Food Not Bombs Battles City Government - and Wins

Gonzalo Vizcardo reports that Food Not Bombs Battles City Government - and Wins (subscription required) aftre the West Palm Beach City Commission (Florida, USA) decided to repeal the ordinance that banned the giving of free food to homeless people in front of the Central Library on Wednesday nights (by a Christain group) and Saturday afternoons (by the Anarchists). A similar ordinance was struck down in another city after the judge ruled that it violated the freedom of speech and the freedom of religion.

In September 2007 the city commission of West Palm Beach, Florida passed an ordinance prohibiting the distribution of free food in Centennial Park in front of the public library. The ordinance directly targeted Food Not Bombs (FNB), which serves vegetarian meals every Saturday afternoon, and Art and Compassion, a religious group which also serves free food and preaches to the homeless every Wednesday night. The reason? Like other ordinances and laws targeting homeless advocates across the nation, business owners and affluent residents want the homeless out of sight, even if that means banning public feedings in public places. The city's motivation for the ordinance is evident from Mayor Lois Frankel's recent statement that the groups "decided it's their right to destroy West Palm Beach's downtown commerce."

Emphasis Mine

The Capitalists do want the outcasts from the system hanging around. They could induce compassion in the oppressed masses and have them ask questions like:

"When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a Communist."

Hélder Câmara

The Food Not Bombs Movement:

...is an international movement made up of autonomous all-volunteer collectives that was started in the early 1980s in Cambridge, Massachusetts by anti-nuclear activists protesting the Seabrook nuclear power plant. FNB operates under the idea that food is a right, not a privilege, and that the fact that there is so much hunger amid so much wealth is testament to our society's misallocation of resources and inequality. Currently, there are over 400 active chapters, half of which are outside of the United States. Groups collect food that would otherwise go to waste and serve vegetarian meals in public places.

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Unfortunately, in a Capitalist society, food is a commodity produced for profit. Only those with money can eat. The penniless starve because money is needed to realise profit.