Our happy town is notoriously nasty to the homeless. From blue boxes to laws against lying down in parks, if there's a way to harass the less fortunate, our city leaders have probably thought of it, and it may already be on the books.

Which is not to say that Orlando does nothing to help the homeless; you may be surprised to learn that the city actually spends $425,000 annually just at the Coalition for the Homeless. It's more a case of out of sight, out of mind.

So what happens when someone wants to help in a public manner? They get hassled. At least that's what the people who started a local chapter of Food Not Bombs in January say is happening to them.

Missy Zandy, Aaron ("no last name") and a group of 10-15 other volunteers feed the homeless in Lake Eola Park Wednesdays at 5 p.m. They collect donated food from local grocery stores and bakeries, cook in someone's apartment and serve on the Rosalind Avenue side of the park. "The right thing to do is to help the needy," says Aaron, a tollbooth worker.

But Zandy, a waitress, says her group was chased out of Heritage Square park by overzealous security guards from the Orange County Regional History Center and cops. She says she was told her group needed a permit to feed the homeless (not true), and that all of downtown is a "no feeding" zone (also not true).

"We've had two cops say what we are doing is OK; we have had others say we are breaking ordinances and they can arrest us," says Aaron.

If all this sounds familiar, it's probably because the Ripple Effect had the same problem when it was feeding homeless at the same park until about two years ago. Tired of being pushed around, the group finally got together with the city to find a spot where they wouldn't be bothered: under the East-West Expressway near Garland Street. "We said we just wanted a city-blessed spot," says Ripple Effect founder Kelly Franklin. "We were tired of this 'you can't be here' crap."

No one from Food Not Bombs has been arrested yet, but Zandy says she and her group have no plans to stop handing out food. "You can feed the pigeons, but you can't feed the homeless?"

• • •

Article from The Orlando Weekly on Orlando Food Not Bombs

FOOD FOR THOUGHT Published 4/27/2006

Food Not Bombs is an international group "organized along anarchist principles of egalitarianism, consensus, cooperation, autonomy and decentralization." They distribute vegan and vegetarian food with an anti-war, anti-poverty ideology.

This is the second attempt at keeping a Food Not Bombs chapter going in Orlando; the first fizzled out years ago.

This time the chapter is flourishing. Food sharings, followed by meetings, are held at 5 p.m. Wednesday at Lake Eola Park, on the Central Avenue side.

– LTS

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