Before heading to Third Street Promenade, members of UCLA Food Not Bombs convened in a small apartment in Santa Monica to prepare food, which included soup, stir-fry and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
As the Westwood Farmers Market came to a close on Thursday, a produce vendor handed a man she had never met before a brown grocery bag full of bok choy and other vegetables, free of charge.
“Do you guys have any donations?” Andy Earle, a member of UCLA Food Not Bombs and a community college student, asked farmers at each of the vegetable stands, all of whom had something to give.
It was Earle’s first night collecting from the farmers market for the UCLA chapter of Food Not Bombs, an international organization that prepares vegetarian or vegan meals for homeless populations using food that would otherwise be thrown away. The UCLA chapter, in particular, collects leftover food from the Westwood Farmers Market, grocery stores and restaurants within the area.
UCLA Food Not Bombs members collect the food items every Thursday and the rest of the group meets at night to prepare meals with the ingredients.
On this particular Thursday, Earle was in charge of the afternoon food pickup.
Earle made a trip to his car, towing several large bags of donated vegetables. He later returned to a local bakery and picked up some leftover loaves of bread, baguettes and pastries after it closed.
Later that night, Earle and about 20 Food Not Bombs volunteers, including UCLA students, alumni and other individuals from the community, convened at a small apartment in Santa Monica to prepare food.
The volunteers spread out in the kitchen, as well as the dining and coffee tables to prepare soup, stir-fry, salad and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
Erica Henderson, a first year pre-international development studies student, stood around a tall, round dining table, preparing peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. She said she loves being a member of UCLA Food Not Bombs.
“The atmosphere and the people are really great,” Henderson said.
When they arrived at Santa Monica’s Third Street Promenade, the volunteers set up tables at an intersection. About 10 people were already waiting in line, and some were lining up backpacks and bags to hold spots.
Attendance was relatively low, expected for the beginning of the month, said Matthew Cohn, a UCLA alumnus and Food Not Bombs volunteer.
“We get more people at the end of the month, when people’s government assistance starts to run out,” Cohn said.
This particular night, one of the original founders of Food Not Bombs, Keith McHenry, was in attendance. He started the organization in Cambridge, Mass., in 1980 to promote spending on social issues as opposed to the armed services, he said.
McHenry is a hearty, middle-aged man with a graying beard and a big smile. He talked constantly about Food Not Bombs’ history and advice on the best ways to serve large crowds, to whomever would listen.
Food Not Bombs has three guiding principles, McHenry said. First, the food is always vegetarian or vegan and free to everyone without restriction.
Second, there are no leaders or presidents within the organization. Instead, each chapter is autonomous and makes decisions using consensus.
Third, although they hand out food to hungry people, Food Not Bombs does not consider itself a charity. Members of the organization believe that food is a right, not a privilege, McHenry said.
The UCLA chapter has taken on a different role since it was founded in 2005. The chapter used to be more politically active than it is now, said UCLA alumna Jennifer Seneor, who was one of the first members of the UCLA chapter of Food Not Bombs.
Members used to hand out flyers about how the U.S. government spends more money on the military than social issues, she said. They would also discuss political topics with passersby, she said.
The political involvement of Food Not Bombs at UCLA depends on the political motivations of the club’s members, Cohn said.
“Everyone who is a part of the chapter has different motivations,” he said.
Cohn said the focus of the chapter has become more about the act of sharing food and building a community. This mission was evident Thursday night, as Food Not Bombs volunteers served food to approximately 30 people, with whom they interacted.
Ray Harris, a retired photographer, was one of the people who came by to eat that night. He started coming out to feedings organized by UCLA Food Not Bombs right before Thanksgiving in 2009.
A jovial man, Harris handed one of the volunteers a belated birthday present ““ a Hawaiian print tablecloth, Cup Noodles and packaged peanut butter crackers, all neatly placed in a Ralphs paper bag. He said the dinners help him to socialize and meet new people.
Busy catching up with his friends, Harris was one of the last people to leave that night.
“It’s not just about getting food,” Earle said. “A lot of these people don’t have family. (So) it’s about the community.”