Special Reports
Food Not Bombs volunteer arrested for feeding the hungry
By Keith McHenry
Co-founder of Food Not Bombs


Apr 6, 2007, 01:49

Food Not Bombs volunteer Eric Montanez, 21, was arrested Sunday for feeding the hungry in Orlando, Florida, in the United States.

This past July Orlando and Las Vegas Nevada passed laws making it illegal to feed the hungry. Other cities also tried to ban Food Not Bombs but their efforts failed.

The City of San Francisco made over 1,000 arrests starting on August 15, 1988, but after spending over a million dollars and failing to stop the group, the city gave up and let Food Not Bombs continue with its work.

When the public saw you could get arrested for feeding the hungry, people from all over the world contacted San Francisco Food Not Bombs to see how they could start a local chapter. Today there are Food Not Bombs groups in hundreds of cities all over the world.

The Food Not Bombs movement organized the food relief for the survivors of Katrina, delivering the first meals to New Orleans three days after the storm passed. Food Not Bombs activists collected food and gathered volunteers in communities all over America and drove buses and trucks to the Gulf Region to help.

On Januay 5, the New Orleans Food Not Bombs coordinator, Helen Hill, was shot to death in front of her husband and child.

Food Not Bombs volunteers from all over North America will be supporting the Orlando group. Many volunteers plan to go to Florida to help cook and risk arrest.