Fundraise for Richmond Food Not Bombs

Food Not Bombs needs some money!

If you are able to donate money or host a fundraiser for us this spring, please let us know. Even sharing this event would be super helpful!

We can always use volunteers to help chop, cook, clean, wash dishes, organize, post fliers around town etc.

We can also always use donations of paper plates, paper cups, plastic forks and spoons, rice, oil, olive oil, vinegars, sugar, flour, pasta, spices, oats, etc. These can be dropped off at any of the cooksites or the Wingnut (2005 Barton Avenue).

If you would like to help us with a fundraiser we could certainly use that help as well. If you would like to make a tax deductible donation there is a way to do that too. You can send a check to the Virginia Organizing Project (snail mail ONLY NOT ONLINE) and specify Richmond Food Not Bombs in the memo. To donate by mail, please send your check, made out to Virginia Organizing, to: 703 Concord Avenue, Charlottesville, VA 22903

Please get in touch at 804 300 0023 or mokarnage@gmail.com for more information.

Food is a Right, Not a Privilege!!!!
Food Not Bombs has been serving a free, vegan meal every Sunday in Richmond’s Monroe Park for almost 21 years now. We go out regardless of the weather or holidays and have only missed 2 Sundays in all these years. Everything is done on a volunteer and donation basis. We can really use the help and allies as we face many potential issues due to the recent privatization of Monroe Park (a thirty year lease for a dollar a year to the Monroe Park Conservancy), which threatens the ability of poor and houseless people to be in Monroe Park and our ability to serve free food with a potential year long park shut down, private security, and $35 permit application fee. We do not know when any of this might happen because the MPC is a non transparent private entity, but we do plan to resist and we need your help! For more info on the renovation plans please get in touch!!

Need Compost Materials or Scraps for Your Chickens? Consider us your new best friend…

If you need extra scrap produce to add to your compost pile.

or scrap veggies to feed to your chickens (trust us, they love em, and it will save you money on chicken feed)

please come by the Wingnut Anarchist Collective at 2005 Barton Avenue to get some!

We do Wingnut Food Not Bombs Produce Distribution every Wednesday and Friday morning, putting the food out by 8am. By the evening the food has been gone through, with the good stuff mostly taken.

If you want compost scrap or produce for chickens, it will be out front of the house, in cardboard boxes along the retaining wall. You will be getting free scrap to use in your gardening and chicken loving endeavors, and you will be helping us and our neighbors to get rid of the trash.

We don’t want to see all the compost and cardboard end up in the trash, but it is way beyond our capacity to re-use or re-cycle. So help yourself, and help a program that gets healthy food into a local food desert to low income and elderly folks.

The best times to come by would be Wednesday evenings, Thursdays all day, Friday evenings, and Saturdays all day. Please take as much as you can use, and help us keep the distribution area neat and clean!

Wednesday and Friday Produce Distribution

Starting in December the Wingnut Anarchist Collective will be doing an informal produce distribution on Wednesday and Friday at 8am each week.

This is a first come, first serve deal, and not going to be facilitated,  cause we have to run off to work many mornings. Please just take what you need. Some weeks we will be holding back produce as well, in order to do solidarity catering for events such as the Transgender Day of Remembrance or Virginia People’s Assembly, or just the usual Sunday Food Not Bombs (depending on what will keep).

We have started doing this for our neighbors, but frankly have so much produce that it doesn’t all get taken!

If you come take produce please consider helping out by either cleaning the distribution area and taking some empty boxes and trash with you, or making a cash donation to help cover fuel and vehicle maintenance. 

If you have a vehicle and would be interested in helping us bring produce from several other locations here for distribution please be in touch!

Pictures from Food Not Bombs

 

Richmond Food Not Bombs Documentary by Baldeep Singh Pooni

A documentary recently completed by Baldeep on Richmond Food Not Bombs.
Please watch and share!
We are always looking for more organizers, more political events, more donations, more fundraisers, etc.

Thanks Baldeep!

Food Not Bombs First Monthly Greeting Day – January 20th!

We’d like everyone, but especially interested folks who have never been before, to join us Sunday the 20th for our first Greeting Day!

Have you heard about Richmond Food Not Bombs, but been unsure about approaching a group of strangers in an unfamiliar setting? Not sure what food access justice means? Do you have questions about the politics, history, or process of RVA Food Not Bombs?

Food Not Bombs is a loose worldwide conglomeration of local food justice organizations, who believe that food is a right and the conditions of poverty are a kind of structural violence. Richmond Food Not Bombs has been in operation for eighteen years, serving a vegan meal that is free to all and prepared from donations and food that would otherwise go to waste, on Sunday evenings in Monroe Park. RVA FNB has only ever missed two servings in their entire near-twenty-year history. Currently, we cook out of a collective in Barton Heights, from 12:30-3:45pm, and eat in Monroe Park from 4-5pm, on Sundays.

Members are always available to greet newcomers and answer questions at the regular Sunday cooking, eating, and cleanup- and anyone is welcome to attend any Sunday- but we’ve decided to begin a tradition of monthly Greeting Sundays, where a specific member volunteers to act as the greeter and guide for any newcomers. There will be nametags, literature, and a member available specifically to address your questions and explain the process, from grocery pickups all the way through to cleanup.

This week’s greeter will be Kat. If you have questions or concerns prior to Sunday, you can contact her at mcnealkc@vcu.edu, or through Facebook. You don’t need to show up right at 12:30, as this is an informal event. Feel free to come to the specified address from 12:30-3:30pm, and to the corner of Main and Belvidere at Monroe Park from 4-4:45pm. 2005 Barton Avenue!

There will be dogs at the cooking site, which is not wheelchair accessible, and lacks central heat, so dress warmly. Kids are welcome, provided they are supervised. Here is more information regarding accessibility and allergies: http://wingnutrva.org/2012/12/15/accessibilityallergies-at-the-wingnut/ .

Greeting Days will be held on the 3rd Sunday of each month. If you miss this one, there will be more!

RVA Food Not Bombs October 2012 Can Drive

From: http://www.active-rva.tumblr.com

RVA Food Not Bombs October 2012 Can Drive

Food Not Bombs is calling for canned vegan vegetables to replenish their pantry. The drive lasts from today until Halloween.

There are three dropoff locations for canned goods, for now:

1. The Wingnut Anarchist Collective, at 2005 Barton Avenue. Leave the cans in the provided container on the stairs. This location is not wheelchair/mobility accessible.

2. Crenshaw House, at 919 West Franklin Street. There is a box immediately inside the door, clearly marked with a bright gold poster with an arrow. This location is also not wheelchair/mobility accessible. (The GSEX team, who helped get this lined up, has a Tumblr here.)

3. The VCU Office of Multiculturalism and Student Affairs, on the second floor of the Monroe Park VCU Student Commons. The box is bright red and marked with a poster, and immediately inside the office. The office itself is also marked with a bright gold poster, designating the spot a dropoff location. This location IS wheelchair/mobility accessible, by elevator.

If you know of another place that might be open to hosting a donation box, please message this Tumblr- especially if the location is further from VCU campus, and/or accessible.

Some good canned items to donate are: black, kidney, white, and pinto beans, tomatoes, peaches, corn, and tomato sauce. Every meal is vegan, so please check labels (especially for seasoned beans) to make sure there’s no meat, dairy, or egg products in the cans.

While Food Not Bombs prepares the bulk of each meal from fresh foods that grocery stores would otherwise throw away, sometimes non-perishable items are needed to augment the meal- and sometimes, a pickup is small or doesn’t come through. Food Not Bombs can also be called upon to cater for events; for example, FNB has catered the Virginia People’s Assembly, rePHRAME meetings, and IWW events.

Food Not Bombs cooks every Sunday at 12:30pm at the Wingnut Anarchist Collective (2005 Barton Avenue), and eats at 4:00pm in Monroe Park, at the intersection of Main and Belvidere streets. Everyone is welcome for either or both.

Results from June SBH Mobile Food Pantry

Our numbers for the June 2011 Southern Barton Heights Mobile Food Pantry have been counted.

On Saturday, June 11th, we gave out individual food portions to 191 people!

They represented the households of 140 adults, 157 children, and 56 seniors!

We also made deliveries to six households in our area for people who are elderly, disabled, or otherwise unable to attend the food pantry or carry all the food home with them.

We’re getting our system down to a science, increasing our ability to reach out to and fulfill this basic necessity for families in our area. However, there is a clear need for similar programs in different areas of the city as well; every month we meet people from throughout Richmond and beyond who come to the mobile food pantry in Southern Barton Heights.

Fortunately, setting up a Mobile Food Pantry in your area is really easy! To start one in your area, contact Warren Hammonds (whammonds@feedmore.org) of the Central VA Food Bank. It’s very easy to start one! All you need are a location, a handful of volunteers to hand out the food, and a method for voucher distribution: here we deliver them by bicycle, but other groups distribute them via faith centers, community service and neighborhood associations, or other means.

To get a voucher for the Southern Barton Heights Mobile Food Pantry, just give us a call at (804) 303-5449 and we’ll put you on our delivery list!

April Southern Barton Heights Mobile Food Pantry Results

On Saturday April 9 we had the Southern Barton Heights Mobile Food Pantry. The Central VA Food Bank brought food to the neighborhood and the Wingnut and a few volunteers handed out food.

Of 175 vouchers given out, 112 were brought to the event and 68 people joined us without a voucher.

Those who attended represented 187 Seniors in our area, 213 children, and 267 adults.

In addition to distributing food at the Mobile Food Pantry, we have started to deliver food to those elders or disabled people in our area for whom coming out and carrying about three grocery bags packed full of food is too burdensome. We made 7 deliveries this month.

The total amount of those represented was 667 people.

Vouchers for the May food pantry were given to anyone who had already been delivered a voucher for April. Those without vouchers were added to the May delivery list; anyone within the delivery range will be given a voucher. Those who fall outside of it (again) will be contacted to pick one up after residents of Southern Barton Heights and the surrounding area receive theirs.

For information on how to start a Mobile Food Pantry in your area, contact Warren Hammonds (whammonds@feedmore.org) of the Central VA Food Bank. It’s very easy to start one! All you need are a location, volunteers to hand out the food, and a method for voucher distribution: here we deliver, but other groups distribute them via faith centers, community service and neighborhood associations, or other organizations.

To get a voucher for the Southern Barton Heights Mobile Food Pantry, just give us a call at (804) 303-5449 and we’ll put you on our voucher delivery list!

Febuary Mobile Food Pantry Results

On Saturday February 12, the Food Bank Mobile Food Pantry brought food the neighborhood (as they do every second Saturday of the month).  The Wingnut handed out 175 vouchers for the event, and though the turnout for the event was lower then previous months, the total amount of people represented was higher.

Of 175 vouchers given out, 132 were brought to the event.

Those who attended represented 118 Seniors in our area, 310 children, and 314 adults.

Total amount of those represented was 742 people.

Vouchers for the March food pantry were given to anyone who had already been delivered a voucher for February. Those without vouchers were added to the March delivery list; anyone within the delivery range will be given a voucher. Those who fall outside of it (again) will be contacted to pick one up after residents of Southern Barton Heights and the surrounding area receive theirs.

For information on how to start a Mobile Food Pantry in your area, contact Warren Hammonds (whammonds@feedmore.org) of the Central VA Food Bank. It’s very easy to start one! All you need are a location, volunteers to hand out the food, and a method for voucher distribution: here we deliver, but other groups distribute them via faith centers, community service and neighborhood associations, or other organizations.

To get a voucher for the Southern Barton Heights Mobile Food Pantry, just give us a call at (804) 303-5449 and we’ll put you on our delivery schedule!