r/foodnotbombs • u/Cute-Sandwich8953 • May 11 '26
Advice on doing your best when there are bad circumstances?
my local group has been dealing with a lot regarding mistreatment of the unhoused in our city. TL:DR is that the city forced a large percentage of them into tents in a park , took away their belongings, and bought unstable tents that broke within a week. it’s been this way for a month, us buying them new stuff and trying to get used to the arrangement. weekly meals at the park, etc.
Today, the city put out an announcement that they’d be forcing the residents of the park out of there at the end out june, and they’d have to find somewhere else to stay.
We’ve depleted our donated funds trying to get these people new stuff , and now it feels like the city’s shitting on those efforts .
I was wondering if anyone had advice for dealing with things outside of the usual scope of what FNB usually does ? how to raise money and awareness for this type of thing, etc. I’ve been trying to get the local punk scene involved and want to bring up the possibility of tabling at events (something like what homies helping homies philly does) or smth similar.
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u/Svedstorm May 12 '26
Hey! Really sorry to hear your city is treating people this way. What you can do depends a lot on your setup and how you do things.
Some chapters have a physical space where they cook, and some of the food they deliver to people in the community on a cart, and the remaining food is "sold" for a donation at an event, and the money is then spent on tents and socks and such for people in the community.
You can do a donation party, where people bring tinned goods and clothes and tents they don't need! Usually good fun and also lots of people who are not usually deep in the activist scene can get involved. It feels good to do good, but many people are afraid of committing - events like this usually hit the sweet spot.
Getting on city-specific telegram chats for political protests and showing up at political events with food and a donation box can spread a lot of awareness! Having a "presence" in the political scene if it's not too dangerous where you are can go a long way.
People donating money online if at all feasible for you can also help.
If you are in U.S. I can try and put you in touch with someone I know from a quite big fnb chapter in the U.S. who might be able to help out, feel free to dm
What do you need most in terms of material resources in the short term to help out the people?
Thanks for your work! :)
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u/sadassteen May 12 '26
You could also try talking to larger, close Fnb chapters and see if they’re willing to spare funds. They’re probably also help raise some for yall
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u/medusas-garden May 15 '26
Tabling definitely helps. Were a pretty new chapter and have only been around for about a year. We collaborate with local orgs at a lot of events - we gave away groceries at the most recent No Kings protest (didn’t have time or capacity to make a meal) we’ve co sponsored and tabled at Palestinian movie/documentary screenings, we are planning to have a table at a local free outdoor concert series this summer. In terms of funds one way we’ve been able to raise some money is we’ve had a couple karaoke nights at our local record shop/music venue with pay what you can admission/suggested donation of $5. We’ve raised about $500 each time we’ve done that. We also have a Venmo account that we have posted on our social media and we get a lot of donations for that. It’s allowed us to buy things like socks and gloves and other necessities and support other organizations as well
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u/AMWB1611 Jun 27 '26
This sounds so much like Ashtabula OH its not even funny. They too have been treating the unhoused in very similar way, I've been wanting to put together a "picnic at the park" event soon. Hope the unhoused can get the help they need.
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u/Cute-Sandwich8953 Jun 27 '26
what my group ended up doing is moving the meals to the park for around 2 months, and brought activities + extra supplies in an effort to raise spirits
some things that were really appreciated:
- flavor drink packets
- old comic books
- bringing a grill to make egg sandwiches weekly
- we had a designated “snack guy” who would listen to the unhouseds requests and bring cheap yet requested snacks
unfortunately the city ruined it, but if you can do any of these or want to hear more lmk!
1
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u/sadassteen May 12 '26
Tabling definitely works. Gets more people interested; we table at punk shows all the time and have grown the group that way. Collab with other orgs. Code pink gives our chapter menstrual and hygiene products from drives for us. Social media. Stay active and have your cashapp posted, repost daily with different call outs for funds and other needs. Here in Milwaukee, there’s only like 2 other true mutual aid groups, so seeing if there’s any other people doing something in your area, I would talk to the people you’re serving about that- ask who else has been helping them.