On Thursday June 10th, a newly formed chapter of Food Not Bombs in the Diablo valley area attempted to serve food at the Concord farmers market in the Todos Santos plaza. Prior to the serving of food, the group was confronted by the health department and the police which told members of the group not to serve the meal. Due to the presence of hungry individuals and families at the park, the group decided to set up and begin serving despite instructions by the authorities not to. After serving around 30-40 people and with about 50 people waiting in line, the Contra Costa Health Department with the assistance of the Concord Police Department ordered the group to cease operations and confiscated all of the group's remaining food and supplies. The authorities used lack of permits and violations of health codes to justify their actions. As hungry people walked away with plates full of food, the police proceeded to take their plates and ordered them to leave. The police also began to yell and push individuals that were trying to save what was left. They ordered them to leave the park stating they were causing a "disturbance" and threatened them with arrest even though the individuals were simply serving free food and constituted no threat to the public. Diablo Food Not Bombs maintains the only threat the group posed was to the business interests of the overpriced vendors and the gentrified downtown area of Concord, in which the serving of free food might undermine profit margins, even though the people being fed could not afford the expensive food in the first place. Also those who have effectively shut out the issue of American poverty in their minds would then have to see and mingle with the homeless, underprivileged and starving. The only threat Diablo Food Not Bombs poses is a threat to the status quo of hunger in our area. The city of Concord is obviously not doing enough about those deprived of food in our community and instead subdues efforts of ordinary people who try to feed them. If the city truly wants to make the farmers market a community event, it would be inclusive of all people, especially those trying to help others out directly, instead of spending tax payer dollars and city resources to repress them. The Health Department is currently holding the cookware and supplies that were taken and will not release them until the group signs a document saying that they will not serve food in the future without a permit. Diablo Food not Bombs states that given their current capacity, they cannot meet the unfeasibly enormous financial and facility permit requirements set by the city ordinance and the county health code, and they will not just wait around or go through bureaucratic motions while there are people in our community that are in need of food. DIABLO FOOD NOT BOMBS IS CALLING A BAY WIDE ACTION NEXT THURSDAY JUNE 17th IN TODOS SANTOS PARK, CONCORD AT 4:30pm. COME DEFEND THE HUMAN RIGHT TO FOOD!!!
for photos see indybay.
this isnt the first time concord has had a food not bombs group, and i believe at least one of the people who started chico food not bombs was from concord. go concord!
Our Environmental Health Division did have to stop the distribution of food by Food Not Bombs last week at the Concord farmers market because the group didn’t have a permit to serve food at the market and they didn’t use an approved kitchen to prepare the food. You are right that there are people in Concord and around the county that do not have enough food, including many families. People deserve enough, safe food. It is important that all food provided to every resident be handled safely and be safe to eat. We work with churches, food pantries and restaurants to train staff in safe food handling to be sure that they can carry out their best intentions and protect the health and well being of the community. That’s why it is so important for any organization that serves food to have a permit - that helps us do our job to protect everyone’s health. And nonprofits are exempt from paying the fees for permits. We did release the equipment back to Food Not Bombs and they signed a form that indicates they will follow the California Retail Food Code. We support any effort to help people who are homeless and there are many organizations in Contra Costa that work with the homelesss community and some of them provide food. These food pantries all need more resources and we urge residents to support these agencies, such as Loaves and Fishes and the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano. 211 also is a great source of information.
ReplyDeleteThere is some substantially incorrect information here. The people of the City of Concord with the cooperation of the Farmers Market vendors have been supplying the food pantry's and food banks and the fundraisers with quite factually TONS of food. I believe that Anna Chan's efforts alone has done 45 Tons in last 16 months. I have started a similar gleaning effort with the Rotary clubs and we are moving along though we are concentrating on home owners excess fruit. I have also worked with the Monument Community Partnership which gets some help from the City in their urban farming projects, and has started garden plots in places like Lakeside apartments.
ReplyDeleteIn the City there has just opened a major facility of a transition for homeless from emergency room care so that they are not tossed out on the street immediately after medical emergency's.
Additionally if they had done some research on the Farmers Market they would have found that there are 3 to 4 organizations such as the Monument Crisis Center, Share and Anna that are getting support from the farmers there who are themselves struggling in many aspects to deal with the corporate food chains to provide a valued service to the City.
There are Farmers' Markets which have no one working with them and could be approached and a POSITIVE relationship established if the FNB wanted to channel their efforts in that direction.
The confrontational rather than cooperative nature of this group from Berkley does not do their cause well nor does calling police pigs.
If you wish to contact me directly (and I have some separate issues to discuss with the blog author) write to me
EdiBirsan AT astound DOT Net
www.PulseOfConcord.com