by Crimethinc. Workers' Collective
Available in 284 free installments
Owner:
Cut potatoes (you can use sweet potatoes as well as regular potatoes) into rough squares; no need to peel them unless the skins are really dirty, but wash them first if you are leaving the skins on. Drop the potatoes in salted water and boil until they are soft when you poke them with a knife. Drain the pot and mash the potatoes. Add margarine if you have it or oil if you don't; moisten with soymilk or some of the cooking liquid from a stir-fry (Hquid from greens is too bitter for mashed potatoes). Add salt and pepper to taste; parsley and garhc are good too. Takes about thirty minutes, or more if you've got a lot of potatoes.
Account
Food Not Bombs 254
A traveler kid had been hanging around town for a couple of weeks, coming to Food Not Bombs every Thursday to cook and to eat. He wrote poetry; he'd been active in a poetry slam in his hometown and had even won a couple of prizes. He was surprised there weren't any poetry slams in our town. We all talked about it in the kitchen while we were cooking, and someone said, "Why not have a Food Not Bombs poetry slam here?" We scheduled it for two weeks later and told the plan to everyone who came; the traveler made fliers and over the next two weeks we posted them and handed them out.
When the day came, it looked as though the slam wasn't going to happen?it was a sunny afternoon, and people seemed happy to just lounge around on the grassy bank
outside the church where we serve. The two tables set up by the church steps were filled with dishes of stir-fry and potatoes and salad and bread and pastries; people refilled their glasses with ice water from the big orange cooler. Finally, one of the volunteers who had come to cook said "Well ..." and went out onto the sidewalk and turned to face the group. Suddenly the lawn was not just a lawn: it was a little amphitheater and the sidewalk was the stage. She opened her pocket-sized notebook and read some of her poems. Everyone cheered. Then another volunteer stood up and recited a poem from memory. Everyone cheered again. Then a man who had come to eat stood up and cleared his throat and read a poem he had written for a woman with whom he had once been in love. After he had been applauded, another man?-someone who had never been to Food Not Bombs before, who hadn't come expecting poetry?stood up and recited a limerick. Passersby stopped and listened. People who had seen each other every Thursday for months began talking to each other for the first time. The poems went on; the eating went on. The late afternoon shadows grew longer. Finally, both the food and the poetry had run out; people folded up their raggedy bits of paper, closed their notebooks, and carried the dirty dishes back into the church.
As poetry slams go ours was probably not much. As a moment when people took the opportunity to surprise themselves and each other, however, it was wonderful. Food Not Bombs is not a soup kitchen; it's not a family; it's not even a revolution. But when it works, when it is at its best. Food Not Bombs is a place where people can be their best selves to themselves and to others, where there is always room for surprise.
You can carry out guerrilla plantings of fast-growing, indestructible weeds in public parks or around buildings that are unattended for a few weeks, to give nature a hand in revitalizing cities and suburbs.
Food Not Bombs 255
Appendix:
Anarchist Ice Cream Truck
The Anarchist Ice Cream Truck is perfect for hot summer days when people are hanging out on front porches, riding bikes in the street, and playing in the local swimming pool or water park. Go around giving away free ice cream out of your homemade ice
cream truck.
Ingredients A decorated shopping cart
OR BIKE CART A LARGE COOLER OR TWO
Ice (dry ice works well and is fun
to play with) Ice cream Ice cream cones
Cherries
Chocolate sauce
A LOT OF PEOPLE? hiking, skateboarding, walking, ju^ing, stilt-walking, wearing colorful clothes, tellingjokes, interviewing people, taking pictures, video-recording for a documentary, helping to serve ice cream
