Food not Bombs (FnB) is what the local church soup kitchen would turn into if it was suddenly taken over by mad anarchists armed only with spatulas and dull knives which were barely able to cut through vegetables - if God and the 10 commandments were replaced by a collective and mutual aid, and the body of Christ was used to feed the hungry instead of the holy. Food not Bombs lacks the essential qualities of many organizations, such as a useless bureaucracy, a hierarchical structure, or any sort of regular exchange of monetary funds. It is for this reason that Food not Bombs makes a great model for productive community organizing.

Food not Bombs serves a very simple purpose: Our society disposes of a huge amount of perfectly edible and healthy food. Our society is also largely composed of people who couldn't afford that same edible and healthy food when it was on the shelves in their own neighborhoods. Furthermore, many of the folks responsible for this waste are actually very open to the radical idea of not wasting the food, and with some convincing, can be persuaded to make a donation big enough to feed anyone in town who cares to show up and get a free hot meal.

I work with Food not Bombs in NYC, on the Lower East Side. The way it works is this; there is a collective composed of all consistent members (semi-regular attendance for at least 3 months) which carry out basic responsibilities such as unlocking the kitchen, picking up donations, occasionally setting up some sort of benefit to raise money. Food not Bombs happens twice a week - volunteers show up and cook, bring the food to the park, and come back and clean up. Meetings happen about 4 times a year and serve to discuss ideas to improve the weekly workings, to adjust the roles of volunteers (such as if some particular person can no longer do food pickup, for example) and to discuss raising money, usually with a vegan B.B.Q. or punk rock show. Food not Bombs' yearly expenditures in NYC basically amount to buying oil, plates, utensils, and the like when they can't be obtained otherwise, and for paying a share of the bills at ABC No Rio, where all the cooking is done.

Beyond basic usefulness as a model in the context of this book, and as a way of disseminating resources in the context of society, FnB serves a very important role in the community as well. Within the punk community FnB acts as the meeting place in many ways - often people will show up to cook or eat who've just arrived in town, looking to meet people or just to hang out in a place where they'll feel comfortable despite being hundreds or thousands of miles from their home. I can't remember a week in which I haven't seen at least one new unfamiliar face at Food not Bombs.

However, perhaps more important than its role in the punk community, is its role in the local community as a whole. Part of what sets FnB apart from other folks serving food to people who need it, is that it lacks the arbitrary distinction between giver/receiver of the food which, leaves meals from other organizations looking more like charity and less like a picnic. The hungry people in the park, the volunteers, and anyone else who happen to walk by and want a bite to eat, with no clear distinction between those serving and those being served share the food. It is in this sense that FnB becomes most relevant as a potential model for mental health organizing.

Much can be learned by this world - which pits, for profit, pharmaceutical companies and incomprehensible diagnoses against stigmatized individuals who are faced with rigid social structures, which are not accepting of incompatible personalities. Our world focuses on working together as a unified whole to solve a common problem. A better idea would be to organize the community to be self-sufficient and supportive, rather than dependent on the opinions of outsiders who have never even had first hand experience with what they so readily label as "mental illness."

General information about Food not Bombs can be found at www.foodnotbombs.net; however keep in mind that FnB is entirely decentralized and each particular group is independent and therefore may not be accurately represented by any other chapter, including the above website. For more information on Food not Bombs NYC as well as ABC No Rio, where FnB operates, check out www.abcnorio.org. I can be reached at the address below if you want to talk about any of the stuff mentioned.

jordan@stealthisemail.com