Richmond Food Not Bombs

About me:

Come out and help us at the SE Corner of Monroe Park (corner of Main & Belvidere) on Sundays at 4pm.

If you would like to help us prepare come to

2005 Barton Ave

between noon and 330pm.

Seriously, just show up, it's totally cool!

Richmond FNB also caters Rephrame's (www.rephrame.blogspot.com) monthly meetings, usually they are the last Thursday of every month. If you are interested in helping out please call 804-577-7656

Richmond Food Not Bombs From 1994 to infinity

Food Not Bombs first started in Richmond when Alyssa Murray moved to Richmond from Boston in 1993. In Boston she had participated in Food Not Bombs. When she came to Richmond and realized that there was no free food on Sunday evenings and plenty of hungry people she decided to organize to fill that gap. From her initiative, the organization has continued to grow and thrive.

Richmond Food Not Bombs has cooked at a number of places around the city over the years- from churches, to apartments, to the Daily Planet, the Pace Center, and private homes. There have been distinct advantages and disadvantages to these various locations. The current location of cooking is at 2005 Barton Avenue, The Wingnut. The actual sharing of the food has always taken place in Monroe Park.

Food Not Bombs has now been sharing a free vegetarian community meal at the corner of Main and Belvidere in Monroe Park for over 16 years. The weekly community meal is at 4pm on Sundays. The group has only missed 2 Sundays in its entire history. One was a Christmas Sunday when a lot of people were out of town, and one was during a huge snowstorm and no one could get there. On average, Richmond Food Not Bombs shares food with about 100 people each Sunday.

Richmond Food Not Bombs serves a vegetarian or vegan meal (no meat, dairy, or eggs) that includes multiple dishes. A typical Sunday might include all of the following- rice, stirfry, mashed potatoes, collards, fruit salad, green salad, cobbler, citrus drink, and water.

The food not used in cooking the meal is also shared after everyone has had a chance to eat. In that way, Richmond Food Not Bombs goes beyond providing for the immediate grumbling tummies and makes useful food that would otherwise go to waste.

Participants in Richmond Food Not Bombs have represented many different communities in Richmond over the years. Because Food Not Bombs is not explicitly of any particular political ideology, folks of many ideologies have been able to work together under the FNB name to participate in the weekly Direct Action of sharing a community meal. There have been Christians, Muslims, punks, VCU students, homeless, previous homeless, Communists, anarchists, Marxists, Democrats, Republicans, Green Partiers, and more who have worked together to bring free food to the Richmond community.

Richmond Food Not Bombs is a non-hierarchical organization that is run through a consensus process. Non-hierarchical means that no one is in charge or holds authority in the organization. Consensus is the process in which the group comes together to make a decision that is equitable to everyone in the group- not just a majority. Consensus is not a voting process, it is the process of coming to a decision which works for everyone.

Richmond Food Not Bombs has organizational meetings on a monthly basis. The meetings are currently happening on the 1st Sunday of the month at 1pm during the cooking. Everyone takes a break from food preparation and sits down to meet. Aside from those meetings, when there are pressing issues or just broader conversations to be had, Food Not Bombs might also call for meetings during the meal in the park.

Food Not Bombs Solidarity Work

Richmond Food Not Bombs has worked in solidarity with a number of organizations and groups in the Richmond area. This solidarity takes the form of simply showing up to meetings, endorsing their causes, helping to flier or advertise events and causes, receiving support from, catering meetings or special events, attending rallies and protests, attending City Council meetings to lobby, and friendship!

In the Past:

ASWAN- A Society Without a Name (Homeless Organized group) , May Day , Queer Space, Living Wage Coalition, General Strike, Catholic Diocese Office of Peace and Justice, Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, Crusade for Voters, Daily Planet, the Greens, IAC, Legal Aid Justice Center, Muslim Student Association, NOW - National Organization for Women, Parents For Life, Pax Christ, Queer Liberation Front, Stop Police Abuse Now, Unitarian Church, Virginia Organizing Project,

Today:

REPHRAME- Resitdents of Public Housing Against Mass Eviction, RTRU - Richmond Transit Riders Union, May Day , IWW - Industrial Workers of the World, The Flying Brick Library, The Wingnut Anarchist Collective, Root Force Collective, Synergeo, Richmond Really Really Free Market ..

Richmond Food Not Bombs has historically been willing to engage the Richmond community around issues of race, class, sex, sexuality, and ability. There have been times when Food Not Bombs has supported or endorsed various protests or actions fighting racism or capitalism. Richmond Food Not Bombs also receives support in many different ways from the many groups that it works with at different times.

Richmond Food Not Bombs is always accepting donations of money, rice, canned fruits and vegetables, baking supplies, coffee, tea, drink mix, pasta, pasta sauce, cooking oil, plastic forks, napkins, plastic cups, soy sauce, spices, good knives, cutting boards, printer paper, banner material, blenders, food processors, and more. If you work at a grocery store or restaurant you might be able to help Food Not Bombs by arranging for the store or restaurant to donate leftover produce, groceries, or even prepared food. If you have access to a copier you can help by making copies of fliers and pamphlets for Food Not Bombs. If you want to make food to be shared at the park on your own, just be aware that there are on average about 100 people who come to share food, so if you can make that many portions it would be great!

If you want to volunteer with Richmond Food Not Bombs, you can call 804 303 5449 or 804 577 7656 for more information.

Weekly cooking happens on Sundays from 12:30-3:30 at the Wingnut at 2005 Barton Avenue. The meal is in Monroe Park at 4pm, with a grocery distribution afterwards. We can always use more people to help serve, wash trays, and eat. Cleanup happens back at the Wingnut after the meal, and always needs more help. It usually runs from 5-6pm, and is the part of Food Not Bombs that makes sure we are ready to do it again the following week.

More online about Food Not Bombs at www.myspace.com/richmondfnb

If you aren’t available on Sundays there are other ways you can participate. We sometimes cook for other events at other times of the week. We are also in need of people to do fundraisers or canned food drives. Making fliers, distributing fliers, alerting us to events that Food Not Bombs is welcome to table, volunteering to table at events for Food Not Bombs, doing a weekly pickup from one of our donors, etc. are all just some of the ways that people not available on Sundays can really help out!

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The name Food Not Bombs states our most fundamental principle: society needs to promote life, not death. Our society condones and even promotes violence and domination. This affects us in our everyday lives through the constant threat of violent crime, domestic violence, police repression and the threat of total annihilation from nuclear war. Such constant exposure to violence, including the threat thereof, leads many people to hopelessness and low self esteem. Authority and power is derived from the threat and use of violence. Globally, we continue to spend more time and resources developing, using, and threatening to use weapons of massive human and planetary destruction than on nurturing and celebrating life.

Poverty is violence. One expression of the violence of poverty is hunger. Millions of Americans, almost half children, go hungry every day and childhood malnutrition contributes heavily to infant mortality rates, which are higher in parts of the U.S. than in most other nations of the world. By spending money on bombs instead of food, our government perpetuates and exacerbates the violence of poverty by failing to provide food for everyone in need. Food Not Bombs has chosen to take a stand against violence. We are committed to nonviolent social change by giving out free vegetarian food thus celebrating and nurturing life.

Food Not Bombs is an organization devoted to developing positive personal, political, and economic alternatives. Often, revolutionaries are depicted as working for the overthrow of the government by any means necessary. Food Not Bombs groups, in general, do not have the time or resources to attack, tear down, or overthrow the existing death culture. By not spending our time trying to overthrow the existing power structure does not mean never struggle with it. By simply exerting our basic rights to free speech and association, we are challenging the power elite and they will try to stop us. However, we focus on what needs to be done. We want to create new alternatives. We want to create life affirming structures from the ground up. We want to replace the death culture with a culture of "Plumbers Not Bombs", "Daycare Not Bombs", and "Healthcare Not Bombs".