Food Not Bombs - Houston

1st food sharing of the year. About 85 people ate a great, hot, healthy meal. Happy New Year.

What a year! Houston Food Not Bombs volunteers shared healthy vegetarian food on 208 nights, with up to 160 hungry people.

The City penalized volunteers, writing them 85 class C misdemeanor tickets (more info: tinyurl.com/FnbFAQ). If all of those tickets were adjudicated at the maximum ($2,000 each), volunteers would have to pay the City $170,000.

549 people across the US donated to us (you can donate here: https://www.hpjc.org/fnb/). Over a third of our donations were $20 or less.

Over 70,000 people signed petitions against the anti-food sharing law (add your name here: tinyurl.com/FreeToShareFood).

https://www.khou.com/article/life/holidays/houston-homeless-downtown-houston-food-not-bombs/285-ae3c5464-e0a0-457a-9477-6c88534304d8

Organization feeds homeless in downtown Houston on Christmas Day despite citations Food Not Bombs has been cited 84 times since March 2023 due to a city ordinance.

Food Not Bombs Houston will be featured on KHOU Channel 11 at 10p tonight. Pls tune in.

Getting ready to serve food to the hungry on Christmas Eve.

Houston Food Not Bombs volunteers likely to be put on trial tomorrow afternoon Thursday and we want to pack the courthouse. We will know by 11 if we need people at the courthouse on Lubbock at 1pm. Let us know if you want to be notified by text message, and include your phone number.

Don't forget to VOTE today.

Missing! Pls share! Her family is looking for her on the street. Esp downtown Houston. We at FNBH will be keeping an eye out for her.
Thankfully local media has picked up this story.

“The international community is warning us against a severe humanitarian disaster and severe epidemics. We must not shy away from this. After all, severe epidemics in the south of Gaza will bring victory closer,”
- Retired Israeli General Giora Eiland

Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said that he “agrees with every word" of Eiland's column.

That's just a thing strikes do. It's not like they're done by anyone.

Ticket #74. Yes, we are still receiving citations for serving hungry individuals. 73 cases are pending in court.
We are still fighting all of our cases. Not guilty, trial by jury. To date, our cases are being reset for legal purposes. Most dates have been pushed to 2024. We will continue to keep everyone posted as we continue to fight through this ridiculous anti food sharing law.

Today we learned that Roshelle Pate has passed away. Roshelle, whom we came to know affectionately as the "Food Soldier," was an immeasurable light in our lives. When Food Not Bombs had to leave our previous organizing space, Roshelle welcomed us in with open arms. While working tirelessly to feed her community, you could always hear her laugh from across the building. We never saw her without a smile and her generosity was as contagious as her smile. Her ability to mobilize people to make Columbus a better place was truly unmatched. She will be sorely missed, as the Food Soldier, as a collaborator and as a friend.

Our heartfelt condolences go out to all her friends and family.

Holocaust now! Indiscriminate Israeli bombing is currently killing one child every 12 minutes. To understand the urgency of stopping this, in the same time as Putin takes to kill one child in Ukraine, Israelis are killing a thousand children.

https://truthout.org/articles/west-palm-beach-activists-charged-after-sharing-food-with-unhoused-community/

West Palm Beach Activists Face Charges for Sharing Food With Unhoused Community Florida has the third-largest unhoused population in the country, with 27,487 people experiencing homelessness.

110 people served tonight.

Monday night at Houston Food Not Bombs, a family showed up -- six kids and a mom. The dad had kicked them out of a motel. They were barely dressed.

Our volunteers called the city and the shelters, but no one could help that late. Houston police were there to issue their 61st citation to one of our volunteers for sharing food with the homeless. They also got on the phone trying to find some solution, but came up with nothing.

Houston Food Not Bombs volunteers arranged car seats and drove the family around for hours looking for a motel that would accept them, and finally found one, while simultaneously getting the word out. We raised $160 for two nights and $31 for an extra meal for the family.

The city is taking in hundreds of thousands of dollars to help the homeless each year, but Monday, our group, that doesn't take any of that money, was the only one ready to jump into action. This family needed us, Houston needs us, but Monday, the only contribution from the government was to write one of our volunteers a ticket.

115 people served. Thank u to everyone who made tonight successful. No ticket tonight.
❤️