Response to Orlando Mayor Dyer
The Large Group
Feeding Cage
SEE MAYOR DYER'S LETTER MAKING INACCURATE CLIAMS
MAYOR'S
CLAIM THAT THERE ARE OTHER PLACES TO GET FOOD
Food Not Bombs is an all volunteer movement seeking to change society so
no one needs to stand in line to eat at a soup kitchen. Food Not Bombs
supports everyone's effort to provide food to the hungry. Food Not
Bombs created a safe effective method to provide high quality meals and
encourage social change that is affordable to everyone. The food is
always vegan and vegetarian and shared within three hours so volunteers
do not have to raise money for steam tables and refrigerators. We are
seeking to include everyone in our meals to encourage dialog so we set
up in public spaces. Food Not Bombs shares food with the hungry and also
provides opportunity for anyone to safely share meals and literature. It
is sad that the city would threaten food programs with cuts in funding
if they failed to come out against Food Not Bombs. Food Not Bombs
created a safe effective method to provide high quality meals and
encourage social change that is affordable to everyone. The food is
always vegan and vegetarian and shared within three hours so volunteers
do not have to raise money for steam tables and refrigerators. We are
seeking to include everyone in our meals to encourage dialog so we set
up in public spaces. Orlando Food Not Bombs almost ran out of food on
Memorial Day as many other options were closed for the holiday. The
arrest warrants claim we are feeding more than 24 people more than twice
a year so clearly even by the city's own account Orlando Food Not Bombs
is providing meals to hungry people. Food Not Bombs is also sharing
food with the hungry in over 1,000 cities, half of which are in the
United States. Food Not Bombs invites the people eating with us to
participate in making the decisions for each group. Food Not Bombs also
teaches people how to grow their own food with the Food Not Lawns community
gardens.
Our literature
table.
FOOD NOT BOMBS RECLAIMS PUBLIC SPACE
Our volunteers can focus on providing great food and an end to poverty
instead of spending their time raising money to pay rent for a store
front. Many mothers tell us they feel safe at the Food Not Bombs meals
because it is on public space while they find it uncomfortable to eat
inside at soup kitchens. Even Second Harvest of Central Florida
claims
that many of the programs they support to run out before everyone
receives food. Food Not Bombs also teaches people how to grow their own
food with the Food Not Lawns community gardens. So far Orlando is the
only city in the United States that is arresting people for sharing
food. The city wants to hide poverty instead of joining Food Not Bombs
in seeking solutions. While Food Not Bombs does provide hundreds of
people nutritious meals this is not the only purpose of our all
volunteer effort. We are bringing people from diverse backgrounds
together in public spaces to enjoy a meal together, share conversation
and build popular support to change America. Mayor Dyer's effort to hide
the hungry is not a solution to a crisis that is growing more urgent
every day.
Hiding the hungry wont work
Food Not Bombs is seeking to change society so no one needs to eat at a
soup kitchen
THE CLAIM THAT ONCE THE MEDIA IS OVER FOOD NOT BOMBS WILL STOP
SHARING MEALS
Food Not Bombs' volunteers provided meals to the first responders on 9/11
in New York without any recognition from the media nor did we need media
to help. Food Not Bombs volunteers share free meals every week in over
500 cities in the United States yet you won't find any news reports on
NPR, CNN, Fox TV, Time Magazine or any other national news outlet even
now with the weekly arrests in Orlando. Our volunteers organized
America's latest food relief effort being the first to provide food to
the survivors of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. The American Red
Cross gave out our toll free number 1-800-884-1136 to everyone seeking
food for the first eight months after the flood yet we received no
notice from the mainstream media. Because our cause is just, we have
survived other obstacles from cities and mayors. Mayor Art Agnos made
the same claims in San Francisco in 1988. He lost the election because
he arrested Food Not Bombs. He has been out of office for two decades
but San Francisco Food Not Bombs is still providing organic meals and
organizing for peace and social justice. So far Orlando is the only city
in the United States that is arresting people for sharing food.
MAYOR DYER AND THE CITY OF ORLANDO FORBID FOOD SHARING AND OFFER AN
ALTERNATIVE
This denies food to the hungry and prevents those whose conscience leads
them to meet with and feed the hungry. We have the constitutional right
to meet publicly and to speak freely. Despite this, there have been a
dozen arrests in the park at Lake Eola. When we continued the food
sharing despite the police invasions, Mayor Buddy Dyer told the media we
could share our meals outside City Hall. Food Not Bombs intends to share
food at City Hall on July 1st. We hope he brings the peppers he
promised. The Mayor's alternative location is a feeding cage topped with
barbed wire under the 408 bridge. They offered to let us use the feeding
cage from 9 to 4:30 each day. There would not be any way that Food Not
Bombs could reach the community with our message that we can end poverty
if we divert some of the federal tax dollars spent on war towards the
real national security of healthcare, education and employment. You can
see that this wire enclosure does not welcome human beings -it is a cage
to feed animals. We refuse this alternative.
PHOTOS OF THE
MAYOR'S LARGE GROUP FEEDING CAGE
A MEETING OF THE CITY WITH FOOD NOT BOMBS
We have asked the mayor for a meeting and asked that he end the arrests.
Local media has termed our request to meet and end the arrests as
"demands" but if one reads the letter to Buddy Dyer, this is clearly not
the case. Here is the exact text of the letter that local journalists
are saying are demands. They are not "demands" but they sure are
reasonable requests.
LETTER REQUESTING MEETING WITH
MAYOR BUDDY DYER
ORLANDO FOOD NOT BOMBS
RESPECTFULLY ASKS THAT THE CITY
Implement a moratorium on the arrests of people sharing food at Lake
Eola Park.
Repeal Anti-food sharing ordinance 18A.09-2.
Drop the charges
of those arrested and lift the trespass orders.
Repeal the ordinances
that criminalize poverty in Orlando such as the panhandling zones,
horizontal sitting and other laws directed at our poor.
FOOD NOT BOMBS RECOVERS FOOD DONATED BY GROCERIES, PRODUCE MARKETS AND BAKERIES
Over 40 percent of the food produced in the United States is discarded and food workers
are honored to donate the food they can't sell to Food Not Bombs.
Americans Toss
Out 40 Percent of All Food
MORE ABOUT THE CITY OF ORLANDO AND FOOD NOT BOMBS
MAYOR DYERn'S LETTER MAKING INACCURATE CLIAMS
The full Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals Ruling
TIME LINE OF MAJOR EVENTS IN THE 30
HISTORY OF FOOD NOT BOMBS
Write a letter to
Orlando City Officials
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
| Start a Food Not Bombs | Main Menu | Food Not Bombs Contacts | Donate A Dollar For
Peace |