2010 Community Meeting Minutes - Feb. 17th, 2010

To everyone that came out for last nights meeting and to all our friends who’ve supported us in the past we'd like to give special thanks.

With so much on our plate it's hard not to feel overwhelmed at times. But with that said, the enthusiasm and eagerness shown by everyone in the Long Island FNB community is inspiring. For all the challenges of the coming year, I feel 2010 will hold our greatest accomplishments yet.

With that said, its time to get to work =) Below you can find the minutes for last nights meeting, including links to forum discussions designed keep these conversations going.

If you’re interested in helping with pickups, collecting clothing, organizing events, etc… please let us know by emailing us (LongIslandFoodNotBombs[at]gmail.com) or calling us at 631.223.4370.

Bests to all the new faces and old friends,

JonSTeps & Long Island Food Not Bombs.

Original Event Flier

Agenda

LIFNB Forum

2010 Community/Planning Meeting

Introductions: (10 minutes)

In attendance: Vinny, Jonathan, Kristin, Joel, Jim, Rose, Charlotte, Christina, Regina, Justin, Janelle, Jodi, Monica, JonSTeps, Mike, Melanie, Arona, Barbara, Doris, Julie, Paula

People with cars who can help with pickups: Vinny, Jonathan, Kristin, Joel, Jim, Rose, Janelle, JonSTeps, Arona, Barbara

Brief Explanation of Consensus: (5 minutes) Lead by Jonathan G.

• - All our meetings are based on Consensus.
• - We do not vote, we all agree on the best course of action.
• - In discussions there is a moderator who will stack the conversation, if people are interested in adding a point they can signal to the moderator who will stack them into the discussion.
• - If who have something to say that’s extremely relevant to the moment you can interject by doing the runway lights gesture.
• - If you agree with the speakers point, to save time, you can do “sparkles” by wiggling your fingers up in the air.
• - If you disagree you can do frownie fingers by wiggling your fingers down to the ground.
• - If you completely disagree with a matter of discussion, you can block the matter, however, blocks are something that should rarely ever be used and only used as a last resort. For example a veteran activist of 10 years may have only ever blocked an issue once.

Brief History of Food Not Bombs Movement: (5 minutes) Lead by Vincent

Historically:

• - Food Not Bombs was started in Cambridge Massachusetts 30 years ago with the basic idea that Food is a Human Right and that if we used just a tiny portion of what we spend on our military we could end hunger as we know it.
• - Since that time FNB has branched out to every continent with chapters in over 1,000 cities across the world.
• - Food Not Bombs is completely decentralized and likely the largest food distribution organization in the world.
• - This May is the 30th anniversary of Food Not Bombs.

In Long Island:

• - Long Island FNB was started in June of 2006.
• - Since then we’ve grown at an incredible rate.
• - Current Food Shares are made up of Hundreds of people and thousands of pounds of food.
• - There has been incredible accomplishments such as, Thanksgivings, the Toy Shares, Community Gardens, Battles with police, creating new Food Shares, our incredible zine, clothing distributions, and dozens of other stories.

Bravado: The Coming Year, Realities, Challenges, & The need for Mutual Support: (5 minutes) Lead by JonSTeps

The problems we face in 2010:

• - This summer is going to be difficult
• - Already core members are stressed; it’s hard doing pickups 3 days a week
• - Good things: Thanksgiving, etc. took a lot of time
• - We need more volunteers. Lots of people participate in their own way, how do we expand that? How do promote ourselves to other organizations?
• - Issues of racism, classism
• - These problems aren’t separated: problems in Hempstead, Huntington (esp. Tent City), Farmingville (anti-immigrant violence)
• - Lots of people choosing between food and gas
• - Increased poverty in Long Island,
• - Near 10% drop in wages in past decade
• - 48 homes are foreclosed on every day in Nassua & Suffolk Counties.
• - LI job market decreasing at one of the highest rates in the country
• - 49% of LI residents are currently choosing between food or rent, 34% between food and gas.
• - Many local towns such as Hempstead, Huntington, Wyandanch, etc… choose to avoid these issues by creating “weed & seed” programs which use economic starvation and police intimidation to push out minority and low-income populations.
• - LIFNB volunteers are strained.
• - Need for more help with pickups, outreach, various projects etc…
• - The looming threat of a much greater conflict to come.

What is needed to uphold solidarity in 2010:

• - Doubling our food distribution.
• - Tripling our core pickup & participation base.
• - Doubling our Food Sources.
• - Continuing to branch out, both at Food Shares and with the creation of a new chapter.
• - Increased community & coalition building.
• - Expanding of our community projects particularly the Peach Tree project, Garage Sale Project and “As of Yet, [Unnamed].”
• - Increased internal organization and communication, predominately through web and text.
• - Unification of combined struggle between all our Food Share locations, LI & the world.

Why we can do this, why we’re the ones to do this, why we’ve got to do this:

• - We don’t ask permission, we don’t deal with bureaucracy.
• - It’s bigger than it actually is, we’re not a small organization
• - The obvious, with no real budget we’ve created the largest Food Distribution network on LI, collecting, sharing, etc…
• - We achieve the unbelievable or perhaps even the unimaginable
• - A family of four coming to a Food Share saves 80 dollars a week off their grocery bill, or 74,880 over an 18 year period, enough for 2 children to go to college.
• - We’re solidarity, not charity, when it comes down to it we just do it, we don’t ask permission, we stand our ground we fight etc….
• - We stand up to corrupt towns, racist police, bureaucratic social services, etc…
• - Because we’re not going to politely ask, for something that is a human right.
  

Questions/General Discussion of the coming year: (20 minutes)

(Questions/Discussion of current event/ project ideas, new ideas & priorities.)

Confronting Issues of Racism on Long Island:

• - Long Island has had server problems with racism both in direct forms of physical violence (i.e. from hate groups, police, racist individuals etc...) and in subversive forms of violence (i.e. “weed & seed”, gentrification, geographical segregation, food segregation, economic starvation and intimidation).
• - Examples of what has been occurring are as follows: The lynching death of Marcelo Lucero, numerous fire-bombings of day laborers homes, countless assaults, attacks & threats, the institution of “weed and seed” programs across LI towns, the attempted illegal eviction of 100 farmingville families in the dead of night, etc…
• - Currently, Long Island FNB has been trying to organize local communities together and hopes to make a much larger network to confront these problems in the future. We’re also working with Human Solidarity in Farmingville who has helped create local neighborhood watches. In Hempstead we’ve been trying to make people aware of the current gentrification programs and in Huntington, we’ve been helping w/ Tent City.

Solidarity with the displaced residents of the Huntington Station Tent City:

• - There are over a hundred + displayed homeless in Huntington after the eviction of the Huntington Station Tent City by the Town of Huntington, Suffolk Police and the Family Service League. The media has muffled the issue by claiming it’s just been a few dozen.
• - We currently collect & distribute blankets, sleeping bags, gloves, hats, pants, socks, shoes etc.
• - One of the largest problems is that without shelter or ability to make fires it is much harder for people to stay alive. Sleeping on a cold concrete street is much hard than sleeping in a insulated dry structure with the warmth of a fire.
• - Suffolk County claims Emergency Housing is offered, but in the Huntington Area there are no options available. Volunteers tested this issue by calling emergency housing during last week’s snowstorm. After sitting on hold for 45 minutes (on a non-toll free call), we were instructed to make our own way to a building that was in actuality closed because of the snowstorm. Disregarding even that issue, any undocumented person is not eligible for emergency housing in New York State. Considering that a vast majority of homeless have been homeless for many years and no longer have identification like a ss-card or a birth certificate this is a major problem that prevents many from having a place to stay.
• - The Huntington Interfaith Homeless Initiative offers nightly shelter between November-March for 20-30 people. While there is an awesome network of volunteers helping to operate this program it alone is not able to handle the problem of homelessness in Huntington. To receive the service you must be at manor field at 5:30 to be picked up, from there you are locked into a church and unable to leave until 6am. The realities of the situation are that there are still hundreds without a place to sleep each night and it’s a situation Long Island FNB is currently organizing around.

Creating Community on Long Island:

• - Long Island can be an extremely alienating area for many people. Social divisions between groups, be them racial, economic or cultural, divide many people from their neighbors in towns across Long Island. The result has been that people in the same situations, facing the same oppressions, have not tried to work with each other.
• - In contrast, people get to know each other at the Food Share, even revival gangs have worked together to help us out! We share groceries and then we eat together. We learn about each other. People help together cleaning up. There is a genuine sense of solidarity which we feel people prefer over charity.
• - People are forced to interact at food shares. It’s possible that the most productive way of sharing groceries would be to just have a line. But that’s not what we do, we make people be with and work with other people. In summation, people have to talk to their neighbors at food shares (even if they don’t like them) and that dynamic breaks down divisions and builds bridges to community.

Confronting Sexual Harassment:

• - Sexual Harassment can at times be an issue at Food Shares. Especially in regards to a few bullies hustling for more food, or certain items. Particularly these issues relate both to volunteers helping to share groceries and woman/children in the crow.
• - In the past Long Island Food Not Bombs has had “new member” training meetings to help get everyone as a group to confront these issues. Unanimously, we feel another such meeting would be great to having in the coming weeks.
• - To stress the point, the onus such not be on someone to “avoid” sexual harassment. We as a group need to confront and stop this behavior when it happens. We also need to make people feel comfortable/empowered enough to speak out. In this sense, there is a great need for veteran woman in the group to take charge in these situations/ with these dialogues.
• - Communication/ possible language barriers are problems and for this reason it is extremely important for everyone to know that if at any time something is occurring that is making you feel uncomfortable or threatened that you can and should raise your hands up and say stop, which will in turn stop the entire food share. The food share will not resume until the problem has been addressed, and by stopping the food share we leverage the entire community against any abusive or disruptive force.
• - Worst situations happen when people don’t speak up. Having the whole group say it is better than just one person saying it. People in community support us; let everyone else know the situation, we have your back.

How to help out/learn more:

• - The General Flier has all info to get in contact with us, where/when food share. For pickups, call the hotline number. Call a few hours before a food share starts, and we’ll let you know where to meet us for pickup. Or send an email ( LongIslandFoodNotBombs[at]gmail[dot]com ) with your contact info if you want to help out.

What kind of Food is Share by LIFNB:

• - Mostly fresh organic produce, bread, pastries, juices, desserts, some frozen foods and some prepared
• - Vegan hot food: Vegan because we’re promoting peace, so its hypocritical to serve meat. Also a lot of people are lactose intolerant, and by omitting dairy, we’re making it more open to everyone, not excluding anyone from eating the food that we have.
• - Regina: Do supermarkets give canned food? Do we give out canned food?
• - 90% of canned stuff we get is used for cooking with. We also upkeep an extensive food pantry.
  

Re-Organizing/Specialization: (20 minutes) Discussion=>Delegation.

Food Share Point People: (Point people to talk to if you’re interested in any of the following food shares.

• - In Hempstead: Vinny, Jon G., Lydon, JonSTeps, Janelle, Jodi
• - In Huntington: Vinny, JonSTeps, Alex R.
• - In Farmingville: Rose, Karren, Jim

Specialized Tasks: We’re looking for organizational leaders to help with Zines, Gardening, Outreach, Events, Food Sources, Clothing, Community Issues at each Food Share, Materials, Media, Tabling, Cooking, Translations, etc… These organizers would lead up online forum discussions, meetings, help recruit volunteers, keep track of participants, etc…

• - Our goal is to create a system of organizational leaders who will help by leading up periodic meetings, forum discussions, keep track of volunteers, help create promotional media, etc...

The Break down on Delegation:

Zines: We have a community zine (As of Yet, [UNNAMED].)

• - Point people on the project are Monica & JonSTeps.

Gardening/Peach Tree Project: Each spring we usually have some sort of guerilla gardening activity, we also run a program we call the peach tree project in which we collect, germinate and distribute seedling fruit and vegetable plants.

• - Suggestion of upcoming workshop.
• - People interested Barbara.
• - Point Person, JonSTeps

Community Outreach: We need people to help with creating outreach materials, talking to other organizations, working with the community, etc..

• - Point people JonSTeps, Vinny, Rose, Karen, Jon G.

Events/Fundraising: We need to have more benefit events, hopefully 6 a year.

• - Point person Kristen.
• - People interested Regina, Christina

Food Sources: We need people to talk to, uphold and create more food sources.

• - Suggestions, Barbara - Hollbrook Farmer’s Market, Joel - Frolick Farms in Huntington.
• - Point people, JonSTeps, Vinny, Rose, Karen, Lydon.

Clothing: We collect and distribute tens of thousands of pounds of clothing each year and to do this we have incredibly helpful programs like the garage sale project.

• - The point person on this project is Alex R.

Community Issues: We need people who can focus on the individual issues that arise in each food share community.

• - Point People Jon G., Vinny, JonSTeps.

Tabling: People to help table events/ shows.

• - Point Person Janelle.
• - People interested Jon G.

Cooking: We could always use more help with cooking, or even to have people conduct their own vegan cooking parties in preparation for an upcoming food share.

• - Point people for this are JonSTeps & Jon M.
• - People who are interested in helping are Christina, Michael

Translations: We need people to help translate documents, fliers, etc.. and to interpret at the food shares.

• - Person with some skills Jon G.

Nonprofit: We are forming a nonprofit to help aid the LIFNB community.

• - Point Person JonSTeps
• - People interested in helping Barbara, Jon G.

On call lists: Creating a list of people to help with regular pickups and a list for backups. We’ll be doing the buddy system for anyone who will be coming for there first pickup. If you’re interested in doing a pickup please call us at 631.223.4370.

• - People for pickups: Vinny, JonSTeps, Rose, Karen, Lydon, Janelle, Brain, Shelia
• - People on call for pickups: Melanie

During Food Shares: Creating Checklists, incorporating new people/ideas, conflict reduction, confronting sexual harassment/ gender/ sexuality discrimination. Encouraging people to participate!

• - Need for simple/thought provoking checklists and food share tables, pickups, for security, etc…
• - Example of checklist at Veggies Table – 1. Have all volunteers introduce themselves by name to each other, 2. Veggie captain explains how the break down of items to be shared. 3. Ask volunteers what they think/ if there’s any questions/ suggestions. 4. Volunteers and Captains arrange tables so that each volunteer has all items in reach. 5. Volunteers explain to the crowd how everything will be shared, ask if there are questions.
• - Encouraging people to talk about conflict situations after the Food Shares, encouraging creative solutions.
• - Enforcing the idea that we are all one unit, any volunteer can pause a Food Share and ask for help.

Creating Mutual Support System: Supporting community and participants, preventing burnout and alienation & confronting engrained social issues.

• - Organizing a way to encourage participates to voice frustrations
• - Find creative ways to help each other/ overcome preconceived notions.

Outreach/Events: (15 minutes) Discussion=>Delegation.

Outreach Tools: Promote newsletter, facebook, twitter, sms, myspace, etc… create buttons, t-shirts, patches, promote diy free events like dumpstering nights, flower bombing, art projects.

• - Multiply by 5 our email list, twitter, facebook group, etc… by summer.
• - Encourage people to retweet, forward, relink our website articles and information.
• - Find people to help make t-shirts, patches, tot bags, buttons.
• - Create / Expand outreach team to make more “just fun” events.
• - Create 1 free monthly event / 1 bi-monthly benefit event.

Outreach & Coalition Building: Expand the range of organizations we talk to, outreaching to schools, community groups, bands, businesses, art galleries, etc… (Anything really)

• - Create contact people for organizations.
• - Expand our current list of community organization contacts.

Events/Benefits: We need mouthy outreach events to bring in money, new volunteers, gain attention (specific focus on Huntington).

• - We need 2-3 people to help organize benefit events.
• - We need venues for benefits.
• - We need start up money.

Introduction to Upcoming Events/Projects: (10 minutes)

• What’s Probably Coming: Nonprofit work & Nonprofit Coalition Meeting (next mouth), Fundraising for Nonprofit, Benefit Events, Peach Tree Project (March-June), New Chapter (Wyandanch…), 30th Anniversary Boston, 30th Anniversary LI, 30th Anniversary Mexico, Solidarity with people of Huntington/Hempstead (Confronting Weed & Seed), Confronting racism in Farmingville, Anarchist Book Fair. Gorilla gardening, Gorilla Art Projects, Community Gardening, New Zines, etc…
• Delegation: Who’s interested in what? Are there other projects that folks are interested in working on?

Current Tools: (5 minutes)

• Website- How/to: How to use the forums, create content, create accounts.
• Mailing list/Newsletter: LongIslandFNB@googlegroups.com / www.LIFNB.com/newsletter
• Text System/ Hotline Number: Hotline- 631.223.4370/ Text System- Text LIFNB to 41411 to receive updates via text.