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Food not Bombs

Published 01st November 2009 - 7 comments - 1085 views -

Formed in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1980 by anti-nuclear activists, Food Not Bombs (FnB) is an all-volunteer organization that shares free vegan and vegetarian meals with the hungry in over 1,000 cities around the world every week to protest destruction of the environment, war and poverty.

The movement is built on 4 principles:

  1. - recycling of food
  2. - decision making by consensus
  3. - non-violence
  4. - vegetarianism

Each Food Not Bombs group recovers food that would otherwise be thrown out and makes fresh hot meals that are served outside in public spaces to anyone, without restriction. They basically follow 3 steps:

a) collect the food (many times from small supermarkets that refuse to recycle food that they waste) Note. We're not speaking about altered food, but of products with damaged packaging or 'out of style'.

b) prepare the food,

c) give the food away. Some groups offer people a free lunch while encouriging them to spend less, other ones focus on catering for demos and gigs, others support workplace struggles, feed asylum seekers or join up with active political groups with similar aims.

At its roots, Food Not Bombs is about self-empowerment. It is also a project open to anybody. As long as your activity involves feeding others (preferably not your close circle of friends, remember the point is to also raise awareness on specific global problems - like climate change) you can start your own Food not Bombs project in your own home town.

One such event took place earlier today here, at the train station. The local FnB group is made up by young people who prepare each one or more dish/es at home, then they all meetup in a previously decided location, set the flexible tables and share everything they prepared to whoever passes by. More in the movie (yes, I've finally used the flip) below.

Helpful websites:
- An independent newswire (you will also be able to post your own FnB news reports here)
- American home and more info on FnB worldwide
- Hosts email lists, a good starting point for any group.

Category: International Action, | Tags: environment, recycle, food not bombs,



Comments

Adela on 01st November 2009:

The video is creepy. Oh wait, I meant crappy.
I have no idea what happened. I’m calling the video plumber.

Meanwhile, if anyone has any idea why a HD video ended up like this ... please enlighten me, too.

Daniel Nylin Nilsson on 03rd November 2009:

Food not bombs are doing an awesome work, and are very inovative I think.

I think you do a great job with posting informative links on almost all posts, Adela. Thanks!

Adela on 03rd November 2009:

Yeah, they’re doing a great job, especially if we take into account they’re very young (at least the local group here is ~20-22 y.o.)

I’m sorry about the video though, I’m still in the middle of recovering the HD version to upload it back here.

And thanks for the thumbs up. There is good information out there, but I am not always inspired to find it. smile

Daniel Nylin Nilsson on 03rd November 2009:

There is sooo much information on the internet. The tricky thing is to gather it and present it in a usable way. I think you do a great job with this smile

Adela on 07th November 2009:

The video plumber is in holiday so I had to find a solution on my own.

It’s 100% edited in flipshare & it’s much smaller than the 1st one (less than a minute long), but at least the quality is HD.

I hope you like it.

Fast food coupons on 15th November 2009:

Great write up of this special read.  It is on my vacation reading list and I’ll probably situation the ordination on Virago when I return from Lake Tahoe this weekend
Fast food coupons

The Counselor on 15th November 2009:

Food not bombs are doing an awesome work, and a very innovative I think.

I think you do a great job with posting informative links on almost all posts, Adela. Thanks!

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