FOOD IS A RIGHT NOT A PRIVILEGE
Sharing food with the hungry is an unregulated act of kindness.
Resist all laws restricting compassion.

Authorities have recently told volunteers to stop feeding the hungry in Worcester, Sacramento, Olympia, Taos, Boulder, Raleigh, Portland, Seattle, Saint Louis, Santa Monica, Birmingham, Los Angeles, and Chico.

Effort to hide the hungry continues across the United States.

Santa Cruz Food Not Bombs recieved this email from a local resident on Sunday, January 19, 2014 at 1:39 PM

Hello Food not Bombs volunteer,

I just wanted to thank you for the work you do. I was made aware today that there are folks out there who are looking to get you cited on littering, but they cant because you clean up so well after serving!!! Great job!

I am trying to educate these folks who trying to shut you down about all the good Food Not Bombs does in times of natural disaster as well as social and political action. Keep up the good work and great job not giving them a reason to cite you for littering!

best wishes,

PS here is the email that was sent out:

"Okay...update on FOOD NOT BOMBS group that serves food to the homeless beside the Post Office every Saturday afternoon about 4:30pm.

Called Health Department....learned they are anarchists and even if cited will continue to serve homeless. Police are wasting time and money and effort to cite them....it seems. He recommended calling the police and/or City Attorney.

I called City Attorney, talked with John Barisone....learned you can give food to people on the street. If someone gets sick from that food, they can NOT sue the city. Not worth trying to stop them. Can encourage them to move on but, they probably won't. He suggested we could get them on "littering," if they did.

Well, we've seen litter left by them: plates, napkins, etc. stuffed in drainage grill in front of the P.O.. He suggested calling the Police and citing for littering up the streets and/or Neil Coonerty.

I went and took photo yesterday of a huge amount of folks down there being served dinner. Waited until this morning to go down and see if it was all littered. My camera couldn't take a photo after they'd left...too dark. Well....it was spotless down there. So, we have nothing to complain about.

Any ideas out there? Running out of ideas here. May just have to put up with this. I, for one, am stumped. Doubtful we can make an ordinance that says not feeding the public on public streets...seems like it sounds unconstitutional."

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Food Not Bombs
P.O. Box 424, Arroyo Seco, NM 87514 USA
575-770-3377
1-800-884-1136
menu@foodnotbombs.net
www.foodnotbombs.net

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