 | COOKING for
PEACE Cultivating Community, Reaping Revolution Preface - Page 3 Before long we attracted volunteers, food, donations and invitations to share food at protests from Maine to Washington, DC. Our daily, dependable food collection and distribution built credibility. We walked our talk. At first we thought it would be fun. Experiencing the gratitude of the people we fed couldn't have been more rewarding. We might wake a few people up to the idea that our world would be a lot better if we redirected some of our military spending towards domestic priorities, but we sure couldn't have predicted that in 30 years there would be volunteers organizing for social change and feeding the hungry with Food Not Bombs groups in over 1,000 communities around the world. People really got interested in starting local Food Not Bombs groups when we faced intense police interference. First, when Police made nearly 100 arrests in San Francisco in 1988, and then with each wave of arrests and beating after that, there came another wave of new Food Not Bombs group. Every campaign against Food Not Bombs inspired the creation of more groups, and existing chapters responded by adding meals to their schedule or by organizing a Homes Not Jails housing take over. Arrests in communities around California inspired more groups all over the world. New arrests in other states were followed by the formation of more groups in every corner of the world. Economic crisis, strikes, wars, earthquakes, hurricanes, repressive laws, free trade agreements, racist attacks, animal abuse and threats to the environment motivated people to participate with Food Not Bombs. The message of Food Not Bombs has traveled throughout the world by word of mouth, flyers, videos, fanzines, the Internet, web, music and, most importantly, by example. |
