Seattle Cracks Down on Food Not Bombs' Meals for the Homeless

Bombs Away
City Cracks Down on Food Not Bombs' Meals for the Homeless
http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Content?oid=592296&hp


by Jonah Spangenthal-Lee

On an unseasonably cold and gloomy Sunday evening, a line of about 50
people stretches across Occidental Park in Pioneer Square. The men
and women in line clutch large plastic trays as a group of about a
dozen volunteers from Food Not Bombs (FNB)—a loosely organized
nationwide group of activists working to feed the homeless—offer up
scoops of vegan mashed potatoes, veggie stir-fry, and guacamole.

Just as the food starts to run out, two parks department trucks roll
into the park. One parks employee starts scribbling down the
license-plate numbers of two volunteers' cars and makes a call.
Minutes later, two Seattle Police Department cars pull up near the
edge of the park.
Stranger Personals

The young FNB volunteers—some with dyed hair, others wearing
Operation Ivy hoodies—are visibly nervous about the police
presence, but say it isn't anything new. Volunteers say that in the
last month, they've repeatedly been shooed out of the park by the
parks department and SPD. Employees for those agencies, in turn, say
the order to crack down on unauthorized meal programs like FNB's came
straight from Mayor Greg Nickels's office. Nickels's spokesman, Alex
Fryer, claims the mayor has not issued any specific edict to crack
down on the meals in Occidental Park. However, he adds that the
crackdowns are "for safety's sake and public health's sake."

The city's response is part of a larger citywide crackdown on
perceived health and safety issues associated with the homeless. In
the past year, city and county workers have torn down encampments
tucked away in greenbelts, shut down another meal program in City
Hall Park, and corralled a number of other homeless meal programs,
including Operation Sack Lunch, onto a lot under the I-5 overpass at
Sixth Avenue and Columbia Street—nearly a mile from the halfway
houses and shelters in Pioneer Square and outside the downtown
ride-free transit zone.

FNB volunteers say the group has no plans to follow other homeless
programs to the city-sanctioned parking lot. The organization, which
started as an antinuclear group in the 1980s and gradually evolved
into an antihunger organization, emphasizes healthy meals that are
easy for homeless people to access. And that's part of what's gotten
them into trouble.

In an April 23 letter to FNB volunteers, the parks department claims
FNB's weekly dinner at Occidental Park is a health and safety hazard
and says the city expects "all organizations" to serve their meals at
"the only approved city site," at Sixth and Columbia. Police officers
say they're concerned about fights in the park. However, one FNB
volunteer named Ozzie (who wanted to be identified by his first name
only) says, "I've seen more fights outside of bars on Pioneer Square"
than in Occidental Park. Nonetheless, Ozzie and several other
volunteers say police and parks officials have threatened them with
parks exclusion citations—barring them from all Seattle parks for
up to a year—if they continue to serve the homeless in Occidental
Park.

The city employees who've been dealing with FNB don't seem terribly
excited at the prospect of writing tickets or issuing citations. One
parks employee bagging up garbage in Occidental Park says he "feel[s]
like a snitch" whenever he has to report FNB, but he's been ordered
to call police any time he sees a group meal in any Seattle park. One
police officer at the park on Sunday apologetically tells a group of
FNB volunteers, "I don't have a problem with it; I just have to let
you know [you can't do it here]."

For now, FNB plans to stay as long as they can. When asked how
important the Occidental Park site is to FNB, Ozzie pauses. "You'd
have to ask hungry people that," he says. "My personal inclination is
that if it's not there, there are some people who aren't going to be
able to eat."

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