Arresting Volunteers for Sharing Food with the Hungry is CriminalThe City of Orlando has made over 20 arrests for sharing meals with the hungry at Lake Eola Park. The city limits the group to sharing twice a year per park.
Food Not Bombs has been sharing free vegetarian meals and literature in public for over 30 years. While many believe that hunger and poverty is the result of personal failing and the solution can be found by getting closer to God, Food Not Bombs thought the solution could be found in changing public policy, economics and society.
Risking arrest sharing food in Orlando (courtesy FNB website)
With fifty cents of every federal tax dollar going towards the military, no one in the world’s wealthiest country should have to stand in line to eat at a soup kitchen. It was clear that flyers and banners were not enough to motivate the public to take action to redirect military spending
Arrested June 6th for sharing vegan meals with the hungry (from FNB website)
towards the real security of education, healthcare and other social services so the eight co-founders started to share meals at their literature table. People of all walks of life visited Food Not Bombs at Harvard Square and the Boston Commons. Visitors engaged one another in dialog. People new to the ideas of peace and social justice were introduced to groups organizing to end the war in Central America, the Nuclear Arms Race and the virtues of vegetarian meals.
The combination of literature and food under the banner Food Not Bombs had an impact. So much of an impact that military contractors, bankers, and real-estate speculators in San Francisco urged the police to stop the meal at the entrance to Golden Gate Park, arresting 9 volunteers on August 15, 1988. Mayor Agnos gave the group a permit after 94 arrests but resumed his effort ordering 300 more arrests in the summer of 1989 after homeless people organized a Tent City Protest outside City Hall. This started a pattern of cities ordering the arrest of Food Not Bombs volunteers worried that they might be forced to redirect local taxes towards solutions to the poverty that was clearly on the increase. San Francisco made nearly 1,000 arrests before it realized they would never be able to hide the poor and stop the meals and literature.
Arrested Sharing Meals on June 15th (from Food not Bombs website)
In July of 2006 the City of Orlando passed a law limiting the sharing of food to 25 or more people to twice a year per park. Food Not Bombs had been sharing vegan and vegetarian meals in downtown Orlando starting around 1995 with little notice from the city or local media. The police arrested Food Not Bombs volunteer Eric Montanez on April 4, 2007. Another meal was disrupted by the police on May 9, 2007. Orlando Food Not Bombs found legal support, Eric won his criminal case and the group filed suit against the city, winning a Federal District Court ruling that stopped the enforcement of the law. Federal Judge Gregory Presnell also ruled the city would have to pay $200,000 to Food Not Bombs’ attorney, so a month before they would have to make the payment they hired a private firm to appeal the case to the Eleventh Circuit Court in Atlanta. Ten Federal Judges ruled on April 12th that the First Amendment rights of Food Not Bombs were protected since the group could share its food and literature twice a year per park. The city gave Food Not Bombs a number of permits but this didn’t stop the group from sharing meals twice a week. Police counted the number of people that came to eat and arrested three volunteers for sharing meals to the hungry on June 1, 2011. The police made more arrests for sharing breakfast on Mondays and dinners on Wednesdays. By June 20th the city had made 21 arrests.
Orlando Mayor Dyer provided an alternative to the sharing of meals at the picnic section of Lake Eola Park sending Food Not Bombs to his barbed wire topped feeding cage under a Hwy 408 bridge. The feeding cage can be opened by a city employee any time from 9:00 AM to 4:30 PM, but ask anyone in Orlando if they are likely to walk by a a literature table and engage in conversation at the Sylvia Lane Cage. The people that make the 408 bridges their home don’t appreciate the feeding cage. They want their dignity as much as food. America is the wealthiest county on Earth, yet we not only expect our families and veterans to live under the bridge we treat our own people as trash to be discarded at the edge of town.
Just like other nonviolent direct actions – The Boston Tea Party, Salt Marches in India, Bus Boycotts, Lunch Counter Sit-ins – the arresting of people for sharing food with the hungry has become the spark inspiring resistance to America’s part in movements against the austerity policies being forced on people all over the world. A produce worker in Tunisia started the uprising when he could’t make a living selling his food and faced a future without dignity, lighting himself on fire. Something changes and people wake up to their own power. It is often a simple act. Taxing tea in the American colonies or taxing salt in India. The back of the bus in Alabama or whites-only lunch counters in North Carolina. One foggy day at the entrance to Golden Gate Park a father cradling his infant son told me he thought that sharing of food with the hungry would be America’s Salt March.
The current economic, political and social crisis is reflected in the arrests of people for sharing free meals in protest to war and poverty. Corporate rulers are doing all they can to maintain their policies of taking resources from the people while seeking to
Local community supports Food Not Bombs (from FNB website)
silence any opposition. Poverty and hunger are on the increase. The rapid increase in the cost of food has already provided fuel to riots, rebellions and uprisings. Oxfam and the United Nations have both reported that food prices could double in the next 20 years. People all over Europe are in the streets protesting the transfer of resources from the public towards the central banks. The issues in North Africa and the Middle East also have their roots in the global austerity programs and a common desire to live a dignified productive life.
The Mayor of Orlando is telling the media that all is under control. Everyone in Orlando has food and Food Not Bombs can move to the feeding cage if we “really want to feed the homeless.” While many of those eating with us are not homeless, they make a mockery of their own arrest warrants which accuse our volunteers of sharing meals with over 24 people. Many of the people that come to Food Not Bombs have jobs but need a free meal so they have enough to pay for their housing. Second Harvest in Orlando reported that over 55,000 people required food through their central Florida program. They also reported that 20.7% of the pantries, 10.1% of the kitchens and 33.0% of the shelters responded that they turned away clients during the past year. Their website also shows that 49% of the Central Florida Second Harvest clients had to choose between paying for food and paying for their rent or mortgage. The Orlando Regional Realtor Association announced that housing sales for May 2011 were 14.99 percent below May 2010. Housing foreclosures are also on the increase. The people eating with Food Not Bombs eat with us because they need food. Many must choose between food or housing. Mayor Buddy Dyer and other officials must come to terms with the fact that we are in a crisis and hiding the problem of hunger is not a solution.
A recent CNN poll reported that nearly half of all Americans they questioned believed the country will collapse into an economic depression within the next twelve months. For many the depression is already here. Nearly 1 billion people go without food every day world wide even though there is enough to feed everyone. Over 25,000 people die each day because they do not have enough to eat. Many of those going hungry live right here in cities like Orlando. The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported that over 15 percent of Americans were going with out food each month in 2009. That number has increased. Federal authorities also report that 387,849 new recipients were added to the food stamps program in March 2011. Over 44 million Americans rely on food stamps to feed their families and the number continues to grow. Efforts to end hunger and poverty should be supported by the City of Orlando. These staggering and painful statistics reflect the failure of priorities. No one should go hungry in the world’s wealthiest country. Arresting volunteers for doing all they can to encourage solutions to this criss is criminal.
In the world’s wealthiest country where over 50 cents of every federal tax dollar goes to fund the military it is possible to make sure no one ever needs to seek food at a soup kitchen or be forced to live on the streets. This message should be expressed loudly, often and with as much passion as possible. The City of Orlando should end its campaign to silence this message and urge all other cities to follow their example.
We need your support. Letters of support from individuals and groups, solidarity actions on the first of July and August out side your local City Hall. We also need support in Orlando at our meals. Risk arrest sharing vegan food or just stand with us in solidarity. You can also start a local Food Not Bombs group. Past arrests have inspired the creation of Food Not Bombs meals in over 1,000 cities. Maybe this wave of arrests will inspire you to not only start or join your local Food Not Bombs group but will inspire the anti- austerity movement required to bring peace and well-being to the United States and the world.
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FOOD NOT BOMBS
http://www.foodnotbombs.net/
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