By By: Taya Stewart
Staff-Writer
Not your traditional food pantry, Food Not Bombs is a nonprofit organization run by volunteers who recover vegan and vegetarian items and create meals for free. Volunteer in their weekly
services on Saturday nights from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. at the new Winter Amnesty building in
downtown South Bend.
This movement does not only provide food to the hungry – it has also been able to send meals to survivors of natural disasters, from earthquakes in San Francisco to tsunamis and floods in
Myanmar. It has also been a uniting factor during the chaos of the pandemic and economic
recession and continues to support people ending hate, war and poverty.
Food Not Bombs was founded in 1980 right here in the United States. It started as a protest
movement to stop Seabrook Nuclear Power Station in New Hampshire and has expanded to
several other countries. Its volunteers and organizers have been able to provide free food through the process of arranging and collecting soon-to-be discarded produce from grocery stores and markets.
The movement has multiple locations and has targeted 1,000 communities and 65 different
countries. This organization does not serve animal meat in order to avoid the animal agriculture industry and climate crisis, but they are changing society’s focus one hot meal at a time.
According to their website, Food Not Bombs believes that no amount of money, profit or
capitalism should stand in the way of a hungry person getting their needs met in a world that is so plentiful. The mission of this organization is to simply be a helping hand to anyone that needs it.
If you want to volunteer, use services, learn more about the revolutionary history and mission of Food Not Bombs or even start your own chapter, visit foodnotbombs.net.
