When Jean Pockrus ’08 and Quinn Hechtkopf ’06 arrived at Well Being House this past Sunday to cook for Food Not Bombs, a slightly tired but eager Matt Hayek ’07 immediately began emptying the refrigerator and kitchen cabinets to begin cooking.
Hayek rattled off a list of what he found, from garlic bread to kidney beans, and mentioned the spices they needed. Then he ran out to get vegetables from Outhouse, but instead returned with fruit and seitan from the Kosher Kitchen.
Food Not Bombs meets every Sunday at 11 a.m. in Well Being House to cook food for Middletown residents. The group allows anyone to take food.
“We don’t serve the food, we let people get whatever they want, we don’t control how much food they can take,” said Pockrus, who has been involved with the program for three years.
The group uses whatever food is donated in a given week, which ranges from leftover Fruit and Veggie Co-op mushrooms to seitan from the Kosher Kitchen. They make meals and serve them in front of St. Vincent DePaul’s church, located on Main Street. The group meets on Sundays because the soup kitchen in the church is closed on Sunday.
Food Not Bombs, founded in 1980, is an international organization that strives to end hunger. According to its website, the group “support[s] actions to stop the globalization of the economy, restrictions to the movements of people, end exploitation and the destruction of the earth.”
It is a non-hierarchical group, and a chapter can be started by anyone, anywhere.
“It has been around at Wesleyan for at least seven years,” Pockrus said.
Food Not Bombs is a vegetarian organization, which has caused controversy both globally and in the Wesleyan community.
“People in Middletown are not necessarily vegetarian and they don’t get the protein they need and don’t like tofu. There are a lot of food issues and class issues with donations; people are nervous about discussing it,” said one Food Not Bombs student, who wished to remain anonymous.
Despite the positive experiences of its members, the group has faced some difficulties.
“We did a food drive at the end of last year,” Hechtkopf said. “They got us enough food to fill up half the hallway in Weshop. We came back after the summer and Reslife had thrown it all away even though we labeled it.”
Another issue the group has faced is membership.
“It really varies from week to week. Sometimes it’s really bustling. This year it has been slower. No one is taking enough initiative,” Hayek lamented.
The group is beginning to gain steam this year. They had a table at the Student Activities fair, and, according to Hayek, they will soon be e-mailing those who signed up.
“It goes through periods of heavy activity and light activity. It completely depends on who shows up,” said Brian Brotman ’07, who has participated since his freshman year.
Despite the obstacles, most members feel positive about the group and what it has accomplished.
“It has been a great thing. I interact with a lot of people. We’ve made friends we still talk to in Middletown; people come here to have tea. It brings people together,” Pockrus said. “It’s one of the few programs at Wesleyan that has interaction with Middletown residents, and Wesleyan doesn’t have to spend a dime on it because all of the food is donated.”
In addition to forming relationships with Middletown residents, the organization has facilitated friendships with high school students in neighboring towns. Last year a group of kids from Cromwell high school regularly attended the cooking sessions and brought food they had collected on their own, according to Pockrus.
The wide range of benefactors is what many members find most rewarding.
“It has been a very positive experience, one of my most positive experiences at Wesleyan,” Brotman said.
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