From Nairobi, Kenya to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia - Traveling FNB Tales from Keith McHenry

About a month ago, Keith McHenry, one of the co-founders of the international Food Not Bombs movement, came to visit our local chapter for the Long Island Food Not Bombs Thanksgiving Bonanza. It was the largest Food Not Bombs ever and it was incredible having Keith join us for the festivities. He is a huge inspiration to us all, so we figured we share some of his work with all of you.

After Keith's visit to LIFNB he headed across the globe to Kenya & Ethiopia to help aid and promote grassroots hunger relief efforts. The following is are letters and notes he's sent back from his travels.

"Report on Nairobi Food Not Bombs and Keith's trip so far"
written by Keith McHenry on Tuesday, December 7, 2010

My visit to Nairobi has been more successful then I had expected. Our coordinator Douglas Rori made his room in Mountain View available to me for the week. We started our week with a meeting at the Artcafe in Westland. Doug told me that it would be wise to register as an NGO and that he would provide me with a copy of the requirements. He calculated the fees for the registration, money needed to secure a bank account and mail box would total $700 U.S. dollars. We saw that the café baked their own bread s we talked with the manager and set up a time to pick up their unsold bread. After the meeting we bought the food for Saturday’s meal at the community center Shangilia Youth 2 Youth Network in the Kiblgare, Kingemi slum in Nairobi. The rice, beans, oil, two large plastic buckets, large cooking pot, and other items costing 4,000 shillings or $50 U.S. dollars. That evening we soaked and cooked the beans. The city water was cut off to our area of Nairobi soon after we started the beans so we were lucky.

Early the next morning Doug and I reheated the beans, cooked a cabbage and tomato dish and a huge pot of rice. Doug had to get additional water from a storage tank near his mother’s home. Doug called a taxi and let the community center know we were about to leave. He also called a photographer. The taxi took us to Artcafe where the employees provided us with a large bag of artisan bread. Then we headed out to the community center. The road through the “commercial” district of the slum was very rough. Once at the community center we were greeted by the staff, a camera man from Film Aid and our photographer. The staff announced the meeting. Around 100 children and teenagers pushed into the center. The staff helped us bring the food to a back room and we posted the banners and place out the literature. Doug introduce me to the children and staff and I told them a little about Food Not Bombs then we set out a table and brought out the rice, beans, vegetable stew and bread from the library. The staff directed everyone to get in line and we recruited volunteers to help share the food. The youth glowed with huge smiles and sparkling eyes which were so heart warming. We shared the last of the food after about half an hour. We had enough for everyone that attended. There was very little pushing and shoving but it was clear towards the end that some of the children were worried we would run out. The last couple of kids didn’t get as much as I would have liked to share with them. We visited with the children as they played outside after eating. In the past Doug would teach classes on photography and journalism after sharing the meal so I let the kids use my camera to take pictures.

Nairobi Food Not Bombs started in 2007 and has been providing meals to young people in several poor areas of the city before teaching classes in community journalism. {edit note: you can read more about Nairobi Food Not Bombs here}Douglas Rori has been the coordinator since the start of Nairobi Food Not Bombs and has made many connections with local community leaders in some of Nairobi’s poorest areas. His students have submitted a number of articles and photographs about the life in the slums of Nairobi to Indykids in New York inspiring the children he has been teaching and feeding to have greater self respect. One of the children’s articles reported on a story about how people collect trash bags from the city dump. Empty the garbage and wash the trash bags in the Nairobi River.

Later that afternoon we packed up our banners, literature and equipment, packed the taxi and returned to Mountain View to clean the dishes and cooking equipment. We had to be careful with to use our water as efficiently as possible. We paid the taxi driver 4,000 shillings for the trip through Nairobi.

We relaxed on Sunday morning and then that afternoon we visited with Liladhar Bharadia, the director of The Vegetarian Society of Kenya at the Artcafe. Mr. Bharada gave us a tour of the Visa Oshawal Religious Center and introduced Doug and I to their director and kitchen staff. Mr. Bharadia also gave us documents about the Vegetarian Congress in Nairobi to be held on December 18th and the Middle Eastern Vegetarian Conference being held on December 7th and 8th.

The next day we headed out to meet the Catherine Mugo Marketing Director of one of Kenya’s largest groceries Nakumatt. We also met with Ameet Shah and other staff members to talk about regular donations of food. Catherine explained that their food was divided into cereals and produce. The company Fresh and Juicy provided all the produce. They were very helpful and asked us to email them to share a bit about our history and needs. We received a call from the director of the Nairobi International School telling us that they had extra food so we agreed to pick it up at noon. Doug called our taxi. We went to a bank where I withdrew more money and we rushed to meet our taxi. We drove to the Nairobi International School. The school donated about 100 paper bags of food and a box of bananas. We stopped at Doug’s house, picked up banners and a camera. We rushed to the community center where we were treated to acrobatic tricks by the children as we waited for the staff to bring the key. They arrived soon so we posted our banners, set up the chairs and table for the food. We recruited a volunteer to help share the bagged lunches and the staff organized the youth to get in line. The kids were once again so kind and eager to get their meal. We had even more then required so that was put aside and Doug and I returned with the taxi to Westland to get some American money for the visa to Addis Ababa. Nairobi Food Not Bombs is able to continue to provide vegan meals every Saturday before their educational workshop rotating each week from one slum to another returning once a month to each location. The week long visit with Nairobi Food Not Bombs and Douglas was a huge success.

"Ethiopian Vegan Association Conference held in Addis Ababa Dec/9/2010"
written by Keith McHenry on Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Hi Everyone,

Just got back from Ethiopia where I attended the first ever Ethiopian Vegan Association coming out conference on December 9, 2010. About 60 people attended including members of parliament, the Ethiopian EPA,environmentalists and representatives of various NGO'S, Ethiopian news media. We even had one person from the ministry of agriculture and one person from the federal government to make sure we were not trying to do anything contrary to the laws of the land. During our debates our two guests who came to check on us debated us fiercely about the consequences of intensive animal agriculture on the environment, Although they left unconvinced, they left being much nicer than when they came. I, Keith McHenry the co - founder of Food not Bombs and two of the EVA executive board members gave presentations. We had lively and at times heated discussions. Afterwards we had a scrumptious Vegan meal that all the guests enjoyed. (Check some pictures out here).

Although the number of people that came where not many,those that did come where important. We even made it in the main government newspaper, The Reporter. (I have to say I am pleased with the response by the government so far, hope it continues) Read the newspaper article here.

Later we went to the middle of the city to feed the homeless of Addis Ababa. We fed approximately 100 people. It was exhilarating at the same time sad to see so many people hungry including children who lined up for food to eat that was vegan,clean and very tasty. Please look at the pictures.

We are initially planning to launch a monthly then weekly home less feeding program in Addis Ababa. IFA will financially support and when possible participate in the feeding and EVA will conduct the feeding program. (EVA is legally allowed to feed homeless people in Addis). Obviously the food will be all vegan and our hope is to spread compassion by doing and not by talking.

Our efforts to introduce veganism and a compassionate way of living has started in earnest in Ethiopia and I am very proud and gratified that our efforts and the efforts of the EVA is beginning to bare fruit. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all the organizations that have made this possible including Veg fund, Well - Fed - World and individuals that have supported as all along.

Last but not least thanks to Martin Rowe from Lantern books and Melanie Blake (IFA board member) IFA was able to donate 30 books,a few video's, cassettes to the Ethiopian Vegan Association. The books were presented to the president of EVA the same week we held the conference. Another 30 or so books where sent to the Togo Student Vegan Association the week before, thanks again to the generosity of Martin Rowe from Lantern Books

Anteneh

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has" - Margaret Mead