40 years of feeding the hungry

May 29, 2020 4:30 PM

Forty years ago a small group of activists formed Food Not Bombs during the Occupation Attempt of the Seabrook Nuclear Power Station. Since then, chapters of the organization (all-volunteer, always free, consensus based) have been serving reclaimed vegetarian food to those in need all over the world, frequently getting arrested for doing so. A planned anniversary celebration involving free outdoor concerts has been scuttled in favor of stepped up action to help feed those affected by illness and economic uncertainty. One of the founders reflects.

Some coverage of local efforts:

Columbus
Myanmar
Philadelphia
Santa Barbara
Santa Monica
Tallahassee

posted by bq (4 comments total)

Almost 30 years ago (that is a sobering thing to say...) I was involved for a while in a small Food Not Bombs group; we cooked and served food once a week in a park next to an encampment. In retrospect, I'm sure the food we made tasted terrible, and more than half of it was dumpster-dived -- food safety was not a phrase any of us knew, much less followed. (I'm sure most groups do a great job; we were all young and didn't know enough to do better.)

But even so, I'll always remember how appreciative people were of our paltry amateur efforts. It really brings home how great the need is.

Thanks for this post, the reflection by the founder was really interesting to read. I wish I had known that history at the time.
posted by Dip Flash at 7:55 PM on May 29, 2020 [1 favorite]

Thanks for the post. I hadn't heard about this group before, but they seem like they're doing really important work.
posted by Ahniya at 10:55 PM on May 29, 2020

I haven't thought about food not bombs in a while. I am not sure they are active where I live now, but my brother's share house in the SF bay area was very active in the early 2000's, fed a lot of people on these street on a regular basis, and also support anti-war protests that happened quite regularly int he lead up to the Iraq war.

I knew they went back to the cold war days, but didn't realize they start with the anti-nuclear power movement.
posted by CostcoCultist at 11:04 PM on May 29, 2020

I was a member of a local Food Not Bombs group for about five years back in the late 1990s. It led a lot of places for me, and I gotta say, those weekly food runs were pretty fun.
posted by RedEmma at 1:35 PM on May 30, 2020