If you want to get involved in mutual aid, you do not need to join our group, you can contribute by showing up at our events and lending a hand in whatever capacity you are capable of. You can also help by sharing your excess resources, sharing our social media posts, picking up food and dropping it to a community fridge, volunteering with one of our labor blocs, showing up at an event to support us and eat, etc.
If you want to help co-organize it will mean making decisions together as to how best to use our collective resources to have the maximum impact in our community. This will require some way to coordinate with us. A good first step to building that relationship is by showing up in person at a few events so we can talk with you about how you want to get involved.
We organize on Signal, to join us please download the Signal messaging app and follow this link to our vetting chat.
Below is a list of the current projects, what we playfully call ‘Blocs’, which are currently looking for help. Below that Food Not Bombs National has a helpful list of ways you can do this work in your own community with or without our help. We will truly need everyone in this struggle and whatever your skill or passion is we can find a place for it.
Labor Blocs currently looking for volunteers:
There are so many ways to get involved with mutual aid and in the movement at large. We will truly need everyone doing everything they can if we are going to build another world. The most sustainable work is the work that brings you the most joy. By centering our work in a militant and unrelenting joy, we can avoid the burnout phase of most so called activism and hopefully push through to a revolutionary way of life. This way we integrate these actions into our daily lives and stop thinking of it as activism or hobby and start viewing it as a way of life. So look through our various labor blocs and select (or create) one that suits your needs and desires. We have some blocs here that are more open than others and we will work on vetting procedures for those blocs requiring more security and training for those requiring more knowledge.
If there is any confusion please reach out to us for clarification. The intention here is to show that there is room for everyone in this work, no matter how small or occasional your capacity is, it is all invaluable. We started by laying out our most pressing needs but there is no end to the potential blocs we could add if you see something we missed.
For the most sensitive blocs, such as law or medic, we can offer participants with security concerns all the training and know-how to act entirely anonymously so as to feel safe in contributing their work to this cause. There is absolutely no need to worry about jeopardizing your professional license. There should be no barriers to entry so if you can think of a way to make this even more accessible don’t hesitate to reach out. It is our labor that produces the world, let us do it with intention and care.
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A list from Food Not Bombs National on more ways that anyone can volunteer wherever they are:
- Visit local groceries, bakeries and markets to schedule the recovery of their surplus food.
- Recover unsold food from grocery stores, bakeries, produce markets, food producers and farms.
- Deliver surplus produce and bake goods to local Food Not Bombs, shelters, and food programs.
- Clean, cut and cook the recovered produce, grains and other ingredient to make vegan meals to share on the streets, at tables, and at protests.
- Collect cooking and serving equipment or other supplies to help your local Food Not Bombs group.
- Help set up the food, literature, tables, and banner at the meals.
- Help share the prepared food at the meals.
- Wash the plates, silverware, pots, pans, cooking equipment and the kitchen where the meals were prepared.
- Make sure your meal location is clean and free of litter.
- Help load and unload your food deliveries.
- Write, illustrate, design and print flyers about the work your local Food Not Bombs is supporting.
- Staff the literature distro at the regular Food Not Bombs meals.
- Design and paint banners and signs to display at your meals.
- Post flyers at cafes, book stores, schools, laundry mats, libraries, groceries, bakeries, music shops and any place people will read and enjoy them.
- Organize a benefit concert or other event to bring awareness to your local Food Not Bombs or mutual aid group.
- Build bike carts to help collect and deliver the food, dishes. literature and banners.
- Organize music, puppet shows or other cultural events at your regular meals.
- Participate in the meetings of other organizations, unions or other activist groups to find out how your chapter can offer support.
- Help organize a Really Really Free Market, Food Not Lawns community garden, seed bank, Bikes Not Bombs repair day, Homes Not Jails housing take over or other project and produce a flyer to promote the project at your regular meal.
- Organize a movie night, concert, play, puppet show or other events to introduce more people to the work of your Food Not Bombs group.
- Write letters to our political prisoners. Visit Anarchist Black Cross to learn more and find their addresses.
- Help organize a protest, occupation or other action.
- Make sprouts and bring them to the meal.
- Make a solar oven to bake bread at the regular meals.
- Walk around the area before your meal and invite people to join you. You can hand out a quarter page flyer to each person with the day, time and location of your meal. This will help you share food with more people.
- Organize a presentation by Food Not Bombs co-founder Keith McHenry at your local college, bookstore, cafe or community center.