Anarchistcook’s Weblog

By Keith McHenry, co-founder of the Food Not Bombs movement
June 25, 2013

“Since when did feeding the homeless become a terrorist activity?” asked ACLU Associate Legal Director Ann Beeson on May, 18, 2005. “When the FBI and local law enforcement target groups like Food Not Bombs under the guise of fighting terrorism, many Americans who oppose government policies will be discouraged from speaking out and exercising their rights.”

The information revealed by Edward Snowden is not news to those of us who have been the target of government and corporate intelligence operations. What is new is the much needed discussion about the impact of covert actions by the government and private intelligence programs on our future. Closing down the intelligence industry must be our first priority if we want to solve any of the other crisis we face today.

Domestic spying on the U.S. public is not as benign as its supporters are claiming. The data and personal information that is collected is used to stop a wide range important efforts. Even if not the target of these programs they have had a damaging impact on nearly everyone because those controlling the intelligence industry have used this power to interfere with nearly every effort to change our society for the better. The most important message to understand here is that there is more to surveillance than listening to phone calls and reading emails.  The information collected is used to implement a complex system of programs designed to disrupt and stop perfectly legal community efforts. Changes in our society that you and your friends might support.

The information gathered by the intelligence industry is used more than most people realize to determine the direction of society and the health of our environment. No organization or person is immune from disruption.  As Snowden pointed out “Not all analysts have the ability to target everything. But I, sitting at my desk, certainly had the authorities to wiretap anyone, from you or your accountant to a federal judge, to even the president, if I had a personal email.”  The intelligence industry is able to determine the outcome of all important questions facing the public because they can use the information they gather to control people and organizations at every level of society.

My friends and I have been the target of disruptive intelligence operations and have direct experience with the devastation that can result from being the focus of the intelligence industry.  I helped start the Food Not Bombs movement in 1980. We collect organic food that would otherwise be discarded, prepare vegan meals we share on the streets with literature suggesting we could end hunger and poverty if we redirected some of the military budget to healthcare, education and other domestic programs.

Surveillance has real consequences for those of us seeking to change society. I have been the target of a covert campaign of disruption by the intelligence industry since at least 1980 when 32 letters containing checks donated to Food Not Bombs were “damaged in route” by coffee on the stamp end of each envelope. I can only surmise that the authorities needed to make photo copies of the checks. During that same period our neighbors in Cambridge, Massachusetts reported that they had been questioned by the FBI about our work with Food Not Bombs and the secretary of Cambridge City Council told me that someone from the CIA had asked about me and a protest I was helping organize outside Draper Laboratory on August 6, 1981.

Food Not Bombs was first described as “one of America’s most hardcore terrorist groups” in the fall of 1988 during a three day training course for the National Guard on the threat of domestic terrorism.  Even though we had been under investigation before 1988 the formation of a second Food Not Bombs chapter seemed to be threat to the authorities. A threat described in a 2009 State Department lecture that claimed we were more dangerous  than Al-Qaeda because Americans visiting our meals were being moved to support a reduction in military spending.

An internal police memo dated September 27, 1988 explained that the information they over heard by listening to a telephone conversation I had with a friend in Boston ” was a great asset to ” their investigation. My friend and I expressed excitement about the fact that Food Not Bombs would be sharing food at protests against the war in El Salvador on October 15th in Boston, Washington D.C. and San Francisco. The first time Food Not Bombs would be providing food at  protests in three cities on the same day.  The police were able to interpret our conversation to support their plan to beat and arrest me during a protest against the war in El Salvador on October 15, 1988.

The memo to Deputy Chief Frank Reed Patrol Bureau from Acting Captain Richard Holder Commanding Officer at Park Station reads in part as follows. (this memo can be seen at http://www.foodnotbombs.net/wiretap1.html)
“As per your request, I have conducted an investigation regarding the planned activity of the “Food Not Bombs” organization on October 15, 1988 at the Presidio. During my investigation, I was able to obtain the private phone number of “Food Not Bombs” organizer, Keith McHenry, who unknowingly was a great asset to this investigation.”

“As part of a nationwide anti-war protest scheduled for October 15, 1988, “Food Not Bombs”, plans to blockade all the entrances to the Presidio to support similar activity at the Pentagon and other military organizations. The goal is to shut down the Presidio all day by blocking and feeding demonstrators at the gates to the post. “Food Not Bombs” anticipates that this demonstration will draw more participants, 3000, than the last major demonstration at the Presidio on 03/26/88.” I was sharing meals at the Nevada Test Site on March 26th and had not taken part in the planning of the protest at the Presidio. All we had planned to do was provide lunch to those participating in the protest.
A local activist videotaped the October 15th protest filming a “protester” as he threw a metal police barricade at a line of riot police. The video that we now call “The Food Not Bombs Greatest Hits” shows that he was dressed in the same type of clothing I had also worn that day. The video also shows the same man walking through a group of protesters pointing out the “organizers” to a squad of riot police that would arrest those he fingered. Protesters were upset at his actions and started to yell at him. The film shows him backing up against my truck as the activists yell at him for fingering the organizers. This was interrupted by more yelling as the people who were helping me pack up the Food Not Bombs supplies became upset at being pushed aside by riot police on their way to smash me to the pavement and arrested on charges of throwing a barricade at the police. The charges were dropped but I sustained many more arrests and beatings over the following ten years all facilitated by information obtained covertly from programs similar to those exposed by Snowden, Hammond and the other whistle blowers being prosecuted by the Obama administration. At no time did the authorities provide evidence that a warrant had been obtained for the many cases of my phone, email and personal effects being monitored.

The information gathered on me and my friends has been used to formulate plans to deny us permits, create disinformation campaigns, and prepare for our arrests and beatings while sharing food or supporting protests. On one occasion the police arrived to a rally against cuts in San Francisco General Hospital walked up to me hitting me with a large metal flashlight before throwing me to the ground. My attorney suggested this was done to discourage coalition building. Information covertly collected by the authorities have been used to develop smear campaigns that have reduced financial support for Food Not Bombs.  Knowledge of my schedule was used to stop me on my way home from work where I would be arrested and taken to the Special Operations office at 850 Bryant Street in San Francisco where  my clothes were torn off of me before being lifted by my arms and legs and smashed against the concrete floor as my tendons and ligaments were torn. I was placed in a tiny stress position cage for several days. Oddly I was not questioned even though the process is classified as “Information Extraction.”  Information collected by intelligence operatives on other occasions were used to formulate a plan to frame me on violent or serious felonies where I faced 25 to life in prison and did more than 500 days in jail.

The intelligence industry has also worked to disrupt the work of many other Food Not Bombs volunteers.  One of the  first high profile attempts to frame and discredit one of our volunteers was the case against Connor Cash in Long Island accused of recruiting his high school friends to burn down some model homes in a disputed wetlands in 2000. He was acquitted by a jury on all charges in May 2004 but not before the media had associated Food Not Bombs and him as belonging to a terrorist cell.

Soon after Connor was prosecuted by Federal authorities in New York Food Not Bombs activists Josh Connole was arrested on September 12, 2003 as a suspect in the arson of 133 Hummers and other SUV’s at a Chevrolet-Hummer dealership in West Covina, California. Four days later, Caltech Physics Grad Student, Billy Cottrell, was arrested after emailing the media that Josh was not responsible. His case is a perfect example of how false information collected covertly can be used to falsely accuse some one of terrorism and aid in creating at basis for additional restrictions on our rights. Connole became a suspect after a neighbor became suspicious based on his anti-war politics, and electric car, then called in a tip. The police had cultivated a citizen watch program used to target activists.

The media in Orange County reported that “Agents placed the commune under surveillance and developed a political profile of the residents, discovering the owner of the house and his father have posted statements on websites opposing the use of fossil fuels.”   An officer monitoring the activities of Connole and his roommates told reporters that after watching the house they discovered that  “the owner had ties to a local chapter of Food Not Bombs, an anarcho-vegan food distribution group.” The FBI settled a civil rights lawsuit with Josh by paying him $100,000 and the city of West Covina paid him an additional $20,000 for false arrest. US Attorney General John Ashcroft spent the month of September 2003 touring the United States speaking to the media about the need for stronger anti-terrorism laws using the case of Josh Connole, and the arson in West Covina as the example of the extreme dangers facing America.

Even though there was no evidence that Food Not Bombs was planning to violate any laws the FBI paid an informant Anna at least sixty thousands dollars to infiltrate our movement. The FBI directed Anna to pretend to be interested in Eric McDavid. The FBI paid her to draw Food Not Bombs volunteers Eric McDavid, Lauren Weiner, and Zachary Jenson into a plot to bomb dams, banks and other targets. They refused but were arrested anyway. Eric was sentenced to 20 years in prison after the FBI pitted Wren against Eric. They used the information they gained through electronic surveillance and Anna against Wren knowing that she cared deeply for Eric and would be angry that he was attracted to the informant.

ACLU Attorney Mark Silverman showed an Australian journalist the FBI memos that detailed the government’s campaign to frighten Food Not Bombs volunteers from participating in the 2004 gathering. F.B.I. agents in Colorado, Kanas and Missouri made visits to people who were planing to attend questioning them about legal activities. The activists in Lawrence, Kansas stopped doing Food Not Bombs all together after the visit.   The FBI didn’t stop investigating and intimidating Denver Food Not Bombs once they had disrupted the World Gathering. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) published a December 7, 2004 FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) documents about an FBI “routine” investigation into Food Not Bombs. A December 7, 2004 memo to the Denver FBI office from a Denver Squad 5/JTTF Special Agent reads, “Synopsis: To document information regarding Sarah Bardwell and Food Not Bombs.”

It goes on to say “Details: as previously noted in serial 4, Colorado has several active Food Not Bombs (FNB) groups in Denver, Boulder, Fort Collins and Durango.”
The memo continues, “On August 1, 2003, eight individuals were arrested at the so-called Denver FNB house at 1435 Lipan Street. The Charges included obstruction police/fire, disturbing the peace, resisting arrest and assault. These arrests were noted in this investigation due to (i) the close association between FNB and Anarchist Black Cross movement and (ii) the close proximity of the FNB house to 923 Lipan Street, the location of the Anarchist Black Cross Denver.”  As it turned out the flyer announcing the formation of Anarchist Black Cross Denver was published by the F.B.I. to provide probable cause for the investigation.

On March 8, 2006 FBI Supervisory Senior Resident Agent G. Charles Rasner  gave a presentation entitled “Counter-Terrorism Efforts in Texas” to a U.S. Law and National Security class at the University of Texas School of Law. He used PowerPoint slides to illustrate the nature of the terrorist threat in Central Texas. Rasner listed Indymedia, Food Not Bombs, and the Communist Party of Texas as “Terrorist Watch” cause groups in Austin. The word “Unclassified” appeared prominently in bold red letters on the opening PowerPoint slide.

In the year before the 2008 Republican National Convention in Minneapolis the F.B.I. and local authorities infiltrated Food Not Bombs and the RNC Welcoming Committee. Ramsey County Sheriff’s Department Narcotics Officer Marilyn Hedstrom used the name “Norma Jean Johnson” joined Food Not Bombs claiming she loved dumpster diving and had recently been divorced. She and the other informants  Ramsey County Corrections Officer Rachel Nieting known by local activist as “Amanda Clara” or  “Amanda Amey,”Chris Dugger and Andrew Darst would “joke” about bombing the police or Republican delegates while participating in meetings with Food Not Bombs.  Their statements suggesting the use of violence were used to request a warrant against the RNC Welcoming Committee.  The Food Not Bombs house was raided the day before the conference and eight volunteers were charged under the state’s Patriot Act.

Most recently the use of covertly collected information from programs like those exposed by Snowden were used to disrupt Occupy Wall Street and the other occupations. The Partnership for Civil Justice Fund reported that “FBI documents revealed that from its inception, the FBI treated the Occupy movement as a potential criminal and terrorist threat even though the agency acknowledges in documents that organizers explicitly called for peaceful protest and did “not condone the use of violence” at Occupy protests.”

“FBI offices and agents around the country were in high gear conducting surveillance against the movement even as early as August 2011, a month prior to the establishment of the OWS encampment in Zuccotti Park and other Occupy actions around the country.”
The infiltration and surveillance on the occupations included a campaign in Cleveland organized by the  FBI office in the Northern District of Ohio. Brandon Baxter and  Connor Stevens cooked with Cleveland Food Not Bombs and helped cook for the occupation. I had worked with them from time to time. The FBI targeted five cooks at Occupy Cleveland sending an agent and paid informant Shaquille Azir to the kitchen on October 21, 2011. Azir had had a 20 year criminal history and was paid by the FBI to encourage the occupiers to participate in a bombing plot. The FBI was able to involve them in their May Day plot to bomb a bridge after offering the money, beer and showers.

Terry Gilbert, Stevens’ defense attorney, told reporters that he wondered why the FBI  would send “a plant into a peaceful demonstration with a very ambiguous claim of criminal behavior. Once you get an informant in there, they have every motive to get a case. They are trying to make money or are working off a criminal case.”
Arun Gupta’s December 1, 20012 article in “The Guardian” outline the FBI’s effort to recruit Occupy activists for their campaign to discredit the movement.  He reports that ” After Hayne agreed to testify, Wright, Baxter and Stevens accepted guilty pleas 5 September, gambling that Dowd would reduce their sentences based on mitigating factors. But this nixed the defense plan to argue entrapment, detailing how Shaquille Azir, a paid FBI informant with a 20-year criminal record, facilitated every step in the plot.”

“Azir molded the five’s childish bravado and drunken fantasies into terrorism. He played father figure to the lost men, providing them with jobs, housing, beer and drugs. Every time the scheme threatened to collapse into gutterpunk chaos, he kept it on track.”

“FBI tapes reveal Azir led the brainstorming of targets, showed them bridges to case out, pushed them to buy C-4 military-grade explosives, provided the contact for weapons, gave them money for the explosives and demanded they develop a plan because “we on the hook” for the weapons. At one point, Azir burst out in frustration at their ineptitude: “every time we meet, we leave saying, we’re doing some research. And then get back together and go back to square one.”
There was a concerted effort to reestablish the occupations on May Day but news stories about the Cleveland bombing plot, Black Bloc destruction in Seattle and Oakland and a phony story about the mailing of a suspicious white powder having been mailed to bankers in New York City made the news that morning portraying our movement as violent. This nationwide coordinated effort by the Obama administration was enough to stop our attempt  to re-occupy the public square.
The investigation released by the  DBA Press and the Center for Media and Democracy in May 2013 details more about the impact that  intelligence operations like those exposed by Snowden and Hammond can have on constitutionally protected protest.  The report details the use of “fusion centers” to coordinate the disruption of the occupations. This was not the first time “fusions centers” focused on disrupting community efforts. In August 2009 Food Not Bombs organizer  Brendan Maslauskas Dunn learned that his friend John Jacob was in fact  military intelligence officer John J Towery working at the Force Protection Unit and Fusion Center at Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM) directed by his superiors to infiltrate the anti-war group Port Militarization Resistance (PMR), Food Not Bombs, and anarchists groups in Olympia and Tacoma. Dunn told me about his friend John and his help in organizing the protests against the shipment of weapons to Iraq when I spoke in Tacoma. Dunn told me John  was a janitor at the base providing valuable information on the movement of armored vehicles to ships in the Puget Sound.  It is easy to understand how devastated he would be on learning John’s true identity.
The documents in the 20013 report “Dissent or Terror: How the Nation’s Counter Terrorism Apparatus, in Partnership with Corporate America, Turned on Occupy Wall Street” show that corporate and government intelligence operations coordinate their efforts to disrupt community organizing that  if not interfered with could be of value to most Americans.  The authorities claim that the military can assist in disrupting the democratic process if their agents are assigned to a “fusion center” justifying the introduction of the military in domestic spying.
Most chilling are the FBI’s documents regarding their surveillance of the Occupy protests obtained by The Partnership for Civil Justice Fund that stated that someone “planned to gather intelligence against the leaders of the protest groups and obtain photographs, then formulate a plan to kill the leadership via suppressed sniper rifles.”  The names of those planning to kill the perceived leadership of the occupation was redacted by the FBI.

The examples of intelligence operations implemented against myself and the other Food Not Bombs volunteers could fill a book, a book I have been writing for over a year already. Friends like Hugh Mejia have killed themselves as a result of the stress and lies generated by some of intelligence programs I will outline.  Others like Michael Taylor  have been murdered and still others like Eric McDavid and Jeremy Hammond  languish in prison. Many others have given up trying to seek to change society.  I am reminded every day of the very real harm caused by the intelligence industry and facilitated by the not so benign surveillance  programs like those now being debated.

On June 24th Ed Schultz  told his radio audience that he thought Snowden should return to the United States saying he could get a fair trial but it is clear that Snowden was correct to reveal news of the NSA programs from a hotel room in Hong Kong. There is no way he could have gotten a fair trial in the United States.  Even with Amnesty International announcing I would be considered a prisoner of conscience I could not get a fair trial and all I had done was suggest we divert our taxes from paying for the military to healthcare and education. With Senators and congress people claiming Snowden is a traitor he would be crazy to come anywhere near the United States. Snowden must have known about the brutal treatment of Bradley Manning for providing evidence of war crimes to Wikileaks.  If the United States could capture Julian Assange he would also face life in prison for the “crime” of  exposing the criminal actions of those in power and consider the fate of  Food Not Bombs activist Jeremy Hammond, prosecuted for sharing details about the work of the global intelligence company Strategic Forecasting Inc. or Stratfor with Wikileaks. He faced life in prison and has been held without bail since his arrest in March 2011, often in solitary confinement. He was pressured into pleading guilty in exchange for the lighter sentence of ten years in prison. The Stratfor files show that there is has been a global program of surveillance designed to protect the interest of transnational corporations and their government supporters from legal community opposition. Even before brave people like Manning,  Hammond and Snowden exposed the extent to which the intelligence industry is collecting information about the public those of us that had been working for change had direct experience with covert efforts to stop our progress.

Almost any threat to corporate power can inspire the system to start a program of disruption using information covertly collected by the intelligence industry to inform their strategy.  San Francisco Food Not Bombs had less than ten volunteers and shared vegan meals once a week at Golden Gate Park when the full force of the intelligence industry first implanted their covert war against our totally innocent project. Fortunately their efforts back fired as we can see time and time again and their unreasonable campaign against us inspired solidarity and the formation of Food Not Bombs groups in over 1,000 other cities.
There are no limits to the methods deployed by government and corporate security departments in defense of profit and power.  No one is immune. Not judges, politicians or lawyers. Information can be manipulated against even the most powerful.  Information collected on those working for the environment, animals, civil rights, peace and justice have faced  brutal campaigns of infiltration, criminal prosecution, disinformation, injury, and even death.
Imagine if the security forces had not used billions of our tax dollars to interfere with efforts of concerned individuals, community groups and social movements. We may have transitioned to sustainable energy decades ago and would not be confronted with extreme weather, massive forest fires, droughts and the climate crisis. Efforts to improve the economic system could have saved millions of Americans from foreclosure had the intelligence community not subverted organizations working to build popular support for changes in banking policies.  Every American might have the benefits of universal healthcare and affordable education. Instead of one out of two Americans struggling to survive most of us could be living relaxed lives of dignity.  Millions of civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan might be alive today if the intelligence industry had not interfered with the peace movement. The threat of an attack on the United States by people angry from decades of war would never have become a reality.

Almost every aspect of society has been manipulated by the intelligence industry. Not one reform of our political or economic system is possible as long as we are subjected to the surveillance state. We will never have freedom and democracy until we dismantle the web of intelligence programs that control our society. Closing down the intelligence industry must be our first priority if we want to solve any of the other crisis we face today.

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/549518-fbi-ows-documents.html
http://www.foodnotbombs.net/wiretap1.html

The State of New Mexico issued a citation to Food Not Bombs  on June 1, 2013 for sharing food without a permit while our volunteers were preparing to share our weekly meal at the Taos Plaza. This type of government interference with our Constitutional rights should never happen. Government permission to share food and speak out for our rights should not be required in a free country. The excuse of food safety is bogus. After 33 years of sharing free vegan meals with the hungry, first in Boston and now in over 1,000 cities world wide there has not been one report of illness. No one in our seven years of sharing organic vegan meals at the Plaza has ever complained of illness. Food Safety and sanitation can not really be the reason we were issued a citation.

If asked I am sure New Mexico Environmental Health officials will agree that the complaint they were responding to had nothing to to with food safety. Oddly the inspector did not even inspect the food and had to cross out the word “sell” and write “serve” above it on the citation because just as is the case in every state it is not necessary to have a permit to give away free things to your neighbor.

I believe it is important to defend our right to share food and ideas particularly now as the government concedes making huge cuts in the food stamp program while over $700 billion is being redirected to the military and another $90 billion is used on surveillance and covert disruption of community efforts at social change by groups like Food Not Bombs.

Over 47 million people in the United States officially live in poverty with studies reporting that one in two Americans are struggling to survive. America’s hungriest state New Mexico is also home to the world’s largest stock pile of nuclear weapons and is also producing a new nuclear arsenal at Los Alamos National Laboratories. Cannon Air Base flies their million dollar drones over our state and is considering using Taos County as a practice area for the use of the MV-22 Osprey in future invasions. We also learned that the government is collecting data about every phone call in Taos, that our web traffic is also being collected, stored and analyzed while locally our taxes are being used for a new command center for use by some unknown agencies to command some undefined staff for some unclear reason.

Taos was not the only community  where our volunteers were confronted by local authorities this June. Officials in Seattle, Washington and Gainesville Florida also interfered with the efforts of Food Not Bombs that same week. After the occupy movement was driven from the streets nearly fifty cities including Philadelphia and Houston proposed the banning or limiting the sharing of food in public. They are still struggling to defend their rights.

This is not a “theoretical” concern. After years seeking permission from the city of San Francisco to share food and literature at Golden Gate Park we learned that there was no legal grounds for the state to require us to have a permit. Not one state requires people to obtain a permit to share with one another.  It became clear that the authorities in San Francisco had no intention of issuing a permit because the real  threat was our message that our country would be more secure if it spent its resources on food and not on so many bombs.

The complaint issued to our volunteers in Taos could be an innocent mistake made by the owners of a new food cart in the plaza ( I liked their spinach pie- its very good. ) or it could be part of a larger pattern that we are experiencing across the United States. Either way if we let the state require permits for the sharing of free items and ideas in this atmosphere it wont be long before people will be required to request permission to help people with flat tires or their math homework.  You can visit our weekly meal and join us in seeking to build a free and democratic society where our hopes, desires and basic needs are given priority over the profits of transnational corporations and their government agents. I hope to see you this Saturday from noon to 2:00 PM at the Taos Plaza.

Keith McHenry
http://www.foodnotbombs.net/june_1_violation.html

TAOS NEWS ARTICLE

http://www.taosnews.com/news/article_b7241fd6-cec1-11e2-af56-001a4bcf887a.html

STATE OF NEW MEXICO ISSUES VIOLATION NOTICE TO TAOS FOOD NOT BOMBS

Officials with the State of New Mexico issued a violation notice to Food Not Bombs co-founder Keith McHenry as the Taos group was setting up their weekly meal on the plaza. The week before Food Not Bombs provided free organic meals at the March Against Monsanto.
 
Food Not Bombs has shared free vegan meals and literature on the Taos Plaza on Saturdays for the past seven years as part of the movement’s global campaign to end war and poverty. Since the action is protected as free expression under the U.S. Constitution and the food is a gift Food Not Bombs is not required to seek permission.

State official James Jenison appears to have understood that no permit is required and crossed out the word “Sell” on the notice and hand wrote “Serve” above it suggesting the law had changed and was now covering free speech activities and the sharing of good will and compassion. The sharing of free food has been an unregulated activity for centuries with the rare exceptions such as Mahatma Gandhi’s collection and distribution of salt during the movement for independence from Britain.

No one has ever reported being made ill by enjoying the organic vegan meals shared by Food Not Bombs in Taos or in any of the nearly 1,000 cities where the movement shares free food and information. Attempts by state officials to regulate the sharing of food in America’s hungriest state is misguided considering the state ignores the known threats to public health caused by the production, storage, deployment, and shipment of nuclear weapons and uranium mining.

After having shared free vegan meals at the Taos Plaza for the past seven years it is not clear why the State of New Mexico would suddenly suggest that our volunteers apply for a permit. When officials in Arizona, California, Florida and other states approached Food Not Bombs and asked our volunteers to seek permission officials refused to issue permits attempting to silence our message.

It is  not clear who is behind this change in policy and why state officials would arrive to disrupt efforts to end war and poverty when congress is considering cuts in food stamps, we are seeing an increase in military activity over Taos County and a push for greater participation the crisis in Syria and the war on terrorism.

Please attend this week’s meal at the Taos Plaza Saturday from Noon to 2 PM.

NOTICE OF VIOLATION ON JUNE 1, 2013 BY THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO
http://www.foodnotbombs.net/june_1_violation.html

The fall of 2010 was an interesting time to be volunteering with Food Not Bombs. It was clear that times were getting hard. An school teacher out of work for two years and living on the streets of Seattle with her two daughters called to find out how to start a Homes Not Jails group. She had been writing the past and current owners of an abandoned house to see if she could move in in exchange for offering security but it seemed the current owner was also in foreclosure. She ate at Food Not Bombs and thought squatting as a Homes Not Jails activist  might offer protection from criminal charges of trespassing. So far no Homes Not Jails activists have been sentenced so she has a point. She was one of many that called or emailed  each day seeking food or asking to participate in their local group. Volunteers also emailed and called with questions about how to start a chapter in their community. A woman a a produce market in Ruston, Louisiana wanted to know if there was any thing she should know before that evenings founding meetings. Then an email that Food Not Bombs activists Tatiana Semenishcheva had been  arrested in Minsk and charged with a September firebombing the Russian Embassy and needed international support.  Posts to indymedia making claims that “anarchists” has finally struck a blow at Russia gave the impression the “firebombing” were really organized by the authorities as part of President Alexander Lukashenko’s effort to secure another term by painting his opponents as terrorists. Then Jon Stepanian emailed from Long Island Food Not Bombs  “Starting November 20th and going through November 25th Long Island Food Not Bombs will be holding its largest endeavor to date; it will include parties, Food Shares, copious amounts of decadent foods, the sharing of clothing, books and the organized efforts of thousands of community members. The largest of all these events will be Vegan Thanksgiving. It’s a 2-day affair that starts as an all night cooking party, (on Nov.20th, everyone is invited) and culminates into the Vegan Thanksgiving Food Share the next day in Hempstead”

“The Hempstead Food Share, on November 21st, will be the largest Food Not Bombs ever! We expect to be able to share a feast with everyone that comes! We’ll then be continuing the week with nearly a dozen events spread across our Food Shares in Bedstuy, Coram, Huntington and Farmingville.”

I arrived at Jon’s house the day before the Hempstead sharing. Stacks of recovered organic juice and other drinks filled one side of the garage. Cases of recovered squash, potatoes, pumpkins and other produce were stacked across the other side of the garage. Once inside the kitchen I came to a group of volunteers squeezing patties of falafel into pans, others were frying vegan “chicken” dumplings and moving baked pies out of the oven. The living room was filled with bags of clothing.  Tray after tray of prepared vegan dishes balanced on one another covering every inch of the dinning room. Still more food towered near the ceilings of the family room. I feel asleep well before the cooking was finished. The next morning a system of cars from the evening’s volunteers was backed into the driveway and loaded with first the utensils, paper products, 40 folding tables, clothes, followed with the hot meals. As we were loading the cars Jon’s mother told me about how the U.S. Justice Department had sent a private security company to park outside her house and follow the family around when her oldest son Andrew was being prosecuted for his work trying to stop the animal abuse of  Huntingdon Life Sciences. Andy and six other animal rights activists were convicted on March 2, 2006, under the controversial Federal Animal Enterprise Protection Act. Andy was released from Federal prison on December 15, 2008. The government hadn’t stopped the Stepanian family from its effort to do what is right.

Once the cars were packed  the caravan of twenty vehicles raced through Long Island to Whole Foods where ten more cars greeted our convoy.  As the caravan pulled into the parking lot at the Hempstead Train Station another ten vehicles joined us with their loads of food and supplies. Hundreds of people were already waiting for Long Island Food Not Bombs. Nearly 100 volunteers unloaded the deliveries, setting up the tables in areas for clothing, groceries and hot meals. A literature table and banner was placed on another traffic island. Once set up the activists asked everyone to get in lines for each of the items. Other volunteers handed out bags of produce, drinks and other groceries. Others helped with the clothing and others shared the hot meals. Local reporters interviewed Food Not Bombs organizers. Food Not Bombs volunteers filmed the event. ““We’re not just giving food, we’re breaking down barriers in the community,” said Jon , a freelance writer who co-founded the local chapter of this international movement more than four years ago. “Some [recipients] don’t get along, but even that one hour they have to stand next to each other on line forces them to.”

“What sets us apart I think is the spirit,” said Brian O’Haire, a peace activist who volunteers with the organization because it couples antiwar ideals with its mission to feed the hungry. “Just the name of it I think shows how we feel.”

The group’s title is shorthand for their chief underlying message that funding food instead of war would solve world hunger. They also believe vegetarian  and vegan diets are more environmentally sustainable.

“It’s a beautiful thing,” said Earl McCullers, a 56-year-old veteran living on a fixed income. “This is really a helpful hand and I really appreciate what they’re doing here.”

The Newsday filled it’s second page with an article and full color photo about the Hempstead distribution called “A Turkey less Feast.” Angie Houseworth, 42, of Hempstead, said she waited at the railroad parking lot for hours before the food distribution began, and came away with her wheeled cart filled to the brim with fresh organic produce and even a bouquet of flowers.

Houseworth said both she and her husband are out of work, and she was grateful for the overflowing cart.

“We were all trying to get everything together for the holidays,” she said. “It makes a big difference.”

They interviewed 48 year old Hemptead resident Leo Hatcher who explained that his food stamps run out before the end of each month. “I’m just here to put some with bread, rolls, organic canned tomatoes and cookies. food in the cabinets,”

Jessica Feldman became interested in Food Not Bombs when she became  curious about what the volunteers did with the vegetables her employer Whole Foods was donating to them. “As soon as I went to one share, I was hooked. Once you see a child who needs food and you give food to them, it’s a beautiful thing.”

Long Island Food Not Bombs provided over 30,000 pounds of food to  nearly 1,000 people making it one of the largest distributions in Food Not Bombs history.

That same day the newspapers in Poland were reporting on Krakow Food Not Bombs action. The volunteers shared food and held banners including one translated to say “Food instead of voting.” Food Not Bombs volunteers explained that “they shared vegan meals every Saturday at Podgorze slightly changing the formula. We came to the conclusion that the common meal you can make an excuse to talk about different issues, not only of militarism.”

As we were packing up a local man that introduced himself as Harvey and was living on the streets of Hempstead visited with me. He really respected the young people that came each week to provide food but he thought America needed a revolution. Like many on the streets he was a veteran. He was also well traveled and told me about his work in Europe and Africa. He was also critical of his African American friends and like many Americans with little resources angry that so many spanish speaking people had moved to his community yet he felt that since they were willing to work for less they deserved the jobs. He also worked at Labor Ready and was a security guard at the Walmart the day of the Black Friday riot working with Jdimytai Damour at the time he was trampled to death at the Valley Stream Wal-Mart at the Green Acres Mall in Nassau County in 2008. He was clearly very smart and had a number of ideas about what Labor ready and Wal-Mart should have done. The death of  Jdimytai Damour seemed to be just the latest of a number of friends he had lost in the war to defend capitalism starting with his first tour in Vietnam.

The next day Long Island Food Not Bombs organized a dumpster treasure hunt. The 2010 Dumpster Scavenger Hunt/ LIFNB Olympics met at 9:00 PM on November 22nd on the North Side of the Huntington Train Station.  I was greeted very enthusiastically by a man who had been waiting outside the station with a friend. I asked him how he know of the action. He told me he found out about it at work.  Something was a bit funny about his interest and had some of the local Food Not Bombs activists a little concerned. As each car load of volunteers arrived the concern was shared quietly with the group. At one point I “had to go to the restroom” and left with several activists. The volunteers that stayed behind tried to learn more about their interests and it soon became clear they had been paid to see what we were going to be doing that evening. We had our lists of items to recover. Not the usual items one would be seeking.  We broke up into several teams with regions to cover and agreed to return at 2:30 AM. Our team found a lot of dog food but that wasn’t on the list. We did find love in the covers of a Bridal magazine. We drove to some more dumpsters. We scored the toys, bags of chips, a ladder and paint brushes. By 2 o’clock we had most items on the list and rushed across the island to the train station. Soon we all were making displays of our discovers and taking photos of ourselves and our treasures.

The dumpster treasure hunt went to sun up so I was really tired and slept most of the morning at Jon’s house. Then it was off to Taos, New Mexico to prepare for my trip to Africa. I had heard so many good things about the work Douglas was doing with Nairobi Food Not Bombs. He shared the first meal in Nairobi on June 14, 2008. The photos of his meals and journalism classes in the slums of Kenya were impressive. The East Africa Vegetarian Congress was to be held the first week of December. When I was participating in the National Animal Rights Conference in Washington D.C. I was introduced to Doctor Anteneh Roba of the International Fund for Africa. He told me about the formation of an Ethiopian Vegan Association and their interest in starting a Food Not Bombs group in Addis Ababa. While I was on my fall tour he emailed to let me know about Liladhar Bharadia and the East Africa Vegetarian Congress in Nairobi on December 4th. Dr. Anteneh was able to secure funding for my plane ticket from A Well Fed World and off I was on my way to Africa.

KENYA

My first visit to Nairobi has been more successful then I had expected. Our coordinator Douglas Rori made his room in Mountain View available to me. We started our week with a meeting at the Artcafe in Westland. Doug told me that it would be wise to register as an NGO and that he would provide me with a copy of the requirements. He calculated the fees for the registration, money needed to secure a bank account and mail box would total $700 U.S. dollars.  We saw that the café baked their own bread so we talked with the manager and set up a time to pick up their unsold baked goods. After the meeting we bought the food for Saturday’s meal at the community center Shangilia Youth 2 Youth Network in the Kibagare, Kangemi slum in Nairobi. The rice, beans, oil, two large plastic buckets, large cooking pot, and other items costing 4,000 shillings or $50 U.S. dollars. That evening we soaked and cooked the beans. The city water was cut off to our area of Nairobi soon after we started the beans so we were lucky.

Early the next morning Doug and I reheated the beans, cooked a cabbage and tomato dish and a huge pot of rice. Doug had to get additional water from a storage tank near his mother’s home. Doug called a taxi and let the community center know we were about to leave. He also called a photographer. The taxi took us to Artcafe where the employees provided us with a large bag of artisan bread. Then we headed out to the community center. The road through the “commercial” district of the slum was very rough. Once at the community center we were greeted by the staff, a camera man from Film Aid and our photographer. The staff announced the meeting. Around 100 children and teenagers  pushed into the center. The staff helped us bring the food to a back room and we posted the banners and place out the literature. Doug introduce me to the children and staff and I told them a little about Food Not Bombs then we  set out a table and brought out the rice, beans, vegetable stew and bread from the library. The staff directed everyone to get in line and we recruited volunteers to help share the food.  The youth glowed with huge smiles and sparkling eyes which were so heart warming. We shared the last of the food after about half an hour. We had enough for everyone that attended. There was very little pushing and shoving but it was clear towards the end that some of the children were worried we would run out. The last couple of kids didn’t get as much as I would have liked to share with them. We visited with the children as they played outside after eating. In the past Doug would teach classes on photography and journalism after sharing the meal so I let the kids use my camera to take pictures.

That same day local Kenya TV reported that Maasai land rights activist Moses ole Mpoe was shot to death in Nakuru. His vehicle was sprayed with bullets from an AK 47 while stuck in a traffic jam. Mpoe had been working for the return of land taken away from the Maasai community during the British colonial period. He was also a respected supervisor on the Muthera Farm in Mau Narok, which is owned by the family of former Kenyatta Cabinet minister Mbiyu Koinange. His murder sparked protests. Douglas called the AK 47 “Africa’s weapon of mass distraction.” That same day six police officers were killed in Nairobi by what the police claimed were terrorists. Over 130 people were arrested for illegally sneaking into Kenya from Ethiopia and Somalia on their way to seek work in South Africa and the Luis Moreno-Ocampo was in Nairobi to announce that the International Criminal Court would name six suspects that would face charges “with crimes against humanity for their part in violence that left more than 1,000 people dead after the disputed 2007 presidential election.” Doug showed me a documentary by the Mars Group Kenya that showed the corruption and causes of the post election violence. I visited the website On December 15, 2010 but it was shut down by December 27th.

Nairobi Food Not Bombs started in 2007 and has been providing meals to young people in several poor areas of the city before teaching classes in community journalism. Douglas Rori has been the coordinator since the start of  Food Not Bombs in Kenya and has made many connections with local community leaders in some of Nairobi’s poorest areas. His students have submitted a number of articles and photographs about the life in the slums of Nairobi to Indykids in New York inspiring the children he has been teaching and feeding to have greater self respect. One of the children’s articles reported on a story about how people collect trash bags from the city dump. Empty the garbage and wash the trash bags in the Nairobi River.

Later that afternoon we packed up our banners, literature and equipment, packed the taxi and returned to Mountain View to clean the dishes and cooking equipment. We had to be careful with to use our water as efficiently as possible.  We paid the taxi driver 4,000 shillings for the trip through Nairobi.

We relaxed on Sunday morning and then that afternoon we visited with Liladhar Bharadia, the director of The Vegetarian Society of Kenya at the Artcafe. Mr. Bharada gave us a tour of the Visa Oshawal Religious Center and introduced Doug and I to their director and kitchen staff.  Mr. Bharadia also gave us documents about the Vegetarian Congress in Nairobi to be held on December 18^th and the Middle Eastern Vegetarian Conference being held on December 7^th and 8^th.

The next day we headed out to meet the Catherine Mugo Marketing Director of one of  Kenya’s largest groceries Nakumatt. We also met with Ameet Shah and other staff members to talk about regular donations of food. Catherine explained that their food was divided into cereals and produce.  The company Fresh and Juicy provided all the produce. They were very helpful and asked us to email them to share a bit about our history and needs. We received a call from the director of the Nairobi International School telling us that they had extra food so we agreed to pick it up at noon. Doug called our taxi. We went to a bank where I withdrew more money and we rushed to meet our taxi. We drove to the Nairobi International School. The school donated about 100 paper bags of food and a box of bananas. We stopped at Doug’s house, picked up banners and a camera. We rushed to the community center where we were treated to acrobatic tricks by the children as we waited for the staff to bring the key. They arrived soon so we posted our banners, set up the chairs and table for the food. We recruited a volunteer to help share the bagged lunches and the staff organized the youth to get in line. The kids were once again so kind and eager to get their meal. We had even more then required so that was put aside and Doug and I returned with the taxi to Westland to get some American money for the visa to Addis Ababa. Nairobi Food Not Bombs is able to continue to provide vegan meals every Saturday before their educational workshop rotating each week from one slum to another returning once a month to each location.  It is urgent that we raise the $700 necessary to register Nairobi Food Not Bombs as this activity could be dangerous otherwise. Doug is a great asset. He lived with his single mother in a poor area of Nairobi and with her work as a school teacher and his ingenuity he was able to attend film school and has become an accomplished journalist working for NGO’s like Oxfam and the United Nations. He is passing on the knowledge he learned to help improve the lives of others in Kenya. The fact that he has already achieved so much under such difficult conditions is truly amazing and it was us an honor to work with him. The week long visit with Nairobi Food Not Bombs and Douglas was a huge success.

ETHIOPIA

Doug took me to the airport. Not an easy thing with a huge tractor trailer truck crashed across the highway. Even with the traffic jam we made it on time. After a short two hour flight on one of Ethiopia airlines new jets we arrived in Addis Ababa. As I was going through customs  to get our visa I told the officer that I was attending a conference hosted by the Ethiopia Vegan Association. That surprised the man behind me in line who remarked he was pleased to know their was such a movement. I told him I volunteered with Food Not Bombs and that farther interested him. I got my visa, picked up my bag at the carrousel and sure enough my hosts were there to pick me up. They were all smiles and so welcoming. The drive to the Ras Hotel was quick. My bank card didn’t work but fortunately I had $25 U.S. and they took that for the evening. The room was on the Nelson Mandela floor and a photo of a jail cell with the words Nelson Mandela’s cell for 27 years hung outside my room 210. The room was fantastic. New washroom fixtures and two comfortable single beds. A complex shower and a TV with four channels one of which was tuned to the BBC news. After being so careful with the water in Nairobi  the hot shower seemed like a blessing.

The next day I had the wonderful Ethiopian breakfast and sat on the cafe porch for a few minutes when Dr. Anteneh arrived in a little blue taxi. We sped off to the Global Hotel for the conference. Ballroom A was huge and had tables, chairs set across the far end. The guys from the Ethiopian Vegan Association greeted us. I place my flyers on one of the registration tables and soon cases of fresh water in bottles arrived followed by a steady flow of participants. Each person filled out the registration form then carefully collected one copy of every flyer I had set out on the table. By the time all 60 or so participants had arrived every flyer was taken. This proved to be very good as it took some time before all the technical issues of the projector and computer were worked out but soon the conference was under way. The December 9th conference “Acting on Effective Solutions to Climate Change and Sustainable Development” was organized by the Ethiopian Vegan Association (EVA) in association with International Fund for Africa (IFA) and Save Mothers and Children of Oromia (SMCO).

The December 9th conference “Acting on Effective Solutions to Climate Change and Sustainable Development”  was organized by the Ethiopian Vegan Association (EVA) in association with International Fund for Africa (IFA) and Save Mothers and Children of Oromia (SMCO). After Doctor Anteneh opened the conference  Worku Mulleta gave a powerful presentation called “Veganism & Climate Change”  Worku explained some shocking facts. Half of the worlds harvest is fed to livestock.  The grain fed to animals could feed 2 billion people. He reported that the World Watch Institute claims that It takes 6.9 pounds of grain, 44 gallons of gasoline and 430 gallons of water to produce 1 pound of pork. It takes 4.8 pounds of grain, 25 gallons of gasoline and 390 gallons of water to produce 1 pound of beef while a pound of Apples take 49 gallons; Carrots 33; Potatoes 24; and Tomatoes use 23 gallons per pound.  He also pointed out that the United Nations reports that  meat production is responsible for 30 percent of climate change from deforestation of rainforest to produce grazing land to the methane produced through factory meat production and use of fuel for transportation and cultivation needed for meat production.

Dr. Anteneh  highlighted many of the same details but made the point that while the people of Africa were not responsible for causing climate change through their eating of meat if trends continued they may add to the crisis while at the same time the people of Africa face greater impact because of the droughts, floods and other effects caused by the distraction of the climate.

The participants included many interesting people, several that worked for the Ethiopian government’s department of Agriculture, an organic gardener and people seeking to end hunger by dehydrating potatoes. Once we broke for lunch I had time to meet and speak to many of these informative people. Once lunch ended the activists with the Ethiopian Vegan Association filled baggies with the left overs. They packed parts of each dish in nearly 100 bags.

Each bag included injera made of teff which is used instead of silverware. Teff is unique to Ethiopia and is one of the oldest and smallest cultivated grains. It is like a thin crepe. The other foods are placed in little piles on a sheet of Injera and little rolls are used to scoop up the lentils and other preparations. Injera task two or three days to make. The Teff is ground fine and mixed in water with yeast and a tiny amount of flower petals. THis is left to sit for two days until it ferments and starts to get air bubbles. The batter is cooked on a griddle called a Mitad. Once cooked it is a brown grey with tiny holes on one side and smooth on the other. We placed several rolls in every bag so that our vegan meal could be enjoyed it a typical Ethiopian manner. The hotel workers were very pleased and helped us take the food to he basement garage where we waited for a van. The volunteers negotiated a private fare and after explaining to the general public that we had secured the vehicle for ourselves we headed out to find the hungry.

It wasn’t long before we came to our first location where we out our plastic bags of vegan Ethiopian food to the hungry at Theodros Square on Churchill Avenue about three blocks from where I was staying at the Ras Hotel. We found many homeless people in the vacant land around the square. A huge replica of the giant cannon used in the war against the British sat in the center of the square. After feeding a dozen very hungry people we took the van up to the Piassa area outside St. George’s Ethiopian Orthodox Cathedral A line of over fifty people was organized along the outer wall of the church grounds. The church was built in 1896 in honor of St. George, whose relic was carried at the Battle of Adwa where Ethiopia defeated the Italians marking Africa’s first military victory against a European army.

We started to hand out the vegan meals as soon as Mesfin arrived with their special banner announcing that that Ethiopian Vegan Association, the International Fund For africa and Food Not Bombs International were supporting the action. A local homeless man helped organize the people so that the blind and children were served first.  The people were gentle even though they all reached out for the food eager to have something to eat.

Just as we were about to share the last of our food a couple of local men started to ask us why we were taking photos. They became quite upset and soon a crowd was busy discussing the issue.  Several children pinched the the skin on my arm to see if my white color would come off. One little boy was very kind to me and held my hand.

As the other volunteers talked with the men that wanted us to explain ourselves a drunk man would try to grab the little boy who would have a look of horror each time he was approached. I had to pry the boy away from the drunk man several times. At one point the drunk man reached inside my pants pocket to take something but I took his hand way and he was not able to take anything from me.

After nearly an hour of talking with the men that felt we had committed a crime by taking photos we agreed to go to the police station with them. The station was down a very rough street behind the mercato or market area. We waited our turn and soon we found ourselves talking to the local captain of the Addis Ababa Police. He was a gentle man and saw we were just interested in feeding the hungry. He told the men that brought us in to apologize and soon we were all hugging one another. The activists gave the guys who turned us in Vegan Association pens and wished them well.

We returned to the area near the church and everyone caught their van rides home. Mesfin then took me to see the mercato.  We passed the plumbing area, shoes shops, rugs and cloth and then the narrow allies of spices. We stopped off at the produce market with colorful bags of tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, eggplant and all variety of beans. He introduced me to the venders with huge bags of colorful spices. I tasted the brilliant red powder and it was such a rich taste I had to know more. We sampled another vender and realized the spice known as Berbere had many tastes. Mesfin bought me a bag of Berbere and then introduced me to toasted grains and bought me a bag.  On the way to visit the Khat venders he bought me a bunch of fresh Chickpea plants pulled from the ground just a day or so before. The fresh Chickpeas tasted sweet. We soon found the Khat  venders. Mesfin told me ha tif we had come in the morning the entire plaza would have been staked in Khat. There were still small piles around the yard and the rooms surrounding the plaza were lively with dozens of men and women with glazed eyes balancing on makeshift benches chewing away on spindly green leaves. Mesfin explained that there were many kinds of Khat each that created a different speedy feeling. The short stemmed Chirra, the powerful Umerkule, red leafed Kuda, fresh Karabule and Abba Chebsi named for an important Khat dealer. Later that evening we went to see a Jazz concert and then back to the Hotel Ras.

The next day I drew a picture of the Ras hotel and spoke with a number of local people including a young student named Mekonnen Tilahun.  He told me about his problems with college and studies in accounting. As soon as Mekonnen departed Mesfin arrived. We reviewed the steps to starting a Food Not Bombs and before long Dr. Anteneh arrived and off to enjoy a traditional Ethiopian meal at the home of one of his friends. That afternoon we met at the “Executive Lounge” on the top floor of the Addis Ababa Hilton and talked more about how The International Fund For Africa, the Ethiopian Vegan Association and Food Not Bombs could work together.

The next day I set out to draw a picture of the lion monument  a block from my hotel in Unity Square.

The Lion of Judah Monument was designed by French sculptor, Morris Calka and constructed in 1955.  The monument sits outside the National Theater to honor the Silver Jubilee of Emperor Haile Selassie.  An earlier Lion of Judah Monument stands outside the main train station. I had a lot of help in finding a place to sit along Churchill Avenue. People tried to direct me around the plaza and when I finally found a view I liked others found card board for me to sit on. At first the people that helped me set up were the only ones interested in my activity but as the drawing took shape they started to direct people over to see what I was doing. At one point a white couple passed by and my supporters were sure they would be interested but they swiftly walked by ignoring the enthusiastic suggestions. Soon a crowd was around me watching every line. As I was about to finish a child saw that I had other drawings in my sketchbook and lifted the page.  The crowd encouraged me to show them all my drawings so I turned the book to the audience and slowly turned each page. As each drawing appeared my audience would whisper compliments. “”Very good, very good” remarked one of the children. An older man told me his son was an artist and would be having a show at the end of the month. When I came to the final picture, the drawing I had just worked on the crowed clapped and cheered with excitement as though they had just watched a movie or concert.

That evening Dr. Anteneh  took me out to see traditional Ethiopian music and dancing at the Habesha Restaurant.  The venue was crowded with over a hundred people. The meal was beautiful laid out on injera made of teff. The dancers showed examples of Guragigna, Wollo, Tigrigna dance.

The next day was filled with meetings. Mesfin and I first visited Flker Leselam Development Organization. I asked the young general manager Mekbibo Zerihun how he started. Mekbibo explained how he had been working with an NGO in a village outside of Addis Ababa. Each evening he would return to his hotel and on the way would see very poor children in need of food. He asked the hotel to make food for six of the children and told the staff he would pay for their meals. The hotel owner was touched and agreed to split the cost with Mekbibo.  When he returned to the city he talked with some of his friends and they decided to see if they could help the orphans of parents that died from HIV aids and at the same time they met with people from South Korea that were wishing to help the people of Ethiopia. They agreed to start the Flker Leselam Development Organization and the Korean returned home to raise money. They organized a system where Koreans could sponsor a child in Addis Ababa for about 25 cents a day. The child would arrive before school to eat a healthy breakfast then they would walk to class. Each child was helped with locating a local family or relatives to live with. Special events would be organized to raise money for the child’s uniform and supplies. Flker Leselam organized events like an essay contest where the students were asked to write about their life. The “winners” were given prizes donated by the Koreans and presented by local celebrities.  The sponsors were provided with the child’s grades and each day the volunteers filled out a form about the number of children fed and meals shared. The form even included the names of all the volunteers, weather, exact time the meal started and notes about any problems. I was very impressed by their structure and asked Mekbibo if he could provide me with a copy of this form which he did. They have been feeding nearly 500 children a day for several years. The also took the children out to the country once a year and they were staring classes in computers which started with the basics of how to use one of their three computers as well as how to repair them. It was inspiring to visit with the people at Flker Leselam.

Mesfin  and I then went to visit Sisay Kiffe. Sisay volunteered with the Society of Animal Welfare and provided us with their newsletter. The SAW was working with Dr. Anteneh and other Ethiopian activists to draft and pass nationwide animal welfare laws. There is a hug problem with the poor treatment of stray dogs and dogs that are chained and used for security. Another problem is the treatment of horses and donkeys that are worked very hard and abandoned once they can no longer carry their loads or pull there owners plows. They are abandoned on the edge of town as protection from hyenas and lions that  attack and eat the weaken horses and donkeys instead of entering the villages to feast on the chickens and other livestock still valued by the farmers. The government has donated land for a horse sanctuary and is considering new legislation. Sisay is also working on a project called Mena Mahiber Potato Dehydrating Project and has been given land by the government to build a pilot program. Sisay explained that one important way that Ethiopia can protect its people from future famines was to dry potatoes for times when the harvests were  poor. He was working with the local Rotary Clubs in Ethiopia to raise funds for the project. I agreed to speak with members of the Rotary in the United States to see if they could help.

After that fruitful meeting Mesfin and I took one van after another out to the edge of Addis Ababa to see Dr. Mengistu Woube’s Biodifood organic garden in land donated by the city. Dr. Woube organized the cultivation of an acre of land near the city dump. He raised money to pay for his volunteers to travel to the garden and help with the planting, weeding and harvesting of vegetables and fruit trees. The garden had lines of long raised beds with paths on each end and one down the center. A huge plastic water tank sat in the middle and a shed sat at the east end of the field. They stored their tools and raised mushrooms in the shed. A family lived in one end and guarded the garden. The volunteers were rewarded with what harvest their families required and the rest was sold to local people living near the garden. They were seeking additional funding as their first grant had been spent. Onions, leeks, Collards, carrots and many other vegetables were thriving. The garden was impressive and they hoped Food Not Bombs would be interested in participating.

Mesfin was such a wonderful host. That last day we walked around the city and I took the last of my photos. He had then developed and made a digital file for me. We enjoyed a vegan dinner at the Hotel Ras and he traveled with me out to the airport. It was clear the Mesfin and the rest of the activist with the Ethiopian Vegan Association will be successful in their work with Food Not Bombs. They are already planning to share food again on January 6th, the Ethiopian Orthodox day of Christmas.

HOME TO TAOS, NEW MEXICO

As I was finishing this book I helped share our regular Saturday meal at the Taos Plaza in our tiny New Mexican town where I have been living for the past few years. It was the last warm day of the year.  Children ran after one another after eating and tourists stopped by to ask what we were doing. I could see one of my friends sitting alone on the steps of the gazebo holding her bowl of rice and stir fried vegetables as tears streamed down her cheeks. I sat next to her and gently placed my arm around her waist. She explained that her family had been struggling to save their home from foreclosure for nearly a year. They had tried The Obama Administration’s “Making Home Affordable Program” but it wasn’t any help. Their application was shared with corporate mortgage modification companies that called with false promises of help. Her marriage was strained to the breaking point. She found some relief joining Alcoholics Anonymous. Her little boy and girl would run up clearly distressed to ask if they could go to Kit Carson Park with their friends. Her American dream had become the American nightmare.

Her story unfortunately was not unique. One person after another has repeated the same tragic tale during the two years it took for me to write “Cooking For Peace.” I am sure many Food Not Bombs activist have been personally touched by those eating with us also facing personal challenges forced on them by the uncaring policies of corporate and government leaders.  Many of us have been directly impacted ourselves. We can’t continue to allow ourselves and our friends to be robbed and our planet plundered for the short term benefit of a few selfish super wealthily families. Families that have no regard the billion people that go hungry every day while they dine on the last of our world’s tuna or steaks raised on land that once supported   rain forests. People that own so many houses like presidential candidate John McCain that they are not sure how many they have while millions of their fellow Americans struggle to stay off the street.  The ruling families may be the temporary beneficiaries of what Presidents, Dwight D. Eisenhower called the Military-Industrial Complex but even they will have to face the limitations of an economic system that demands ever increasing growth in a world with finite resources.

Philosopher Slavok Zizek writes “There should no longer be any doubt: global capitalism is fast approaching its terminal crisis.” While the corporate society starts to collapse and western empires begin to crumble, Food Not Bombs is in a position to be more active than ever, building the kind of society we all want to have. We have a chance to make a difference.  Food Not Bombs is generating the spirit and vision needed to create a new world that can flourish while seeking solutions to the crisis of climate change, economic failure, and a corporate dominated political system. This simple movement, which started in 1980 with a vision and no money or leaders, is at the forefront of the effort to create a society based on peace, participatory democracy, and a guaranteeing of the basic rights and needs of everyone, animal, plant or human. Harmony with the natural universe, a return to balance and respect for dignity.

Food Not Bombs is prepared to support the change we need at this time of crisis. It is so important to work to end corporate control by organizing as many Food Not Bombs groups as possible. The time could not be more urgent. Our global network has a real possibility of inspiring major changes if we organize in solidarity with other movements. It has never been more important then now for Food Not Bombs activists to organize a campaign to withdraw public support for the current economic and political system and seek a strategy to replace it with a culture of cooperation based on providing dignity and the real security of healthy food, housing, education, healthcare and the freedom to fulfill our dreams.

Your participation is essential. The problems we face are so extreme and urgent that we need everyone to join us in seeking solutions for a sustainable future and an to end corporate domination. It isn’t time for despair. As Joe Hill said “Don’t Mourn, Organize!”  This is a time for us to replace this failed system for the world we know is possible. We can build a world free from domination, coercion and violence. A world where it is assumed that food is a right, not a privilege. Food, not bombs.

Photos and details of Food Not Bombs cofounder’s trips to Africa

http://www.foodnotbombs.net/all_africa.html

Consider organizing a free vegan meal and rally outside your countries U.S. Embassy, U.S. federal courts or U.S. military bases on February 14, 2011.

11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear the Orlando case the week of February 14, 2011. Local and Federal officials have been trying to silence Food Not Bombs in cities all across the United States. Volunteers have been arrested, beaten and had their banners and literature discarded. Police have also told Food Not Bombs groups that we can feed the hungry as long as we don’t hand out literature and display our banners. City and federal officials have argued that the sharing of food with literature and banners is not protected by the first Amendment of the United States Constitution. This month police have arrested one volunteer in Orlando, Florida and are seeking to move the our meal in Rapid City, South Dakota to a less visible location.

The fact that there is so much poverty in a country that spends half its federal budget on the military is an issue leaders would like to silence.

The Walmart and the Toys are Us murders on Black Friday highlight the real terror of a political and economic system rushing towards the cliff.  Green shopping and new leaders just wont cut it.  Unlike Walmart’s holiday TV ad showing happy clerks opening the store for America’s shoppers the reality is unthinking consumers stampeding over under paid Jdimytai Damour killed in a frenzy to buy what? Or two gunmen shooting each other in a California Toys Are Us all in the spirit of celebrating the birth of a homeless prince of peace. Did Toys of Us run out of radio controlled Reaper Drones or the latest plastic AK 47? The holiday spirit is alive in China as toy factories close and nearly unpaid workers are locked out. Unlike their American counterparts the Chinese unemployed are rising up as are millions of others who are enjoying the wonders of global free trade.  

While Americans are busy witnessing the televised terror in India a corporate global assault is steamrolling our Earth towards an environmental crash where billion dollar bailouts are adding fuel to the fire of failed states, mass starvation, and a road warrior future.

But the great global economic crash may be the crisis that finally awakens a people from a nightmare where stamping a Walmart clerk to death in a blind rush to buy the perfect plastic gift is considered  the perfect way to celebrate the birth of baby Jesus.  Thousands of people see the crisis for what it is and it is possible if we continue to cook for peace, plant food on our lawns and share our love with our community that we can transform our world.  Corporations are closing and states are failing but the spirit of community is growing. Seek out your local Food Not Bombs chapter and enjoy the “great turning.”

CRACKDOWN BEGINS: Food Not Bombs homes and offices raided. Volunteers arrested.
Help Food Not Bombs feed the survivors of Gustav.
http://www.foodnotbombs.net/gustav.html

Crackdown Begins:  Food Not Bombs House Among Saturday Raids Ahead of RNC. Food Not Bombs volunteer arrested in Denver and Berkeley office raided on Wednesday.

As the all volunteer movement Food Not Bombs prepares to respond to Hurricane Gustav the police and FBI raid several Food Not Bombs houses in Minneapolis and a office in Berkeley where police seized 13 computers.

Zachary Patrick Grey, a University of Massachusetts student from Marion, Mass., was arrested at 1:40 p.m. Monday after a foot chase, according to a Denver County Court complaint. According to CBS 3 of Springfield, Mass., Grey belongs to a group called Pioneer Valley Food Not Bombs. The alleged feces was glass jar of coffee with soy milk.

Several of those who were arrested are being represented by Bruce Nestor, the President of the Minnesota chapter of the National Lawyers’ Guild. Nestor said that last night’s raid involved a meeting of a group calling itself the “RNC Welcoming Committee”, and that this morning’s raids appeared to target members of “Food Not Bombs,” which he described as an anti-war, anti-authoritarian protest group. There was not a single act of violence or illegality that has taken place, Nestor said. Instead, the raids were purely anticipatory in nature, and clearly designed to frighten people contemplating taking part in any unauthorized protests. Nestor indicated that only 2 or 3 of the 50 individuals who were handcuffed this morning at the 2 houses were actually arrested and charged with a crime, and the crime they were charged with is “conspiracy to commit riot.” Four of those under arrest include Monica Bicking, Eryn Trimmer, Garrett Fitzgerald,Nathanael Secor.  Emails asking the public to call St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman 651-266-8510 and Minneapolis Mayor RT Rybak (612) 673-2100 have been sent out to call for their freedom.  Efforts to get have the 13 computers returned in Berkeley are also underway.  The authorities have claimed activists have been planning to use urine and feces at both conventions.

Food Not Bombs provides free vegetarian meals every week in hundreds of cities all over the world.  Food Not Bombs volunteers provided free meals to the rescue workers at the World Trade Center after 9/11, to the protesters at the Orange Revolution in Kiev, Ukraine and fed survivors in nearly 20 communities in the gulf region of the United States in the months after Katrina. From Iceland to Chile, Nigeria, New Zealand, Israel and beyond thousands of Food Not Bombs volunteers will be sharing vegetarian meals, working for peace, planting gardens, fixing up bikes for poor children and responding to hurricanes and earthquakes. Please forward this to your local media and community groups.

Thanks for your support

You can help Food Not Bombs feed the survivors of Gustav
http://www.foodnotbombs.net/gustav.html

Updated August 29, 2007

PLEASE HELP! As Hurricane Gustav across the gulf Food Not Bombs is planning to provide meals again foe survivors. Please organize with your local Food Not Bombs group. Help us collect food and supplies to held this year’s survivors. The U.S. Government and the American Red Cross were not able to deliver food to the survivors of Katrina so Food Not Bombs set up kitchens in over 20 cities. Volunteers organized America’s largest food relief effort.

We will be providing help for the survivors of Hurricane Gustav just as we helped after Katrina. The American Red Cross, state emergency agencies, and FEMA asked everyone to call our toll free number for food relief. This is an emergency! When the storm passes through the gulf wewill provide hot meals on a daily bases. We need volunteers, tools and food to help the people displaced by Hurricane Gustav. We need people to help us repair homes and cook meals for people surviving the hurricane. We also have a meeting place the Common Grounds 9th Ward Center off the Claiborne Ave exit on I-10 at the corner of N. Claiborne and Pauline in the 9th Ward.

Read more at plenty.org

Travel along with Free Speech TV as they cover our grassroots effort Food Not Bombs

The American Red Cross will be sending Gustav survivors to Food Not Bombs. After Katrina we had many calls from people who tell us that the Red Cross gave them our toll free number. We have been able to help most of the people directed our way. You can help Food Not Bombs support the Hurricane Gustav survivors by making a donation.

Food Not Bombs groups all across the southern United States are feeding families displaced by Gustav. Help us get food and supplies past FEMA. We need clothes, cooking equipment, food, cooks and money to provide for thousands of hungry homeless people. We have no overhead, rent or salaries so every donation goes directly to helping people. Many affected by Hurricane Gustav are familiar with Food Not Bombs because we have been sharing free food in communities through the area for many years. Because we are independent we can take food and supplies to areas where no other agency can reach.

This disaster may last another year or more so we intend to keep setting up Food Not Bombs field kitchens throughout the region. Food Not Bombs is encouraging the refugees to participate in cooking, serving and collecting the food. Their participation may be one of the most therapeutic things we can provide. Tens of thousands of survivors were kicked out of thier motel rooms. We believe that many of these people will be living outside homeless. Even if you can’t go to the disaster area we need lots of help in your community. The number of people we need to feed is growing all across America as people leave Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama looking for work and housing. We are trying to share food every day in your community. Please call to see how you can help in your area.

Many Survivors are now considered regular members of America’s homeless population. In 1989, Food Not Bombs fed the people made homeless by the earthquake and after a few weeks the working class victims were forgotten and faced the same problems as those who were homeless before the earthquake. Because this could be such a long crisis it may be better for us to teach people how to organize their own local Food Not Bombs group so they can provide long-term support.

There are some things you can do that can help us respond effectively to this disaster.

1. Organize a meeting this week – calling, emailing and posting flyers about the need for people to help and the day, time and location of the meeting.

2. At the meeting organize groups to call for food donations, another group to call for propane stoves, tanks of gas, tables and cooking equipment. Ask another group to get more volunteers.

3. Choose a time date and location of where your vehicles will gather to take the trip to the disaster area.

4. Collect 25 and 50 pound bags of rice, beans, 25 and 50-pound bags of rice, beans, black-eyed peas, lentils and any other large amounts of dry goods, pasta or non perishable food. We can also use propane stoves, kitchen equipment, toothpaste, soap, shampoo and other personal items.

5. Stay in touch by emailing menu@foodnotbombs.net or calling 1-800-884-1136.

Volunteer to feed the hungry and help the survivors of Hurricane Gustav
menu@foodnotbombs.net

http://www.foodnotbombs.net/gustav.html

Food Not Bombs
P.O. Box 424, Arroyo Seco, NM 87514 USA
575-776-3880
1-800-884-1136
menu@foodnotbombs.net
http://www.foodnotbombs.net

Please make a donation to help the survivors of Hurricane Gustav
http://www.foodnotbombs.net/dollar_for_peace.html