Food Not Bombs: Still innovative 30 years later

Food Not Bombs is an organization that's, well, not very organized (at least centrally) and allows folks to stay very grassroots*. The group started in the early eighties and evolved out of the anti-nuclear movement, with the idea that if we'd stop spending so much money financing wars, we could afford to feed everyone. There are now chapters all over the world.

The way it works is that food that would otherwise go to waste because it's not pretty enough to be sold any longer is collected (from restaurants, grocery stores, anywhere really), cooked up vegan / vegetarian style and served in an open-air space for anyone that needs a meal.

Food Not Bombs is in a lot of cities across the US (and other places, too!) and you can find a chapter near you here: http://www.foodnotbombs.net/contacts.html (scroll down and click on the map)

I've volunteered with local chapters in the past and have always had a blast! I have no idea how to cook for a large group, but someone's always there to say, "Hey you, chop that over there," and it always seems to work out in the end. The other added benefit is that it inevitably seems to be a great group of people who show up, both preparers and eaters. I'm planning a move quite shortly and I think this is going to be one of the first things I do once I get there.

*FYI - this is how anarchism is supposed to work. It's really not scary. Here's my favorite version: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarcho-syndicalism. Not that I think this could actually work, no theorized political system does. But I think there are a lot of great ideas to be drawn from. Tangent = over. :)