Orlando Food Not Bombs Interview

In the last 8 days, twelve volunteers with Food Not Bombs have been arrested and face months in jail and fines for serving free food to homeless people in Orlando Florida with the anti-war organization Food Not Bombs.

They are charged with serving more than 25 people without a permit (permits are granted for this purpose only twice a year in any particular park).

Ben Matheson, arrested last Wednesday, or a fellow food felon will be speaking at 6 PM on Free Radio in a live interview.

Keith McHenry, co-founder of Food Not Bombs, will be speaking at 6:30 PM.

McHenry apologized for not being on the air Sunday when he apparently dialed the wrong number for the station.

A brief Orlando story on McHenry can be found at http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2011-06-08/news/os-food-not-bombs-mchenry-20110607_1_founder-lives-mchenry-lake-eola-park .

On Monday 4 more people were arrested: http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2011-06-06/news/os-food-not-bombs-arrest-20110606_1_lake-eola-park-orlando-police-signature-park

A video of the Monday feeding and arrests: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/videobeta/?watchId=75cdad08-7b6c-4e84-ac06-a7d1aa6f51a9

5 Arrested for Food-Serving on Wednesday:
http://www.clickorlando.com/news/28178151/detail.html
(with comments)

Food Not Bombs, an organization devoted the radical reversal of warstate priorities in the U.S. and worldwide, can be reached at http://www.foodnotbombs.net/new.html .

Orlando, Florida politicians, eager to push its homeless out of sight and away from City Hall (like Santa Cruz) have a history of harassing homeless people and those helping them. See http://www.orlandofoodnotbombs.org/ .

Sketchy details on the first arrests since a bad federal Court of Appeals decision are at http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/crime/os-homeless-feedings-arrests-20110601,0,7226362.story .

Keith has spoken recently on Free Radio: http://www.radiolibre.org/brb/brb110605.mp3

He'll brief us on his arrest, the peculiar Florida legal system, and the continuing struggle to serve food with a political message to the hungry and homeless.

Call in or e-mail in questions at rnorse3 [at] hotmail.com .

SANTA CRUZ NOTE: Mayor Ryan Coonerty has expressed his dislike of the Sunday "beanies and burritos" food serving done every Sunday on Pacific Avenue near Soquel Ave. in front of the vacant Borders building, and also criticized activist Brent Adams for feeding people on that corner.

former Mayor Cynthia Mathews, recently appointed to a closed-door committee that cut Social Service spending, has spearheaded a drive to try and convict Father Joel Miller of the Calvary Episcopal Church (the red church downtown) for his Monday food service feeding the homeless, which still happens Mondays 5-7 PM at Cedar and Lincoln.

Under pressure from merchants, pastor Dennis Adams moved his meal from the publicly visible Town Clock area to the secluded Homeless Service Center 4 PM on Sundays at 115 Coral St.

Years ago Santa Cruz SWAP (Soup Without a Permit) and Food Not Bombs successfully defined city authorities here. After many arrests and one famous conviction (1989--Sandra Loranger), local authorities backed off from direct arrests.