 | COOKING for
PEACE Cultivating Community, Reaping Revolution Preface Page 2 I hope you will be inspired to rush out and take action as soon as you finish reading this book. You might start by participating in the Food Not Bombs movement. If your community doesn't have a local group you can initiate a chapter. There are organic gardens to cultivate, homeless families to house, and exploitive policies and damaging corporate activities to stop. There are environmental, peace and social justice campaigns to plan, and activists to feed. There is an emergency and it will take everyone working together in earnest to implement the changes necessary for a sustainable future. You can make a difference. When my friends and I first started Food Not Bombs, we couldn't have imagined our impact thirty years later. We couldn't pay our rent but we had the enthusiasm and desire to confront the Reagan Revolution. We tried to have the most impact possible on society by making the most of what little we had: time and imagination. If we had any hope of changing society we had to make as powerful an impression as we could on as many people as our resources would allow. Our message would be ignored if it was confined to an office. We wouldn't motivate anyone if we didn't get their attention. So we set out to show it was possible to feed the hungry tasty, vegetarian meals under the banner Food Not Bombs while performing colorful spectacles illuminating the critical issues of the day to live music. To back up our ideas with deeds we recovered soon to be discarded food and provided free groceries to hundreds of New England's hungriest families at housing projects, soup kitchens and shelters. We provided meals to protesters and helped organize marches, rallies and other actions to protest the policies of Reagan and his corporate masters. And it worked. |
