Mytheology: Food Not Publicity

, by Mytheos Holt,

Helping the needy is not easy. Media coverage of altruism is sparse; social approbation is confined to mutters of “Good for you!” or “Sorry, wish I could help” from ashamed onlookers; money is often difficult to come by. Helping the needy is a duty that demands nearly pure selflessness to perform, and under no circumstances should it be attempted by someone fishing for flattery, overt avowals of admiration, or widespread recognition.

Which brings me to the controversy over the Middletown chapter of Food Not Bombs (FNB), currently in the midst of challenging a law that requires them to receive a Middletown-area food license to distribute their food to the homeless. Now, while I do concur with certain members of the FNB coalition that the law in question is vague in places, the bottom-line demand is not. Contrary to the many dubious analogies and accusations of classism that FNB has used to distract from the issue of their conduct, there are several pertinent elements of the case that cannot be ignored in any dispassionate evaluation of the situation.

To start with, consider that, FNB leader Abe Bobman is quoted as saying in The Argus’ recent article on the controversy that, “I could conceivably be prosecuted for making a pot of stew at my house, carrying it down the street, and giving it to you.”

While this raises an interesting point of ambiguity about the abstract purpose of the law in question (a point of ambiguity which could be raised in the case of restaurants as well), its relevance to the issue of FNB is nonexistent. FNB prepares and serves its food on public property within the city of Middletown. As such, they are subject (just as I would be if I attempted to prepare and serve food in Mr. Bobman’s kitchen) to the rules and regulations imposed by the owner of that property.

To counter this claim, the group argues that their First Amendment rights are being violated. If this is true, then every local, State or Federal health code in the entire country is unconstitutional for its infringements on restaurant owners’ First Amendment Rights. If this regulation were Federal, the group might have a little more weight behind their argument because of broader arguments over Federal police power, but as it is, the legal claim is highly dubious.

Still, the group could conceivably claim that the time and resources required to get the license would have interfered (if only temporarily) with their mission of helping the homeless. That is, they could if they hadn’t been immediately given refuge by the First Church of Christ, which may even be willing to make this arrangement permanent. Moreover, they were offered the chance to move to another venue before being fined or having their meals confiscated, and declined because they didn’t want to impose liability on the other venue. The fact that they were worried about liabilities at all hardly recommends their cause, since it effectively sends the message to all their potentially needy customers that FNB can’t guarantee the absence of Salmonella or other hazards from their food.

All of this, then, raises a larger point: what, after all, is FNB’s motivation? If, on the one hand, they are solely concerned with helping the needy, one has to wonder whether it would have killed them to swallow their pride and get a license or, alternately, why they are dragging an already cash-strapped city into a costly legal battle. By contrast, if they only wanted to score political points at Middletown’s expense, this, too, is a not-uncommon goal, but to be so blatantly willing to use the homeless as props in such a campaign will not help them in scoring political points. In fact, it will only further alienate them from the Middletown community they ostensibly are trying to help.

FNB will doubtlessly continue to protest its treatment, and just as doubtlessly will receive continual media coverage. At the end of it all, one has to wonder whether Middletown Public Health Sanitarian Manfred Rehm got it right when he told the Middletown Eye, “It’s the political agenda of this group. They just don’t want to comply. I think they wanted this to happen.”

It’s time to wrap up your fifteen minutes of fame, FNB. There are media-starved activists elsewhere.

  • Dan

    Mytheos, your willingness to draw convenient conclusions based on faulty assessments of the FNB saga results in a flawed and irresponsible piece here.
    First, your primary argument is utterly ridiculous. Food Not Bombs has been active in Middletown for over 10 years with little to no press coverage. These “publicity seekers” were going about their humble business last November when they were cited by the Health Department, thus initiating the whole mess. They did not seek this strife or the publicity which followed. Your assessment is totally misleading and unrealistic.
    Secondly, FNB does not prepare food (and never has) on public property as suggested by your botched analogy. This is just wrong and careless.
    Finally, as the St. Vincent de Paul soup kitchen faces potentially devastating Health Department scrutiny, I would like to point out that regardless of all the rhetorical bluster surrounding the FNB disagreement the actions of the HD will have real impacts on the lives of many people. Is an even larger number of hungry people not an issue of “public safety”?

  • No Theology

    As the previous commenter noted, Food Not Bombs did not seek out this fight. After ten years of serving food on Main Street, the group was suddenly confronted by the demand from the Middletown Health Department that they obtain a license and comply with all of its requirements or stop serving food. After two members were given citations and one was arrested, they decided that they had no choice but to mount a legal challenge – and to stop their food sharing activities in the meantime.

    Fortunately, their supporters at First Church agreed to allow them to continue their activities in a limited way by preparing food in the church’s licensed kitchen. But if this were a long-term arrangement it would mean that Food Not Bombs would essentially cease to exist as an independent organization since it would depend entirely on the good graces of First Church and its members would no longer be able to prepare food in their homes for their shared meals. If the Middletown Health Department genuinely had the authority to regulate meal sharing in this fashion, then the only alternative for Food Not Bombs would be to get the law changed.

    However, a review of the relevant statute and regulations shows that at a minimum the Middletown Health Department’s interpretation in citing Food Not Bombs is highly questionable. In 1995, Connecticut amended the statute giving the Department of Public Health the authority to promulgate food licensing regulations. The amendment was a response to an effort by the DPH to forbid such dangerous activities as school bake sales and church potlucks.

    There are two ways of interpreting the 1995 amendment. One is to read the statute literally and say “Yes, the law is clear. If your non-profit organization is not regularly engaged in the business of selling food, and you sell food at a political, religious, charitable or educational event, then you are completely exempt from the licensing regulations . . . BUT if under the same set of circumstances you give food away for free at such an event then you must be fully licensed in the same manner as any restaurant.” That appears to be the interpretation upon which the MHD claims it relied when it issued the cease and desist order to Food Not Bombs.

    The other is to read the statute, consider the ambiguity in some of the language and the absurd result of the above interpretation and then consider the legislative history that gave rise to it. Using that approach one would reach the logical conclusion that the intent of the amendment requires that it be read broadly to permit non-profit organizations to sell or to give away food at their events. In other words, the Middletown Health Department simply lacks the authority to require that Food Not Bombs activities be licensed.

    The former approach is nice and neat and bureaucratic. And it will, if upheld, not only bar Food Not Bombs from its meal-sharing activities but will also hamstring similar efforts to feed hungry people all over Connecticut – including the regular Sunday evening meals at St. Vincent de Paul. Or, alternatively, it will empower local health directors to apply the law only to those groups that they feel deserve to be licensed, based on completely arbitrary and subjective criteria (plainly the case in Middletown).

    The latter approach is more consistent with the way that the courts have traditionally engaged in statutory interpretation and by its nature avoids absurd results that are contrary to the intent of the legislature.

    Point in fact, the Attorney General has stated that he believes the latter interpretation of the statute is correct but has asked the Connecticut legislature to remove any doubt by amending the statute so that groups that do not regularly sell food for profit can either sell or give away food at their events.

  • Meghan Q

    This piece shows that you have a number of misunderstandings about Food Not Bombs. You start off by saying “Helping the needy is not easy,” and how money is often difficult to come by. If you actually joined Food Not Bombs for a community meal, you’d realize that having a weekly picnic is in fact relatively easy and fun when there are a lot of helping hands around. Also, if you did some basic online research on the principles of the group you would know that Food Not Bombs doesn’t use money; all the food is donated from farms or grocery stores.

    I find your argument that FNB volunteers are “media starved” to be flawed. Nothing could be further from the truth. First of all, Food Not Bombs did not ask for the cease and desist order. They want to be left alone. The decade of peaceful community meals Middletown FNB has shared should be a testament to this. And in any case, do you really think FNB would put their meals in jeopardy? At the moment FNB is essentially non-functional since they are simply volunteering for the First Church. And now we see that soup kitchens in Middletown being dragged into this mess for speaking out about Food Not Bombs.

    I invite you to do your research before jumping to conclusions.

  • D@ve

    This was such a hack piece, it’s almost laughable. Is it really asking too much that folks who chime in about this situation actually do some research before opining?

    There are so many factual errors in here, one wonders if the author actually knows anything about this situation.

  • Lu Ann

    Mytheos,
    You write here as if you had done proper research before putting pen to paper. There are a number of statements made by you that just are not true. If this issue is important to you, I suggest you take another go at it; only this time take the time to do some good research. If you really don’t care one way or the other, just drop it. Contrary to what you wrote, FNB is not media starved. They just want to be left in peace.

  • Abbey Volcano

    “FNB leader Abe Bobman” hahhahaha- yeah, research would help.

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