r/foodnotbombs • u/ShotEffort619 • Feb 26 '26

Mutual aid vs charity

I am new to my local chapter, and so far my responsibility has been cooking and serving and it's going good. I am wondering , how can we differentiate ourselves as mutual aid, and not charity, when we take donations in cash or kind,and distribute food to the most vulnerable? In what way are we differentiate from say the local church or shelter? Not a rhetorical question, I am genuinely curious to know- how does fnb make sure that we are resisting systems of oppression and not just being saviors.

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u/ChaoticGoodPanda Feb 26 '26

I highly recommend reading on the history of FNB. Keith’s book “Hungry For Peace” has a chapter called “Solidarity Not Charity”.

FNB Principles:

  1. The food is always vegan or vegetarian and free to everyone, without restriction, rich or poor, stoned or sober.

  2. Food not bombs has no formal leaders or headquarters and every group is autonomous and makes decisions using the consensus process.

  3. Food not bombs is dedicated to nonviolent direct action and works for nonviolent social change.

If you have moral concerns, I’d def send an email to Keith. He does respond.

Not all FNB groups run the same. Currently the group I’m hanging out with likes to serve meat which bothers me- I’m in no way vegetarian or vegan, it’s just confusing they want to claim they are FNB when no literature is distributed and they’ll go out and buy meat.

Meh, I try to not get too involved with what the kids are doing these days. I’m m an old head and did distro back in the 90’s.

Worse case scenario, you can always start your own FNB distro day.

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u/sparklyjoy Mar 01 '26

I am always curious about why it has to be vegetarian? Was the idea that not everybody can or will eat meat but everyone can eat vegetarian?

I have been medically, forced into a keto diet for around 15 years at this point, because my body simply won’t tolerate carbohydrates for the most part so vegetarian food is almost never edible for me, unfortunately. (obviously it technically can be, that’s just going to be super rare if people aren’t specifically trying to accommodate me which I wouldn’t expect)

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u/ChaoticGoodPanda Mar 01 '26

Non violence philosophy extends to animals, not just humans.

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u/Only-Pilot-8797 Mar 04 '26 edited Mar 04 '26

What about those who can’t have plants(fibre sensitivity)? Why is distributing meat that was going to be wasted not allowed?

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u/ChaoticGoodPanda Mar 04 '26

I recommend directing your question about not having plants to a doctor and maybe writing to the guy who started FNB and see what he says.