Dumpstering can be a good source

I just started learning about mutual aid programs. I'm also looking to get something started in Lorain county, and can't find a website/Facebook or any info of a chapter already existing. I'm going to keep digging in and can post an update when I have one.

That's lovely. I hope yall get all the help you need and do big things for your community!! Thank you for the replies 🤍🤍

we’re still working on that part lol but we have the help of some of our local collectives so we had a benefit show to collect food/cash donations :)

Thank you for the reply🤍! Have yall found good places to get food without buying it?

from Worcester MA chapter. we just had our first cook/distro, and it really is “if you build it they will come.” we started off with a group chat of like 10 people, but after we got the word out on signal/social media our membership increased x4. the best way to start is with a handful of friends, a fold up table, and a big fuckin pot of soup.

Post in a NH group if you haven't already! Portsmouth could still be the place.

Hey, you still doing this in Oklahoma?

Thank you so much for your reply! I will be using this advice to do great things for my city soon🤍

I didn’t help start my branch but I did try and start one before i found that we already had one. this is Australia btw

Get some likeminded friends together, contact your local shops and see if they are willing to give you stuff thats past best before or stuff they are about to throw out. If you can’t find anyone, you may have to do bin diving (after you get past the fact that you are in a bin, it’s actually quite fun). You might also need bigger pots and stuff if you are cooking for a lot of people.

Organise a regular place to prepare and cool. We use a local food co-ops kitchen but some places use churches, personal kitchens, or even just on the location.

Try and have signage and literature out, otherwise people might think you are a church group. Have brochures and pamphlets for potential recruits, its also just a solid conversation starter. We’ve had people who would disagree with us politically admit that they are impressed with our work.

Good luck, the start is going to be a bit tough but you can do it.

hey! i know this is an old post but i am looking to get more involved in leftist organizing in my college town near lorain, and i'm wondering if you could tell me more about if this new chapter ever came to fruition. and if you have any other resources for getting involved in direct action in the area? i would love any recommendations/advice !

yeah looks like they are defunct. anyone keen to re-start an LA chapter? kinda sad that such a big city doesn't even have an active FNB.

Found this after looking around online for FnB Joliet information. Have you two spoken? I'm also looking to see it revived in Joliet. Let me know

Speaking for Orlando chapter.

1) We will use meat/ animal products if it was donated to the cause and we know it's safe to prepare, in order to prevent food waste. We do not ourselves seek out meat/ animal products to use, but won't turn it away when it's offered.

2) Sometimes, although to the extent possible, we try to stretch what food we can get through other means.

3) Yes in one case, it allowed us to get access to basically 3 shopping carts full of bread and baked goods every week which otherwise would have gone into an industrial trash compactor.

On each of these, we took a consensus vote among our group and decided that the principles are useful guides, but these deviations still fell within the purview of the core mission. It enables us to not only better provide food, but to better illustrate food waste and educate people about it and demand change.

Simply the act of feeding the unhoused here in Florida is very subversive. The state considers it "encouraging" or "enabling" them. We have to deal with feral hogs trying to disrupt our activities pretty regularly. I imagine in some states it's easier. The state has recently criminalized camping in public spaces, and tightened up laws about camping in private spaces, so now it's de-facto illegal to be unhoused in the state.

Each chapter is going to function a bit differently based on the needs of their community and the conditions of their area. Best we can do is offer suggestions, but I think it's unproductive to try to purity test people when they're contributing to the core mission.

If you keep the homeless in mind, especially during cold weather. Know they need high calorie food like butter, cheese, and pork. Vegan is trending, but butter fat keeps a homeless man from freezing to death. I know it's hippie cool to talk vegan, but thise people need a lot of animal fat.

My chapter has not served meat as far as I can remember. We do occasionally serve dairy, either in a hot dish or in a shelf stable form of the groceries we distribute (eg boxed macaroni and cheese).

We shop at grocery stores if we decide we need to supplement our weekly donations or if we're missing a couple ingredients for the shared dish. It's not a regular occurrence, but it still happens.

We do not have a tax ID number.

If you're more focused on the subversion than the aid, I have to ask if you're in this for the right reasons? The point is to take care of our community. The protest is to prove that strong community ties are stronger than the government, that connection with one another on a local level holds more power than any public office or legislation that tries to speak for all communities with one voice.

If we have the resources to buy some produce/pasta/rice/idgaf what else, if we've received such a surplus of monetary donations that we are able to supplement our donated food with store-bought food, especially in the winter when food donations are a little tighter and bellies are a little emptier, why should we not prioritize the health and safety of our comrades, just bc IDEALLY we want to redistribute food that would otherwise become waste?

Our chapter in Vancouver got a bunch of sandwich wrapping papers donated and we've been using that to wrap our breads and sandwiches.

biodegradable baking paper

tinfoil. or wax mf paper

We're trying to get a chapter off the ground where I'm at, and there's a few vocal people who are so resistant to reaching out and gathering donations period. My partner is doing all that work networking and getting local farmers and grocers on board, and completely being dismissed in favor of jumping straight into "potluck" meals even though we have like 6 active volunteers and have only had two meetings. One of these people even insisted we should do away with meetings all together and is always fighting us when we bring up the FNB principles. It's really disheartening.

yo! we hold our shares weekly, every sunday at the exact same time, so people know and wait for us at the share site. there are usually 20-40 people each week, but it can really vary. we always provide everyone at least a portion of food, a cup of tea/coffee, bread and a simple dessert like cookies or brownies. sometimes we give everything away, sometimes we've even got food left.

local community isn't triggered by as at all, because we hold our shares in a pretty covert square not so far away from a big train station. authorities presses our guys once, right after the war started, but no one is doing it anymore for us. actually, yesterday they arrested 4 guys during their share in Ekaterinburg, but everyone's OK after all.

i've been doing FNB for like one and a half years now, though i joined our chapter this spring. actually, we're currently the only chapter in Moscow, because the other one shut down after problems with the police caused disorganization in their chapter. our chapter has existed for like 6 years at this point.

the main obstacle is organisation itself, i think you get it:) though we've got somewhat of an algorithm, sometimes it's still quite rough, especially when we're invited to provide food for different events.

that's quite everything, i guess, but feel free to ask for elaboration of anything!

Yeah it's not talked about as much as it should. Really fucking inspiring.

Hey there!

How often do y'all do shares?
How many folks do you serve, on average?
Are your shares accepted by the local community & authorities, or do you face opposition/restrictions?
How long have you been doing FNB? How long has the group been doing it?
What is y'alls biggest obstacle right now?
Is there anything in particular you want the rest of us to know about being in an FNB chapter in Moscow?

"Something I really love is during the George Floyd uprising in Philly, anarchists and homeless organizers squatted some houses owned by the City and were able to get the City to give them 69 homes for free for homeless folks to live in".

hfs thats so based. how had we not known in our group.