Letter: Clarification on mission of Fredericksburg Food not Bombs

Dear Editor,

In the recent Bullet article on vegetarianism and Food not Bombs (FNB), there seemed to be some misunderstanding about what FNB is and what we do.

Food not Bombs is a 30-year-old international grassroots organization that protests against war, poverty and the destruction of the environment.

Food not Bombs is based on the idea that our priorities should be toward helping those who are poor, hungry and marginalized in the world. As a country, we spend so much money on wars and things that do not benefit the vast majority of people in our country and around our world, and those resources could be put to much better use doing things like feeding hungry people. Food not Bombs shows how easy and inexpensive something like this can be to do.

It is also a statement against the wastefulness and environmental destruction caused by the way we live. We collect food that is wasted and thrown away, yet still is fine to eat and make healthy meals out of it. The system of food production and distribution in our country and throughout much of the world is wasteful, destructive and increases poverty throughout the world.

Grocery stores do not donate food to us. We take the food they throw away. The majority of this food is still fine to eat and has passed the “sell-by” date, and we take care to use only food that is still safe and clean. We also collect food from the local community garden run by UMW students.

Food not Bombs has no officers or formal leaders.

The system we live in now is wasteful and destructive. Our priorities should be towards helping those of us who are least fortunate, rather than to help those who are most wealthy already by supporting wars and corporate control of food supplies.

Sara Monk, Evan McLaughlin, Kris Bray, Paul Keily, Colleen Brooke and Jason Walsh are with Fredericksburg Food not Bombs.