Food Not Bombs Meeting Tonight! Join us at the Cinema Arts Centre tonight at 7:30pm.

To our friends and supporters,

Tonight Long Island Food Not Bombs will be holding a meeting at the Cinema Arts Centre in Huntington at 7:30pm. We welcome newcomers and veterans alike. We'll be discussing how to expand our campaign of community direct action. Please come on down, bring a friend and share your thoughts on how we can all do this together. If you need directions or more information that can be found on our website, www.lifnb.com

Included below is a copy of tonights agenda,
Love & Liberation,
JonSTeps & Long Island Food Not Bombs

General Long Island Food Not Bombs Meeting Agenda
Introductions: (10 minutes)

• Name, Location, General Interest/Experience, Do you have a car?

Brief Explanation of Consensus: (5 minutes)

Brief History of the Food Not Bombs Movement: (5 minutes)

Outreach: (20 minutes)

• Reaching out to new folks: Tabling in public places/gatherings, organizing (events, dance parties, vegan thanksgiving, Halloween party…), increased zine distribution, new zine issues, increased web presence, media campaign, writing to (newspapers & web forums), creating a list of media/newspaper contacts, etc…
• Outreaching within LIFNB communities: Literature table, creating a radical lending library (mark), creating Spanish versions of literature. Organizing Food Share events like the Hempstead BBQ.
• Outreaching to other organizations: What groups do we want to reach out to? Are there projects we want to work on that other groups might be interested in as well, i.e. (gardening?). Mark also proposes, that 1. We “Have a fundraiser where a significant portion of the money raised goes to buy radical books, and literature for a FNB lending library to be given out at food shares.” And 2. “Explore whether the Revolutionary Prisoner Fund can possibly help or join in.”
• Outreaching to our Food Sources: Creating “thank you” letters/awards for food sources, getting our food sources more involved.
• Delegation: Who would you like to do what?

Organization: (20 minutes) - How do we organize LIFNB? How do we create better Food Shares?

• Creating a Non-profit: Do we want to create a new Non-profit that’s separate from LIFNB, that also benefits LIFNB? This could help future projects and could be a base for a future community space. We would need people experienced in this process and possibly an accountant or lawyer.
• Organization of Food Shares: Food Share captains, table captains, pick ups, contacting folks, overcoming conflict. What can we do better? What would be easier? Should we have rotating roles? Would breaking down some tasks be ok?
  Organization of Tasks & Pickups: Do people want to create a list, either on database or the website, of the jobs we all do and the places we pick up food from?
• Food Access Table: Do we want to create an area where people that can’t deal with the crowd can go to get food especially in regards to the Hempstead Food Share?
• Awareness at Food Shares: Getting another dry erase board, creating Food Share brochures, etc…
• Training: Are people interested in having a Food Share volunteer training in the next month?
• Increased Website Involvement: How do we get people more involved through the website? Create a website tutorial?
• Delegation: Who would like to do what?

Resources: (15 minutes) – How do we get more/better food, clothing, books. How do we get to sharing more?

• Volunteers: People that can commit for short and long term, individual days free/interest/ability, Spanish speakers/writers, organizers on community issues, people with cars, designers, gardens, etc...
• Food & Transportation: Where are more health/food stores, farms we could contact and who would be able to pick up from them? How do we get more people with cars for – pickups & transport, are people interested in starting regular urban foraging?
• Materials & Spaces: Printing resources, folding tables, water coolers, table supplies (cups, forks, plates, bags, bowls, etc…), spaces to organize (meetings, workshops, etc...), spaces for shows and events.
• Clothing, Books and Other Materials: How do we get more of these things? How can we expand the Garage Sale project?
• Delegation: Who would like to do what?

Longer Term Project Ideas: (5 minutes)

• Food Not Bombs 30th Anniversary: 2010 is the 30th Anniversary of Food Not Bombs, would we want to do anything special for that? Would we want to try and organize a Northeastern FNB meet up in LI? Do we want to create some sort of massive event?
• Book: Help Jon create a LIFNB book that acts as a “how to” for other organizations and groups.

Short/Long Term Goals: (15 minutes)

• Long Term Goals: Where do we want to be in a year from now? Can we have one or two new chapters by then? Can we double our food distribution?
• Short Term Goals: Where do we want to be for the start of winter? How can we double the volunteers in Farmingville and Huntington? How can we increase participation at our chapters? Where do we all want to see this thing going?

Proposals: (5 minutes)

• World Can’t Wait March in D.C.- October 5th, proposed by Mark.
• G-20: Food Not Bombs support.