by Crimethinc. Workers' Collective
Available in 284 free installments
Owner:
A core of volunteers. It takes surprisingly few people to put together an active, self-sustaining Food Not Bombs, but it may take a little while to get the right mix of volunteers. Put up fliers, talk to people, table at shows and events, rope in your friends to start, but keep working to make your volunteer group as diverse and committed as possible. This is important first of all because it is natural for any volunteer group to devolve into a small group of the same people who show up every week; if those people burn out or have trouble getting along with each other the whole organization can fall apart quickly. In communities where there are several Food Not Bombs servings, volunteers often sort themselves out into affinity group-like teams of people with similar tastes and backgrounds. This is fine so long as all interested groups are represented somehow; some people may not have the means or the experience to form a group of their own. One of the nicest things that can happen is that the people serving and the people eating begin to overlap. I was telling a woman recently that we had several homeless men among our volunteers. "That's good," she said. "It means more to them if they have to work for it." That statement simply doesn't make sense in the Food Not Bombs context: there is no "they"?and cooking is too much fun to call work. It is nice, though, to make Food Not Bombs a welcoming place to people who are often made to feel that they don't have anything to contribute?never forget to reach out, and always remember that an open door is not enough. Some people?not just homeless people, but older people, younger people, middle-class people, your mom^??may need extra encouragement to feel that they truly are welcome in the kitchen.
Transportation. Transportation is an obvious ingredient?you'll need at least one car or bicycle to pick up food and perhaps carry it to the location where you serve. Keep this in mind as you recruit volunteers, and make sure you've got backup drivers.
Basic large-size cooking pots and pans, a few staple ingredients, and serving containers and utensils. If the kitchen you are using doesn't have big pots and pans, you'll need to get
You can compile a monthly calendar of events that include free food (e.g., art openings, city council extravaganzas) and circulate it to hungry people.
You can start a food co-op with your friends and neighbors?ordering food in bulk for all of you will save you a lot of money.
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You can combine free food and
outreach or provocation by making
and giving out fortune cookies. Tailor
the fortunes to the situation and
recipient demographics, and if you
can't figure out how to make actual
fortune cookies, just put the fortunes
in little baggies with any sweet treat.
You can establish community
gardens, w\th plots open for
people to grow their own food, or
volunteer programs for them to
participate and share in the harvest.
Many people already have yards
that go untended, and there are
always those abandoned lots . . .
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some. Basic cooking equipment includes a large soup pot, a large frying pan, some baking trays (disposable foil pans can be reused for quite a while), big spoons for stirring and serving, and sharp knives. You can look in thrift shops, yard sales, and dumpsters for cooking equipment, but don't overlook restaurant supply places, v^^hich sometimes have back rooms where they sell damaged and second-hand equipment cheap.
Staple ingredients include salt, pepper, spices, vinegar, and oil (ohve oil if you can afford it?olive oil makes just about anything taste better and you can stretch it by mixing it with cheaper canola oil). Serving containers can be anything from plates and bowls to recycled plastic tofu boxes; ask around for donations and you'll be surprised how many people have dishes and pans to give away.
