In 1980 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, seven anti-nuclear activists started a collective that came to be known as Food Not Bombs. They recovered surplus food that couldn’t be sold from grocery stores, bakers and food manufacturers. This food was distributed to housing projects, daycare centers and battered women’s shelters. They also prepared vegetarian meals and shared it along with their literature at protests. Over 25 years, this small experiment grew into a worldwide movement with hundreds of autonomous chapters active on every continent, with the exception of Antarctica.

The Food Not Bombs movement is unique in many ways. It’s rare for political movements to cross so many national boundaries and cultures. It’s unusual for a grassroots progressive movement to survive 25 years and still be entirely grassroots. Also, from the beginning, Food Not Bombs was multi-issue and encouraged the public and activists to see that all social injustices are connected. And, while it might seem strange today, Food Not Bombs was at the forefront of focusing on building the kind of society they wanted instead of trying to overthrow the current system. These activists believed they did not need to attack the oppressors to be in conflict with the state, but by simply doing what they believed was just, the authorities would attack and try to stop them.

There are several reasons why this movement is so strong. It is very empowering to collect, prepare and share free food all on your own and to do it with little money and few resources. Sharing food is powerful and magical. Additionally, when average people realize they have the power to make a difference, it can change their life. This is the foundation of social change and the authorities know it. In fact, San Francisco Police memos state that if they did not stop Food Not Bombs, the public might come to believe that they could solve social problems without government assistance. The self-empowerment of tens of thousands of people may be Food Not Bombs’ greatest achievement.

Every chapter shares the unifying principles of Food Not Bomb: a commitment to non-violent action, sharing free vegetarian food to anyone without restriction, and making decisions by participatory democracy or consensus. These ideals play an important role in the success of this movement. Food Not Bombs has no headquarters nor leaders and every volunteer has a say in the decisions of their local group. This leads to a strong sense of responsibility for the actions of the group and pride in what they accomplish. These lessons are often spread to other kinds of community organizing efforts. Many affinity groups addressing basic human needs and social injustice have used Food Not Bombs as a model for their organizing. Two of the founding members of the Food Not Bombs collective, C.T. Lawrence Butler and Amy Rothstein, wrote the book On Conflict and Consensus, which defines a model of consensus decisionmaking called Formal Consensus, based on their experience at meetings of Food Not Bombs, the Clamshell Alliance and the Pledge of Resistance.

Food Not Bombs encourages people to start their own chapters. In 1992, Keith McHenry and C.T. Lawrence Butler, founding members of Food Not Bombs, published the handbook Food Not Bombs, How to Feed the Hungry and Build Community, with the forward by historian Howard Zinn. Over 10,000 English copies, 3,000 Spanish and 1,500 Italian editions have been sold. In 1980, they wrote “ the next few years could profoundly change the world for generations and Food Not Bombs is working to make those changes positive for everyone.” This understanding that the world is at a critical time in history and that average working people have the responsibility to make the world a better place is as true today as it was when Food Not Bombs started.

The seven young people that started Food Not Bombs were united by the events of May 24, 1980. On that sunny spring day, over 4,000 activists with the Coalition for Direct Action at Seabrook made an attempt to occupy the Seabrook Nuclear Power Generating Station with the intent of non-violently stopping construction by putting their bodies in front of the bulldozers. As affinity groups cut holes in the fence surrounding the construction site, clouds of stinging teargas filled the air. National Guard troops rushed through the fence, beating everyone they could. Helicopters hovered above as the activists struggled to occupy the site. The next day, Boston University law student Brian Feigenbaum (eventually another founding member of Food Not Bombs), was arrested for assaulting a police officer, allegedly hitting him with a grappling hook. Concerned about Brian’s legal problems, a core group of about 30 activists formed to support his legal defense. Out of this effort grew the collective that started Food Not Bombs. Therefore, this attempted occupation of Seabrook on May 24, 1980 marks the beginning of the Food Not Bombs movement.

To raise money for Brain’s legal defense, the collective set up literature tables and sold baked goods outside of Boston University and in Harvard Square, but sales were slow. An idea emerged that street theater might help. They had a poster that stated, “It will be a great day when our schools get all the money they need and the air force has to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber.” The group bought military uniforms at an army surplus store, set the poster next to their table and pretended to be generals trying to sell baked goods to buy a bomber. While they didn’t sell more brownies and cookies, they did talk to many more people about Brian’s case and the risks of nuclear power. Eventually, Brian’s charges were dropped for lack of evidence and the collective had discovered a great way to organize.

With Brian free, the collective decided to organize its first protest to get the message across that the financial backing of Seabrook had links to the First National Bank of Boston. Many of the same people who were on the board of the Bank, which was financing the nuke, were also on the board of the utility that decided to build the nuke and many also sat on the board of the construction company building it. To the activists, this looked like the business practices that resulted in the Great Depression. To protest the bank’s decision to pour money into this risky investment, they again used street theater. The activists planned to dress as Depression era hobos and set up a soup line outside the bank’s annual stockholders meeting in the financial district of downtown Boston.

The night before, worried that they might not have enough people to have a soup line, they went to the Pine Street Inn, the largest homeless shelter downtown, to talk with the homeless about the protest and invited them for lunch. The next day, the activists set up a soup kitchen in the plaza outside the Federal Reserve Bank, where the board meeting was being held, and, to their surprise, over 50 homeless people joined them for lunch. Many stockholders expressed anger and some laughed at the protesters. However, the homeless folks were excitedly talking with the servers and started inviting passersby to join them at lunch. Many people stopped, had a bite to eat and talked with the homeless and activists about the reasons for the protest. They took flyers and expressed support. It was an exhilarating day.

While cleaning up, the seven activists decided that distributing food could be a great way to organize for peace, the environment and social justice. It wasn’t long before they had rented a house together and started a regular network of food collection and distribution sites. They picked up muffins and bread at “made fresh daily” bakeries, produce and tofu at health food stores and surplus stock from the food coop. Each weekday, within hours of collecting the food, they delivered it to battered women’s shelters, alcoholic rehabilitation centers, immigrant support centers, and once a week to each of the housing projects in Cambridge and some in Boston.

They set up a table at Harvard Square and gave away flyers about social issues. This Food Not Bombs table became a “little town hall” where people expressed their ideas and became involved in discussions about current events. The nights were spent spray-painting graffiti for peace. Themes included white outlines of dead bodies, which founding member, Jo Swanson, used as the basis for her national “Shadow Project” and stencils of the image of the nuclear mushroom cloud with the question “Today?” Outside grocery stores they painted the slogan, “Drop Food Not Bombs.” Eventually, this was shortened and became the name of the group.

In the first two years, Food Not Bombs focused on its literature and food tables, bulk food distribution and building momentum for the June 12, 1982 action “March for Nuclear Disarmament” in New York City. Leading up to this event, Food Not Bombs co-sponsored, with the Cambridge City Council, three marches against nuclear arms. On Hiroshima Day, one volunteer burned the Boston phone book to dramatize that everyone listed would burn in a nuclear attack. During this time, one of the most complex events the Food Not Bombs collective organized was the “Free Concert for Nuclear Disarmament” at Sennot Park in Cambridge in May of 1982. There was plenty of free food for everyone and bands representing the ethnic mixture of Cambridge performed. There was an area with activities for kids of all ages called “The Land of the Younger Self” organized by Su Eaton, another founding member of Food Not Bombs. Artists, craft people and local peace and justice groups had tables. It was a great success and another magical day for Food Not Bombs.

Over the next several years, the Food Not Bombs collective also helped organized direct actions to end the war in El Salvador, including one where 500 people were arrested for holding a “town meeting” in the lobby of the Boston Federal Building. Another founding member, Mira Brown, was with Ben Linder in Nicaragua, when he was killed by US-funded "contras". They also participated at a sit-in at the Federal Court against the draft, and they organized the Boston Pee Party, a protest against drug testing which was mentioned in Abbie Hoffman’s book Steal this Drug Test. Another action they helped organize was a protest against a “weapons bazaar” at a hotel in downtown Boston. This is an event where U.S. corporations promote the sale of weapons to the military of other countries. This particular one featured chemical weapons that were eventually sold to Iraq and used by Saddam Hussein on the Kurds.

During the mid-80s, Food Not Bombs continued collecting hundreds of pounds of surplus food everyday. During the week, they would distribute it to area housing projects, progressive social service agencies, battered woman's shelters and hunger relief agencies. These groups would receive this food once a week and be responsible for distributing it. The idea was for them to use this bulk free food as an organizing tool to reach out to new constituencies. On the weekends, Food Not Bombs would cook the food making vegetarian meals and set-up tables at rallies, protests, conferences, meetings, anywhere activists gathered and serve free food, distribute literature and collect donations. In this way, they were able to support their ongoing food distribution program and pay the rent. After a short while, they were serving free food at just about every protest in New England.

A second Food Not Bombs group started in 1988 in San Francisco. It was the perfect city for Food Not Bombs with good weather and history of radical activism. Keith McHenry, along with two San Francisco activists, realizing there was no free lunch service for the homeless on Mondays, set up a food table at the entrance to the Golden Gate Park at the foot of Haight Street. There was always a nice little crowd of people sitting on the lawn and they welcomed the free lunch and message of peace. On August 15, 1988, this small group of dedicated Food Not Bombs activists was surprised when 45 riot police marched out of the woods and arrested 9 volunteers who were sharing food. Undaunted, they returned the next Monday and so did the riot police. By Labor Day, over 100 volunteers were arrested. News of these arrests made CNN, the London Times and many other media outlets. Facing a crisis, Mayor Art Agnos held two afternoons of meetings with members of Food Not Bombs, the ACLU, city officials and neighborhood activists. Under pressure, he issued a permit and Food Not Bombs returned to the park to share their ideas and food without police interference.

All went well with meals every Monday in Golden Gate Park until the next summer, when the police started a campaign to arrest the homeless for sleeping in the city parks. After several days of hearing stories about people on the street being soaked by fire hoses and losing their sleeping bags, blankets and personal belongings, Food Not Bombs decided to get involved in helping them organize against the police attacks. The homeless felt isolated and fearful living and sleeping in the city parks and streets so they started gravitating towards Civic Center Plaza across from City Hall. As a tent city began to grow in the Plaza, Food Not Bombs started a 24-hour a day on-site soup kitchen there. The volunteers shared free vegetarian meals for 27 days. The homeless organized concerts, dances and rallies every weekday at noon. In response, the mayor opened an additional shelter declaring that all the homeless now had a place to stay and ordered the arrest of any of the homeless unwilling to sleep in this shelter. For many, though, the shelter was not an option. Families, women and people with pets were not allowed to stay at the new shelter. Therefore, the tent city continued until Food Not Bombs was arrested (again) and homeless people were driven out, supposedly so a carnival, sponsored by the mayor’s office could move into the park.

Following this experience, Food Not Bombs decided to continue serving food in Civic Center Plaza across from City Hall every day at lunch and dinner. The group organized a system where volunteers with a small amount of soup and bread would arrive and be arrested. Then another group of volunteers with a half bucket of soup and a few more loaves of bread would arrive and they would be arrested. While the police were busy dealing with the people they had arrested, the rest of the food would arrive and Food Not Bombs would feed everyone who came to eat. In a strategy designed to build community support, Food Not Bombs invited members of other groups to serve free food and risk arrest. Members of unions, church groups and other political organizations volunteered. Nuns and priests were arrested, labor organizers were jailed but when members of the National Lawyers Guild shared food, the police arrested the people eating and left the lawyers alone.

The arrests became virtually a daily event outside San Francisco City Hall. On October 5, 1989 at 5:05 pm San Francisco shook with the largest earthquake since 1909. Rice and beans were cooking on the stove at the time the gas and electricity went out. Food Not Bombs had propane tanks and stoves so the volunteers loaded up the truck and set up a field kitchen outside City Hall. This time when the police arrived, they joined the soup line and had a bite to eat and the arrests ended for the rest of Mayor Agnos’s term.

In 1992, on the 500th anniversary of Columbus arriving in the new world, Food Not Bombs held its first national gathering. At the time, there were approximately 30 cities with Food Not Bombs chapters, mostly on the west coast. Around 75 people came to the gathering including several volunteers from Food Not Bombs chapters in Canada. Also at this time, the book Food Not Bombs, How to Feed The Hungry and Build Community was published. Grassroots punk rock bands, such as Good Riddance, Propagandi, MDC, Green Day and other bands put information about Food Not Bombs in their lyrics and liner notes. And on top of all this grassroots dissemination and organizing, the Internet was just becoming popular and became a major tool for spreading the word about Food Not Bombs. Chapters started everywhere, almost like magic. The national contact list grew and became an international contact list. Groups started in Melbourne, Australia, Prague, Czechoslovakia, Montreal, Canada and London, England, to mention a few places.

Not long after the first Food Not Bombs gathering in 1992, there was an election in San Francisco and the former Chief of Police, Frank Jordan, was elected mayor. He started what he called the “Quality of Life Enforcement Matrix Program.” Although claiming to be a program to “help” homeless people achieve a better quality of life, in actuality, it was just another attempt to rid the city of homeless people by harassing them, often arresting them or fining them for things like sleeping in public. Often, the police would take their belongings. It became clear that the goal of this program was to create a climate where out of fear the homeless would leave the city. Food Not Bombs volunteers were horrified to see this abuse of police power so they started organizing protests. In retaliation, the mayor ordered the arrest of Food Not Bombs activists, even though it was not actually illegal to feed the homeless. In a stroke of legal manipulation, the City was able to get a restraining order against Food Not Bombs and the volunteers started being arrested and charged with “felony conspiracy to share free food in violation of a court order.”

Because local media outlets would not report on Food Not Bombs side of the story, some volunteers arranged a meeting with Steven Dunnifer, who was an electrical engineer operating a low-power FM radio station called Free Radio Berkeley, from the hills surrounding Berkeley, California. From this meeting, two additional unlicensed, low-power or “pirate” radio stations were started by Food Not Bombs volunteers in San Francisco. The Federal Communications Commission tried to shut down the stations but this only encouraged more people to start their own stations. At one point there were over 350 unlicensed low-power FM radio stations in the United States, many started by Food Not Bombs activists.

Food Not Bombs also started a squatter’s movement with the San Francisco Tenants Union called Homes Not Jails. The first Homes Not Jails action was occupying an empty hotel across from Glide Memorial Church on Thanksgiving. As the mayor arrived to cut the turkey at Glide’s soup kitchen, activists dropped banners declaring housing as a human right, as stated in the UN Declaration of Human Rights. Homes Not Jails was able to house many homeless people in empty buildings, including occupying abandoned buildings in the Presidio, a former army base near Golden Gate Park.

Keith McHenry was arrested and beaten regularly and generally released without any charges being filed. On January 1, 1994, the state of California instituted a law known as “Three Strikes,” which meant that anyone convicted of three major felony charges was automatically sentenced to at least 25 years in jail with a maximum of life in prison. On January 4, 1994, Food Not Bombs cofounder Keith McHenry was arrested on a bogus felony charge. In May, he was charged with another two bogus felony charges and faced 25 years to life in prison.

Meanwhile, Food Not Bombs volunteers were arrested every day for sharing information and food. Often, during the arrests, the police beat the volunteers and in a few cases, tortured them. Although Food Not Bombs co-founder C.T. Butler did not live in San Francisco, he was regularly attacked by the police every time he visited the city. Because of the frequency of these attacks, there is video footage of him being tortured in Civic Center Plaza by the police using “pain compliance techniques” (a nice euphuism for torture) while being ordered to stand up even though police officers were kneeling on his back and legs. Volunteers hauled off to jail were treated no better; they often suffered beatings and torture techniques used by the Special Operations Unit of the San Francisco Police. Sometimes, activists were sent to the psychiatric ward, tied down to a bed and drugged.

Things had gotten so bad, Amnesty International, in an unprecedented decision, declared Food Not Bombs volunteers Prisoners of Conscience in advance if they were ever sentenced to jail. The United Nations Human Rights Commission started an investigation into human rights violations against the group. Robert Norse Kahn, a Food Not Bombs volunteer, was the only one of over 1,000 people arrested for sharing food that was ever convicted. He was sentenced to 60 days in jail but was released after only two weeks because of a massive outpouring of support. The protests outside the jailhouse were interfering with business as usual at the jail and the warden thought it was ridiculous that, with the jail overcrowded, he had to hold someone who had simply given a bagel to a homeless woman.

Once freed from his Three Strikes case (the city failed to get a single conviction on any of the felony charges), Keith McHenry toured North America and Europe helping promote Food Not Bombs. In 1995, the “Rent Is Theft Tour” introduced people in 50 cities to a vegan cooking demonstration, set-up and broadcast the program on a low-powered FM radio station, and helped organize local Food Not Bombs and Homes Not Jails chapters.

In June of 1995, San Francisco hosted the 50th anniversary celebration of the founding of the United Nations. A second Food Not Bombs international gathering was held and as many as 700 people participated. Every day, Food Not Bombs volunteers were arrested serving food at UN Plaza, under the shadow of the obelisk honoring the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which reads, in part: “Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services.” Food Not Bombs activists were arrested for building a shantytown on UN Plaza to show that there are homeless people even in the wealthiest nation on earth. Still others were arrested on felony arson charges for a nighttime march with torches against the death penalty and in support of Mumia Abu-Jamal. During the ten-day gathering, Food Not Bombs activists from all over the world cooked together, protested together and were jailed together. They attended workshops on consensus decisionmaking, banner painting, bio-diesel (lard-cars), building micro-FM radio transmitters, sexism and racism, and cooking.

In 1997, three activists from Spain, Sara, Manolo, Salva, joined Keith and Seth, a musician from southern California, on the “UnFree Trade Tour.” They talked about organizing against the globalization of the economy and the need to protest North American Free Trade Agreement and the World Trade Organization. They visited 59 cities in the United States and Canada and encouraged people to shut down the WTO whenever it meets in North America. A 300 page book about the tour, Viaje Al Corazón de La Bestia was published in Spanish. When it was announced that the WTO would meet in Seattle in November of 1999, Food Not Bombs chapters around the country mobilized. Thousands came to Seattle to “shut it down,” resulting in the now famous “Battle of Seattle.”

By 2000, Food Not Bombs was worldwide and growing fast. Food Not Bombs activists were cooking for big anti-globalization actions in Europe and the Americas. Food Not Bombs in Australia helped free refugees from a detention center. German chapters helped with “Border Camps” and “Castor Nuclear Waste Blockades.” Chapters started in Argentina in response to the collapse of their economy. Food Not Bombs chapters joined in “Anti-McDonalds Day” protests sharing vegetarian food on October 16th outside McDonalds all over the world. Many Food Not Bombs groups served free food on the annual “Buy Nothing Day.”

In the months before the attack on Afghanistan, Food Not Bombs chapters fed peace activists at protests all over the world. Unfortunately, before long, Food Not Bombs was again feeding people at the huge protests against the invasion of Iraq. Zagreb Food Not Bombs served 1,000 meals outside the U.S. Embassy Hundreds of protesters were served hot meals by Food Not Bombs in Budapest, Belgrade, Warsaw, Poznan, Amsterdam, Kula Lumpur, Sidney, Washington, DC, Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Tucson and dozens of other cities. Along with feeding protesters, Food Not Bombs also shares free vegetarian meals with the homeless every week in hundreds of cities all over the world.

In 2004, documentary filmmaker Elizabeth Tadic followed Keith McHenry on a tour of North America, Europe and the Middle East to see how the movement was evolving. They learned about Copenhagen Food Not Bombs winning the Danish Peace Award and discovered six cities in Croatian had Food Not Bombs chapters. Slovakian National TV and Radio covered their visit to Bratislava where they learned that Food Not Bombs had started animal rescue shelters in 20 cities. In Israel, brave Food Not Bombs volunteers joined Anarchists Against the Wall in cutting through a gate in the “Iron Curtain” between Palestine and Israel while being shot at (with live ammunition) by the Israeli Defense Forces. One of their friends was shot twice and was rushed to the hospital. Food Not Bombs chapters from towns all over Ireland brought food to Shannon Airbase to protest the war. Chapters in Mexico served food at anti-globalization protests in Cancun and Guadalajara. Eleven Food Not Bombs volunteers were arrested and brutally beaten at the Guadalajara protest which generated worldwide protest and calls for their freedom. They also discovered that many benefit Food Not Bombs CD’s and videos have been created and sold to support the various chapters’ actions. A group of Dutch and German Food Not Bombs activists visited four Food Not Bombs chapters in Poland and made a great video about their trip.

Now, the Food Not Bombs movement is turning its vision towards the next 25 years. Times are even more difficult than when the movement started in Boston 25 years ago. Will Food Not Bombs continue to give birth to a host of other types of non-violent direct action? Will Food Not Bombs be feeding a movement that is successfully transforming society? The Bush administration’s policies have destroyed the safety net for the poorest in our country, casting hundreds of thousands of people into the streets. Increasing numbers of Iraqi war veterans are found eating with Food Not Bombs. Resistance to the wars will likely grow in America as more and more people learn of their government’s atrocities first hand from returning soldiers. The institution of the draft or an invasion of Iran will inspire still larger protests and creative non-violent direct actions. There is plenty of work still to do.

In June 2005, in the days before the BIODEMOCRACY 2005: Reclaim the Commons! protest, Food Not Bombs activists from all over the world will meet in Philadelphia to talk about the future of the movement. How can Food Not Bombs help change the world for the better? As a hub of social activism, Food Not Bombs volunteers will likely start micro-banks, community gardens, info shops, bike repair collectives, wind generation centers and community health centers. They will encourage the creation of neighborhood affinity groups and spokes council meetings, making decisions by consensus. They will organize the community to make sure that everyone has a right to food, clothing, housing, healthcare, education and a good job. Food Not Bombs groups in Eastern Europe are already finding themselves at the epicenter of building democratic, peaceful communities of hope. Food Not Bombs will feed people protesting the Bio-Tech Conference, where the bio-tech industry will display and promote biological weapons, environmentally destructive genetically modified agriculture and other dangerous products.

While society collapses and the American Empire crumbles, Food Not Bombs is busy building the kind of society we all want to have. Because of the grassroots and non-hierarchical nature of each chapter, they have deep connections within their local community. Together, Food Not Bombs volunteers are becoming experienced in cooperative action and collective decisionmaking. They are generating the spirit and vision needed to create a new world. This simple movement, which started in 1980 with a vision and no money or leaders, is creating a society based on peace, participatory democracy and guaranteeing the basic human rights of every person. Food Not Bombs activists invite you to consider starting or joining a Food Not Bombs chapter. Choose to live in a world free from domination, coercion and violence. Show the world that food is a right, not a privilege. Food, not bombs.

Food Not Bombs
P.O. Box 744
Tucson, AZ 85702
1-800-884-1136
www.foodnotbombs.net

The 25th Anniversary of Food Not Bombs on Line
www.foodnotbombs.net/z_25th_anniversary_1.html

Keith McHenry and C.T. Lawrence Butler are co-founders of Food Not Bombs. C.T. Lawrence Butler lives in Takoma Park, Maryland and teaches formal consensus to community groups, governments and associations all over the world. Keith lives in Tucson, Arizona where he maintains www.foodnotbombs.net and helps start new Food Not Bombs chapters.

25th ANNIVERSARY FOOD NOT BOMBS GATHERING
Philadelphia - June16 -22, 2005
This June 16 & 17, 2005, come celebrate the 25th anniversary of Food Not Bombs with an international FNB Gathering in Philadelphia! As the Biotech Industry lobby holds its annual international convention in Phillyfrom June 19-22, the city will be abuzz with a grassroots convergence for non-GMO foods, biodiversity and global justice.

www.foodnotbombs.net/philly_gathering.html