Today we’d like to introduce you to Memphis Food Not Bombs
Hi Memphis Food Not Bombs, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Food Not Bombs started after the May 24, 1980 protest to stop the Seabrook Nuclear power station north of Boston in New Hampshire in the United States. The people that started Food Not Bombs share their first full meal outside the Federal Reserve Bank on March 26, 1981 during the stock holders meeting of the Bank of Boston to protest the exploitation of capitalism and investment in the nuclear industry.
The Memphis Food Not Bombs chapter was very active up until the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Like many organizations, the pandemic put the chapter into a hiatus. The chapter was revitalized in 2022 in response to the US Supreme Court Dobbs decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. The chapter now does regular mutual aid feeds, teach-ins, and reclaiming food and resources that would otherwise be thrown away to serve those in need.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
We were kicked out of Court Square Park for serving food to homeless people and those in need by the Downtown Memphis Commission’s Blue Suede Brigade. We were told that we were required to have a permit to serve food despite not selling the food we were serving. This is an example of the overall obstacles and challenges that we face. We live in a society where helping people is regulated and discouraged, while at the same time, violence is promoted and encouraged. In Memphis you are not required to have a permit to posses a handgun but according to the Downtown Memphis Commission you are required to have a permit to give free food in a public space. Compassion and kindness is policed by the state while violence is allowed to rein free. This reality is our obstacle and our challenge. This is not unique to the Memphis chapter. The Houston, TX chapter of Food Not Bombs has received 95 citations by the police for serving food. The West Palm Beach, FL chapter has received many citations as well for serving food. We are criminalized for serving people on the street and the US Supreme Court just passed a law making it easier to criminalize the homeless.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
So we at Memphis Food Not Bombs are activists. Food Not Bombs is not a non profit organization. Food Not Bombs is a movement comprising over a thousand chapters in over sixty countries. We do not believe in charity. We do mutual aid instead. Charity is a superficial band aid solution that does not address the root cause of problems. Charity is often a tactic used to lull the public into complacency, distracting people from confronting the true cause and nature of social issues. The true cause of societal problems are systemic and institutional. Effective solutions must be community oriented, where people providing the aid see themselves also benefiting from the aid, because we see ourselves in those we help. There is a direct connection between ourselves and those we help and also those we hurt. We are all connected to each other, both materially and immaterially. No one is free unless all are free. Solidarity not charity. Instead of charity we do mutual aid.
The goal of Food Not Bombs is to abolish hunger. To accomplish this, it is not enough to just give food to hungry people. We must topple the institutions that enable, perpetuate, and benefit from hunger. So we provide food to those in need in ways that also directly attack the situations and circumstances that have caused that need in the first place. This is where mutual aid action comes in versus charity. These institutions are not just physical in nature, but they are also ideological. Therefore education is also a primary method of direct action we utilize. Along with teach-ins, we also disperse agitprop.
Agitating propaganda (agitprop) is a communication tool we use to counter the normalization of violence. Violence is a mindset that has been pushed on us since the day we were born. Popular media conditions us to believe that domination and exploitation are necessary. That punishment equals justice. That violence is the ultimate solution. Domination, exploitation, punishment, and violence are tools used by exploiters in power to maintain their status. Such things do not provide true justice. To truly abolish hunger, we must counter this false narrative with messages of transformative and restorative justice. Along with talking to people face to face about these ideas while offering food, we also distribute flyers, brochures, posters, stickers, and digital messaging that also communicate ideas that counter punitive justice.
What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
With the rise of both far right authoritarianism and leftist neoliberalism, social activism is faced with incredible challenges. Direct and radical change in our socioeconomic institutions to focus on the wellbeing of people over the profits of corporations needs to happen. Also, activism isn’t an industry so this is kind of answerable. But our society sells activism as an industry which also greatly hampers social justice.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/memphisfoodnotbombs
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/memphisfoodnotbombs
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Food-Not-Bombs-Memphis/61550605255530/
- Twitter: https://x.com/foodnotbombs901
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@foodnotbombsmemphis
