A STATEMENT FROM ORLANDO FOOD NOT BOMBS

July 31, 2006

We, the collective of people who take part in Food Not Bombs in Orlando, have written this statement in the hopes of creating greater understanding of how we operate and why we have certain positions on issues of homelessness and the use of public parks.

Orlando Food Not Bombs has been sharing food in downtown Orlando regularly since January 2005 and is one of hundreds of autonomous chapters of the international Food Not Bombs movement, which began in 1980. OFNB is a collective, without any hierarchy or leaders; responsibilities rotate (one of the reasons that each time the local media cover OFNB different people from the collective speak for it) and all decisions about what we do and how we do it are made collectively, through consensus of the people involved. Contrary to what is widely believed, a majority of the people in Orlando Food Not Bombs live, work and pay taxes in the city; some of us go to college to prepare ourselves to contribue to society through our chosen professions. We are part of the community and care about everyone in the community, which is why we volunteer with Food Not Bombs.

Despite the passage of the City of Orlando's new "large group feedings" ordinance, which is intended to stop OFNB and other secular and religious groups from sharing food with the hungry in downtown parks, we have continued to share food with the people who come to the Lake Eola Park picnic area during our regular sharing time. We have been sharing there for over a year; we were told the picnic area was an acceptable location by park rangers and police.

Orlando Food Not Bombs is adamant in its refusal to move its sharings to the Sylvia Lane site that the city has designated for what it calls "large group feedings." (Cattle eat at what are called feedlots; human beings share food with each other.)

• The Sylvia Lane site is in a dangerous, high-crime area. In recent months, five homeless individuals in that area have been assaulted by teen-agers, including one, August Felix, who later died from his injuries. OFNB can not in good conscience ask the people with whom we share to expose themselves to such an unsafe locale.
• The facilities at Sylvia Lane are inadequate. The site is a vacant lot that has been fenced in (so that it resembles a sort of prison camp) and provided with a small number of picnic tables and smelly portable toilets (without any way for those who use them to wash their hands afterwards; that is hardly conducive to good hygiene in handling food).
• The people with whom we share already suffer enough abuses and humiliations in their daily lives; they do not need to be reminded once again that in the eyes of city officials and many residents, civic leaders and business owners they are second-class citizens, whose presence in the midst of luxury and affluence is considered unaesthetic and a pestilence.
• If OFNB were to move its sharings to Sylvia Lane, we would, in effect, be saying that it's OK for the City to strip away the rights of certain people, based upon their socio-economic status, and we would become complicit in the social and economic discrimination embodied in the ordinance. It is a classic example of a government trying to create a situation of "separate but equal" (actually unequal) in order to marginalize people considered inferior and socially unacceptable.
• OFNB strongly feels that all individuals, whether they are the working poor (whose low incomes sometimes make food too expensive) or the homeless, have as much right to use Lake Eola Park as the more affluent. Lake Eola Park is both beautiful and safe, with well-cared for trees, flower beds and grass, and clean, decent bathroom facilities with running water. It is a safe environment and we feel that the people with whom we share have as much right to a safe environment and pleasant surroundings as anyone else.

In the interests of creating a more equitable community and addressing the blatant inequalities created by the city in its treatment of the poor and homeless, Orlando Food Not Bombs makes the following demands upon the City of Orlando:

• That it immediately repeal the "large group feedings" ordinance, since it institutionalizes discrimination based upon socio-economic status;
• That it end all other City policies that criminalize homelessness or that in any way have a negative effect upon homeless individuals, since the homeless are our brothers and sisters and deserve better treatment;
• And that all elected City officials and employees treat all people in the community with respect and as equals with the same rights since that is what everyone deserves and is a value enshrined in both the Florida and U.S. constitutions.

We invite everyone in the community to participate in Orlando Food Not Bombs, to come to a sharing to enjoy our food, and to get to know us and the people with whom we share.

–Orlando Food Not Bombs

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