City Attorney Threatens Food Not Bombs; Emergency Meeting 5 PM Friday

SHARING FOOD IS ALWAYS AN UNREGULATED ACT OF COMPASSION

As you can see city spokes person Elizabeth Smith is not factual about a number of points and Grace [the writer of the Lookout article] also got a few thing incorrect.

I do not think anyone in Food Not Bombs is interested in having a conflict with the city. There are very sound reasons why the Food Not Bombs movement maintains its autonomy from the government, principles that are more important today than at any other time in our 42 year history considering the political and economic crisis being facilitated by the corporate state.

Thankfully Food Not Bombs has much greater support from the community than the loud voices of hate by those who have the ear of the city.


CORRECTING THE MISINFORMATION IN THIS ARTICLE

St Francis is not yet providing their weekday hot meals and Grey Bears provides groceries out of town a few blocks past Dominican Hospital.

We already get much of our food from Second Harvest a pallet of which we deliver every week to the kitchens at the Benchlands and Second Harvest does not provide hot meals. They provide bulk food for agencies to prepare or distribute.

This is a small thing but we are a global movement not a national movement with chapters in at least 1,000 cities in 65 or more countries.

We are not a charity like Grey Bears or St Francis, we are a movement for social change. With threats of another war, Biden's request for another $770,000,000,000 military budget and the huge increase in poverty and hunger it has never been more important to have our visible daily protest and the Town Clock is the traditional location for such First Amendment activities.

The kitchen has a permit which we support as a courtesy to the church but we have a global policy of never requesting or accepting permission to share meals with the hungry which is unrelated to having a commercial kitchen permit.

Grace wrote "He also did not explain how it squares with city statements that Food Not Bombs did, in fact, have permits at one point — and currently has one with the county." We have never had any permits to share meals or hold a protest at any point.

She seems to have not understood what I was saying. Again we have NEVER had a permit from the city. I explained to her Food Not Bombs would never get a "Limited Service Charitable Feeding Operation Permit" and the county is not requiring such a permit from Food Not Bombs.

I told her of our statewide Food Not Bombs gathering in Oakland where we agreed that we would never request of accept the a "Limited Service Charitable Feeding Operation Permit" from any county. I also explained the history and why we would never accept or request this permit and how we worked in coalition with other food programs in an effort to stop the state law from being introduced and passed.

This statement by Smith is not correct "Smith said McHenry and city officials were in talks for a permit to serve food at San Lorenzo Park in February 2020, but that he withdrew the request."

Again we have NEVER requested a permit from the city ever and we were happy sharing meals every weekend at the post office in February 2020 and would have never asked for a permit to share meals in San Lorenzo Park. We started sharing meals every day starting March 14, 2020 at the Town Clock when we learned that the weekday St Francis and the meal at Louden Nelson would be closed due to the COVID-19 lockdown.

I encourage Grace to correct these points in the story and report on the reasons behind our global policy. Some of the history and ideas that inform our principles can be found in the book "Hungry for Peace."

Thanks for your support and interest.

Keith McHenry

575-770-3377

‘A shift in what will be tolerated’: It’s a Clock Tower standoff between city, Food Not Bombs over permits


The What:
On Thursday, the Santa Cruz City Attorney’s office sent a cease and desist letter to Food Not Bombs, a food distribution organization that’s held pop-up meal services for those in need locally for years — but, for at least the last 23 months, without permits.

The So What:
This isn’t the first time the organization, led by Keith McHenry, has had to address concerns from the city of Santa Cruz.

Earlier this year, the group moved from the city-leased Lot 27 at Laurel and Front streets — where they had been serving food on-and-off since the start of the pandemic — due to an underground water-line construction project. They then set up a few blocks away nearby on Lot 22, near University Copy, before moving to the city park at Town Clock on Jan. 26.

According to city officials, the operation has taken up the majority of the area surrounding the Town Clock since it began its operations, leading to congestion for both pedestrians and traffic.

City officials said the group has had permits in the past, but hasn’t had them for the last several years, with the group only recently obtaining a permit from the County Department of Environmental Health for food preparation. City spokesperson Elizabeth Smith said that while the city allowed Food Not Bombs to operate at Laurel and Front because of the services it provides, the city has now changed its plans.

“The city is going to expect that Food Not Bombs operate under the rules and regulations and guidelines that any other organization within the city would be required to do,” she said.

For instance, she said, other community groups that feed the needy — like Saint Francis Soup Kitchen and Grey Bears — do so from their own facilities and are already permitted to do so.

“There is a shift in what will be tolerated within the city, as it relates to permitting and lack of permitting and operations on public property,” Smith said. “What you’ll see, I think, as we go forward is more management of that situation than in the past.”

McHenry was combative in his response.
“We’ve never missed a meal any day, since March 14, 2020,” he said, referencing the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. “We don’t need to seek permission from a city that refuses to make sure its residents are fed.”

Backgrounder:
Co-founded by McHenry in 1980, Food Not Bombs is a loose-knit group of independent collectives nationwide, providing free vegan and vegetarian food to the hungry. McHenry has said the team serves between 150 to 200 hot meals per day, seven days per week.

But according to the letter from Deputy City Attorney Cassie Bronson, the organization does not have two required permits:

• A Limited Service Charitable Feeding Operation Permit with the county
• A Public Gathering and Expression Event Permit from the city

When asked about this, McHenry responded: “We have a global policy against accepting and receiving permits from governments.”

He did not respond to questions about how such a stance inevitably leads to such conflicts, as the current one, with government officials. He also did not explain how it squares with city statements that Food Not Bombs did, in fact, have permits at one point — and currently has one with the county.

Smith said McHenry and city officials were in talks for a permit to serve food at San Lorenzo Park in February 2020, but that he withdrew the request.

Currently, Smith said, the organization has a permit from the county’s Department of Environmental Health for food preparation — which it does in the kitchen of the Calvary Church downtown — but has refused to take the steps to get the additional required two permits.

“We’re asking Keith to abide by the rules that any other organization in the city would abide by,” she said. “It’s unfortunate that he’s expressed that he’s not willing to participate in the [free] permitting process…the purpose of the permitting process is to make sure that health and safety are upheld for not only the people participating in any events held on city property, but also for the surrounding neighborhoods.”

Other organizations that serve food and follow the rules:

According to Smith, City Manager Matt Huffaker has been in discussions this week with the Santa Cruz County branch of Second Harvest — and other food distribution agencies that are willing to pull the necessary permits — to talk about ramping up their contributions within the city.

“We want to make sure that, if Food Not Bombs doesn’t get its
appropriate permits, that there are organizations and resources for folks to fill to fill that space,” Smith said. “We’re not at the point of a program yet.”


What’s Next:
McHenry said he has no plans to move, with his goal to continue to feed people every day from the current location at the Clock Tower.

“There’s no way that a government has any right to control the people who are actually providing the resources needed to keep the community together,” he said.

While San Lorenzo Park has been offered as a location previously, McHenry has no interest in serving the daily meal from the Benchlands: “Our purpose is to communicate with the general public and put a human face on the unhoused.”

Smith is unsure of the next steps, but said that, if the group does not respond to the city’s letter within a week with a clear intent to obtain permits, they will likely be given a second notice to vacate.

NORSE'S NOTE:
If you're willing to pay $200 a year, you can unlock the same story at https://lookout.co/santacruz/city-life/story/2022-02-17/santa-cruz-food-not-bombs-clock-tower-lack-of-permits