SANTA CRUZ — The local chapter of a global activist vegan and vegetarian feeding program will recognize the international movement’s 39-year history with a celebration and fundraiser Friday.
Food Not Bombs’ Soupstock Festival comes as the volunteer-run effort in cities across the country sees an uptick in the face of threats of war, taxes on immigrants and new anti-abortion laws, said local member Keith McHenry. Since its inception in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Food Not Bombs and its many chapters have drifted from their primarily street theater nuclear disarmament protest origins into often small-scale groups mixing free meals with concrete resources and a side of advocacy, he said.
“Those kinds of things tend to get people interested in wanting to get out on the street and talk to people and try to make a difference, probably the largest being the visibility of people on the streets,” McHenry said while walking downtown Wednesday. “Every day, we get more and more Food Not Bombs chapters. It freaks me out how many more we have. Virtually every day, I find a new one.”
Paul Franklin has been an on-and-off Food Not Bombs volunteer since the Santa Cruz chapter’s founding in 1992. At 4 p.m. each Saturday and Sunday, participants such as Franklin lay out plant-based food prepared at a commercial kitchen for any and all at the downtown corner of Water and Front streets.
Though volunteers no longer cook soup their kitchens and then bike it downtown on bicycle wagons, Franklin said many issues have remained consistent through the decades — including Santa Cruz’s homelessness problems.
“We’re still advocating for a government on the city, state and federal level that prioritizes taking care of its people rather than making bombs,” Franklin said. “We were advocating for it back in 92 and we still are.”
While meals are prepared with donated food, the local chapter faces some expenses that it needs to fundraise for, Franklin and McHenry said. The group’s kitchen restaurant may face eviction as downtown development projects progress. The group also looks to projects such as portable toilet rentals for homeless people, and needs to pay for spices and van transportation gas, they said. Food Not Bombs also has joined fellow activist group Homeless United For Friendship and Freedom in supporting a group of homeless plaintiffs suing the City of Santa Cruz over its plans to evict a large homeless encampment behind Gateway Plaza this month.
The lineup for Friday’s celebration, in addition to dinner, videos from other chapters and a volunteer recognition ceremony, includes performances by comedian DNA, Gina Rene’, Robert Perala, The Raging Grannies, Lyrical I.
IF YOU GO
What: Food Not Bombs’ Soupstock 2019.
When: 6 p.m., Friday.
Where: Resource Center for Nonviolence, 612 Ocean St.
Cost: Suggested donation $5 to $20 at the door, no one turned away for lack of
funds.
At issue: Celebration of 39th anniversary of Food Not Bombs movement founding.
