bought the food as a group and made soup!
as for distribution, we would go to center city, set up a table and serve food. theres a woman in philadelphia who has served food to tens of homeless people every week for the past 20 years. she simply cooked everything in big pots, put it in the back of her station wagon and drove around to all of the hot spots like in front of shelters, and she would just drive around looking for homeless people, stop, give them food, chat, get back in her station wagon and continue on. she was AWESOME. what an amazing woman. that seemed to be the best way to get things done.
Thank you for your inputs. One of the organizers was active in another chapter in Halifax, so he's inspired a bit by his previous experience. However, our city is quite different, so I am not sure how that'll work. I'll approach several soup kitchens just to see how we can work with them, not going in their areas at the same time, etc. Also, we could be asking them for their leftover food items, like bread, I've heard that they usually have too many.
And I've been reading this FNB guide this morning, and like hiimkelsi said, they recommended not going to the police, since they can actually make it worse. I've never actually had to go to the police station, I've never to deal with the police, so I don't know how that'll work out. Somebody recommended that we just put it on a rolling table and if the police ask us to leave, we can do it, slowly.
I really can't wait for it to really start up. This is something I wanted to do since college, but I was too lazy or too busy with other stuff to actually do something.
I probably wouldn't contact the police either. Or Environmental Health. Since you're doing full on food prep the annual permit fee would be pretty high and you'd have to invest in "proper" food storage devices.
Yeah, no to the police-ness :-)
I have some friends in FNB and they've been arrested a few times... haha.
That's what I was thinking. You were talking about if the cops told you to leave you'd just leave slowly, but I thought the police arrested people serving food in some instances. I think it depends on the place. In Arcata, where I went to school, they overlooked it completely, but in other areas food servers have been booked.
Well, in Orlando FL they hate homeless people. If you feed them, you go to jail.
melthibs,
in Victoria BC there is a Food not Bombs chapter. they have a weekly feast which they hold on a large grassy meridian just a few blocks from downtown. i haven't heard of them ever being bothered by police about either food sanitation or the right to serve food to homeless people. they prepare their food on the same day as they serve it, on a rotating basis out of members' kitchens.
also, in terms of securing food: small bakeries which make their bread fresh daily would likely donate day-old bread; grocery stores often discard fruits and vegetables with small blemishes, and perhaps by developing a relationship with the produce manager one could secure large amounts of produce that way. also check with local organic farms, as they are often on-board with ideas of social justice and food for all; one of the principles of Permaculture is to "Distribute the Excess". Another excellent possibility is organic food box delivery companies: there is a large one in Victoria I used to work at, and they were a main supplier of free veggies for Food Not Bombs as well as for a local vegetarian restaurant.
what city are you in?
good luck!