Fruit and sandwiches at Berri Square, courtesy of the Montreal chapter of Food not Bombs. The volunteers told me they collect food that would have otherwise been thrown out at the end of the day by local groceries and bakeries. The organization aims to hand out vegan meals about once a week.
Photo taken Jan 11th 2009.
10 comments
Very good effort on their part. If only someone would invest in enlarging their sources of food. Do you have any idea how much food hotels throw every day? It’s actually sickening! All those buffets left over several times a day. We’re talking tons of food every day!
I think it has been estimated that we, as a society, waste 50% of the food that is produced. This includes all stages: production, distribution (food outlets), and consumption.
… 50%! …
Now “that” is sickening! *sigh*
Happy Belly is a McGill University student group that does the same thing as Food Not Bombs and distributes vegan/vegetarian meals for free to students on Thursdays. Thank goodness for groups like these that limit overall food waste by making use of food that would otherwise get trashed, although it is perfectly edible.
I had heard about them and as I am vegan myself I think this is a great way to feed needy people. They have chapters in other cities as well.
Wasn’t there a study about how it’s people who are trying to be anarchists and come from suburbia are more likely to eat out of dumpsters, and that actual real homeless people don’t really do it.
The poor want to be able to buy food themselves and the rich students want to be able to save the poor -looks good on a cv. But I’d like to see how many are freegans in 10 years..
I dunno, Julia. I often see people gleaning at the Jean-Talon Market. What would most stereotypically be seen as either suburban students or “real homeless people” are not among the main clientèle. I see many immigrant people of a certain age, of many origins, who obviously know how to cook and have at least a room and a hotplate.
And while I certainly don’t live that way, I’m certainly not averse to salvaging some hothouse-grown herbs with a few yellow leaves or a head of Provence garlic with a bulb gone soft. Why not?
Students are not typically “rich”, though their poverty may be transient. Not all of suburbia is wealthy either.
In ten years; I doubt many of them will be freegans, but a lot will remain committed to social justice, which is not charity or “helping” the poor.
My problem with this initiative lies elsewhere: do the homeless really want to be vegan? Sure I see the hygiene problems with salvaging meat products or even cheese, but there should be some kind of no-fault provision for gifts from hotels, against libel chill.
I was working at a conference in Québec City (on social issues here and abroad). There was far too much food and especially a lot of leftover cut-up cheese. I wanted us to take it to a spot where homeless congregate, but it was not possible due to possible liability. So some of us took cut-up cheese home to cook with, but it would have been far better to provide protein and, yes, fat, to people surviving in very cold weather.
In any event, our society’s wastage of food is criminal.
My only problem with FNB’s and similar efforts is, like Maria’s comment, the imposition of a vegan agenda onto the homeless. It may be logically and ethically impeccable, but one revolution at a time, please. Their first need is to have calorie-rich (fat & high-protein, esp.) food to help them stay warm outdoors. And the homeless I’ve talked to the past (mostly in San Francisco where I lived a long time, where Food Not Bombs was constantly getting arrested by the police) disliked being preached to in any form – and being given only vegan meals is a form of that. I wouldn’t expect vegan activists to deal with meat, but cheeses at least could be included – you can hold your noses, so to speak, and think “eewww – milk causes mucus” or whatever, and let the homeless decide whether they want to have that calorie-rich food.
I agree with Kai and Maria that most homeless and hungry people may not prefer vegan. But on the other hand, I volunteer at Dans la Rue where they offer exclusively Hot dogs (with a veggie dog option) 5 days per week. Its cheap and its what gets the kids to come in and learn about the service. If we have a donation of fruit some people will be thrilled and others will turn up their noses. In short, no harm in this organization offering a vegan – probably healthier – option. I think people like to have options, even if they don’t all like all the options.
I don’t see how offering free, meat/dairy free food to people is “imposing the vegan agenda” on anyone. If FNB was explicitly preaching veganism or not letting non-vegans eat their food then I can see how it could be seen that way, otherwise, they’re just giving out food that happens not to have meat or dairy in it. For example, the noodle shop on St-Laurent and des Pins, with their noodles with peanut sauce is de facto vegan food but nobody accuses them of forcing veganism on anyone.
I used to work with FNB when I lived in Fredericton and while a few people would complain that there was no meat in the food, most were happy to get a free, healthy meal. Nobody accused us of trying to force people to become vegan just by giving out a free meal.
Alanah and Chris, I certainly have no intention of putting down this initiative. I’m glad the FNB people have taken matters into their own hands, when there is so little out there for people who have fallen through the cracks.
Friends of mine found an entire flat of raspberries at the Jean-Talon Market. Not mouldy or anything; perhaps a bit soft. And that is what we can see. Look at the dazzling display of fruits and vegetables, for example at Loblaws. Not all of that gets eaten. Another friend pointed out something sadder still – this is also true of the meat and fish. So creatures were reared and killed, not even to be eaten, but to create a dazzling image of abundance that seemingly makes people buy.
a very good effort
Regards,
RecipezWorld