Anarchistcook’s Weblog

Our message of food not bombs is needed more today than at any time in our 46 year history,

“It’s not possible for us to take care of daycare, Medicaid, Medicare, all these individual things. We have to take care of one thing: military protection” – Donald Trump – April 1, 2026

Staggering food prices. The slashing of programs to aid the dispossessed.  Possibly a Great Depression scale economic collapse. Flag draped coffins returning from the war. Talk of a military draft in the US. Fuel shortages across the globe. Power and water draining AI data farms and food farms that can’t afford fertilizer. Current events are unsettling. Frightening really. 

Our Food Not Bombs chapters the are already mobilized to respond to the catastrophe.

Volunteers in Manila are responding to the fuel crisis by activating a “Free Rides Not Bombs” service in addition to their meal and grocery program. Their shiny silver jeepney winds through the narrow streets of Pasig taking passengers to their destination. Volunteers in Beirut are faced with a flood of refugees fleeing the attempted invasion of southern Lebanon. The lines of those joining Food Not Bombs continue to grow longer.

People are eager to help. Requests to add new chapters to our website map arrive in our inbox nearly everyday. A parade of donations arrive all afternoon at my local group in Santa Cruz, California. I get the impression that a spirit of solidarity is growing as fast as the gas prices. 

Food Not Bombs volunteers are in a unique position during this period of crisis. The emotional  support of community one can feel at a Food Not Bombs meal could be more important than the meals offer. 

Thousands of Food Not Bombs volunteers have spent years practicing the logistics of food recovery, meal preparation and sharing. Many of our volunteers have experienced the chaos that is possible in extreme conditions such as providing food under martial law in Myanmar or feeding the survivors in Medan Indonesia after the 2004 Christmas Tsunami. Food Not Bombs volunteers prepared hundreds of meals at the Park Slope Community Church and sharing meals in Red Bank and The Far Rockaway after Hurricane Sandy.

Food Not Bombs is celebrating our 46th anniversary this May. Over four decades and billions of meals prepared and shared. I detail some of amazing events that make up our 46 year history in my new memoir Soup Street. You can join me in my journey from the adventures I enjoyed as a child living the wilderness of America’s National Parks, the events that inspired me to dedicate my life to ending capital’s exploitive system to the founding of Food Not Bombs and the decades of traveling the world preparing and sharing meals.

Please don’t despair. Food Not Bombs is up to the task.  

Soup Street will be available in paperback this May 2026.

Visit http://www.foodnotbombs.net to purchase a copy.

Food Not Bombs

PO Box 422, Santa Cruz, CA 95061 USA

1-800-884-1136

www.foodnotbombs.net