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Richmond, Virginia Food Not Bombs
Started mainly as a political statement, Food Not Bombs, was born in 1980. The movement’s founding members served free food to the homeless outside of a stockholders’ meeting of the First National Bank in Boston. A bank which “red-lined” many poverty-stricken districts in the city while it simultaneously funded much of New England’s weapons industry. The group’s message was simple: “Less money should be spent on destructive military equipment while much of our nation’s population lives in poverty”. This first Food Not Bombs action made a strong political statement, while at the same time providing a simple and practical service to those in need. Now, 28 years later, groups all over the world operate with the same simple humanitarian cause using the name Food Not Bombs.
Food Not Bombs has been a Richmond organization since 1994. For over 14 years the Richmond group has served a weekly meal, only missing 2 servings in its history. The group was founded by activists, and while the membership has changed, there are still connections between the original members and todays activists. Not only that, but the spirit of the group remains the same.
What Does Food Not Bombs Do?
Like any major city in our country, Richmond has a growing number of citizens without homes or the means to acquire healthy food. Food Not Bombs Richmond serves a free, hot, vegan meal in Monroe Park, near the intersection of Main and Belvidere Streets. Close to 200 people eat dinner with us every Sunday, including families. Rice, vegetable stir fry, salad, fruit, bread, and drinks are typically prepared. After the meal, free groceries are made available. We also distribute baked goods and produce to other community organizations. Demonstrations and community events such as Really Really Free Markets are other opportunities for Food Not Bombs to provide a meal while increasing our visibility and developing solidarity with local activists.
Food Not Bombs is an entirely not- for- profit group of individuals. Most of our pool of resources is provided by the kind donations of several Richmond businesses. Each week these generous donors set aside products which are still viable and edible but are for some reason unsellable and would otherwise be thrown away (i.e. produce which is not ‘pretty’ enough to sell, items which have just passed their ‘sell by’ date, etc.) Any additional supplies that we require are purchased with money raised from benefit concerts or from members’ own pockets. We are not affiliated with nor financially supported by any organization, religious, political, or otherwise, and we rely entirely upon donations and volunteers to survive.
Why Is The Food Vegan?
Food Not Bombs serves vegan food for numerous reasons. Because we deal with donated food, it is much easier and safer to avoid meat and dairy products which spoil quickly and easily. Socioeconomically, a vegetarian or vegan menu reinforces our cause of reducing waste. It takes 16 pounds of grain to produce a single pound of meat; making meat an extremely economically costly and environmentally wasteful food. Many of those who eat with us each week are themselves vegetarian or vegan. Were we to serve meat and dairy, we would be excluding these community members from our table, so we choose to make the meal as accessible as possible. A majority of the members of Richmond Food Not Bombs are themselves vegetarian or vegan and prefer not to serve meat and dairy for their own reasons, whether they be ethical or health related. All of these choices, alone or in combination with each other, underlie our choice of serving a vegan meal.
Food Not Bombs is always looking for new resources and new volunteers. We love meeting new individuals to help us collect food, cook, serve, and clean up! We spend about 6 or 7 hours every Sunday in order to provide a single meal. But no one has to come for the whole time- if you can spare a few hours on Sundays, to help with any aspect, but especially clean up, we would love your help. Give us a call or just stop by Monroe Park at 4:00 on a Sunday and introduce yourself. We are also always looking for new sources of donated food and food serving supplies. We are in constant need of produce, canned foods, spices, drinks and drink mixes, paper cups, paper plates, plastic silverware and condiments. If you are involved with a business which would be interested in becoming a Food Not Bombs donor, please contact us. Without the generous donations of Richmond Businesses we would not be able to function. Food Not Bombs is run by everyday people who want to make a difference. Every person’s efforts are important to us, no matter how small. If you would like to make a difference by helping turn waste into a valuable food source please contact us. Thanks!
Food is a right, not a privilege!!!
Contact information:
Food Not Bombs
P.O. Box 5688
Richmond, Va 23220
(804) 300 0023
www.myspace.com/richmondfnb
The name Food Not Bombs states our most fundamental principle: society needs to promote life, not death. Our society condones and even promotes violence and domination. This affects us in our everyday lives through the constant threat of violent crime, domestic violence, police repression and the threat of total annihilation from nuclear war. Such constant exposure to violence, including the threat thereof, leads many people to hopelessness and low self esteem. Authority and power is derived from the threat and use of violence. Globally, we continue to spend more time and resources developing, using, and threatening to use weapons of massive human and planetary destruction than on nurturing and celebrating life.
Poverty is violence. One expression of the violence of poverty is hunger. Millions of Americans, almost half children, go hungry every day and childhood malnutrition contributes heavily to infant mortality rates, which are higher in parts of the U.S. than in most other nations of the world. By spending money on bombs instead of food, our government perpetuates and exacerbates the violence of poverty by failing to provide food for everyone in need. Food Not Bombs has chosen to take a stand against violence. We are committed to nonviolent social change by giving out free vegetarian food thus celebrating and nurturing life.
Food Not Bombs is an organization devoted to developing positive personal, political, and economic alternatives. Often, revolutionaries are depicted as working for the overthrow of the government by any means necessary. Food Not Bombs groups, in general, do not have the time or resources to attack, tear down, or overthrow the existing death culture. By not spending our time trying to overthrow the existing power structure does not mean never struggle with it. By simply exerting our basic rights to free speech and association, we are challenging the power elite and they will try to stop us. However, we focus on what needs to be done. We want to create new alternatives. We want to create life affirming structures from the ground up. We want to replace the death culture with a culture of “Plumbers Not Bombs”, “Daycare Not Bombs”, and “Healthcare Not Bombs”.
Tags: FNB, Food is a right, Food Not Bombs, not a privilege, RVA
Ideas from an Anarchist in Richmond, Virginia 
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