Food not Bombs

Food not Bombs is a loose-knit multiple of self-employed person collectives, sharing free vegan as living as vegetarian food with others. Food not Bombs' ideology is that myriad corporate as well as government priorities are skewed to permit hunger to persist in a midst of abundance. Tothis and to reduce costs, a large amount of the food served by the multinational is surplus food from grocery stores, bakeries and markets that would otherwise go to waste, or occasionally has already been thrown away. This group exhibits a cause of franchise activism.

History

Food Not Bombs was founded in 1980 in Cambridge, Massachusetts by anti-nuclear activists Keith McHenry, Jo Swanson, Mira Brown, Susan Eaton, Brian Feigenbaum, C.T. Lawrence Butler, Jessie Constable and Amy Rothstien. Co-founder, Keith McHenry has volunteered for 35 years and can be found sharing food near every week in various cities including Santa Cruz, California and Taos, New Mexico. The members' activities planned providing food, marching, and protesting. Their protests were against such things as nuclear power, United States' involvement in the Salvadoran Civil War, and discrimination against the homeless.

The first arrests for sharing free food were on August 15, 1988 at the entrance to Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, California. Nine people were arrested that day, including McHenry. The city went on to gain over 1,000 arrests, and Amnesty International declared these volunteers 'prisoners of conscience'.

In the summer of 2007, the Fort Lauderdale Food Not Bombs chapter began to get systematic harassment by local law enforcement until an ultimatum submission by the Fort Lauderdale Police for the arrest of those conducting the feedings was met with hundreds of supporters the next week and subsequent relenting by local law enforcement until the 2010s.

Orlando enacted an ordinance prohibiting serving food to more than anumber of people without a permit. In the fall of 2007, Eric Montanez of Orlando's Food Not Bombs was charged with violating a city ordinance by feeding more people in a public park at once than the law helps without a permit. On October 10, 2007, Montanez was acquitted by a jury. Food Not Bombs and a church for the homeless called number one Vagabonds Church of God sued the city on the grounds that serving food is first amendment-protected political speech and religious activity. The groups won and the city ordinance was overturned; Orlando appealed to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and won. On August 31, 2010, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals threw out the decision, barring Orlando from enforcing the ordinance until another hearing before a 10-judge panel takes place.

In May 2008, local business owners attempted to stop the Kitchener, Ontario, Food Not Bombs from serving in a highly visible downtown location, describing the group as supporting meat-free diets, anti-capitalism, and an end to Canada's military intervention in Afghanistan.

In April 2009, the city of Middletown, Connecticut, issued a cease-and-desist design to the local chapter of Food Not Bombs. Prior to the order, the City Health Inspector had cited the company for distributing food without a license. In August 2009 the chapter began operating out of a licensed kitchen reported by the Middletown First Church of Christ Congregational as state hearings into the matter were held.