Food Not Bombs – Boston Chapter

We all know what public libraries are and that they’re in trouble.  Even in Somerville, we’re hearing about the funding battles and support campaigns underway.  At this month’s sprout spaghetti dinner, we’re going to look at a different set of libraries and library services–not your typical libraries.  Maybe they don’t traffic in books; maybe they aren’t run by the government; maybe they’re just bookcases in someone’s living room.  Whatever it is that sets these libraries apart, we want to hear their stories and how they handle issues that we traditionally associate with Public Libraries: access, censorship, safety, sharing, curation, and more.

On Sunday October 10th 2010, Food Not Bombs Boston participated in the HONK! Parade to “Reclaim the Streets for Horns, Bikes and Feet.” The parade featured all the HONK! bands plus Bread & Puppet Theater and many local arts and community organizations. We paraded from Davis Square to Harvard Square starting on Elm Street, then Beech Street onto Massachusetts Ave to Harvard Square.

This year, Food Not Bombs built a float for the parade, which we pulled with our longest bike cart. The 15 foot long float was built up as a “Corporate Food-Industry 18-Wheeler Truck.” The truck was made up to be owned and transporting products for Monsanto (one of the largest food-business corporations at the “growing food” level) and McDonald’s (one of the largest food-business corporations at the “food retail” level).

Thankfully, there were plentiful local, organic Vegetables (played by FNB volunteers and friends) nearby to stop the truck, and send a message to these corporations that their unsustainable practices, and dominance on food production and distribution can not stand. The Vegetables united to blockade the truck, and while it was stopped, encouraged the audience of the parade to step in and spray paint messages on the truck such as, “Food Justice” and “Money for Food, Not Bombs.” By the time the Monsanto & McDonald’s truck reached Harvard Square, the vegetables and audience had succeed in stopping it. The farmer driving the truck resigned from his job working for the corporations, and joined the vegetables and Food Not Bombs volunteers in serving a delicious, healthy, local, vegan meal to the hungry people at the end of the parade.

For more images from the Parade, check out our Flickr page here.

So as you might know we have a new kitchen in cambridge for our sunday meals. We are currently setting up the kitchen with a bunch of equipment, but as you might imagine we could use a little help to complete the process. If you work in food service or just have nice kitchen stuff that you’re looking to get rid of please contact us at fnbboston@gmail.com to donate to us.

Some things we could use.

Mop and bucket
cutting boards
knives
mixing bowls,
a food processor
pots and pans
pot handlers
garlic press

and probably other stuff

so please help us out this fall so we can continue serve better meals and do more events. Thanks.