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Belfast Food Not Bombs Celebrated the first anniversary of our regular soup kitchen on Botanic Avenue on the 9^th of December. A large crew turned out to serve up a tasty chickpea & potato curry some warming chai & a celebratory chocolate cake to the (un)suspecting Belfast public.

Food Not Bombs first hit the streets of Belfast in October 2002 to round of the weekend of the Grassroots Gathering in Giros. For a month or 2 in winter 02/03 there were regular kitchens serving food on Royal Avenue (Belfast’s Main Shopping Street). Throughout the attack & occupation of Iraq in 2003 Belfast FNB provided food for many demo’s & actions in Belfast (& we made a few trips to Shannon). In Dec 2003 Keith McHenry (co-founder of FNB from the states)  visited us on his speaking tour of Europe. We organised a talk/film screening & gig & a lot of people we’re quite inspired about FNB. Belfast FNB decided to put its focus into regular servings for the hungry & our regular soup kitchen on Botanic Avenue began.

Since Giros (café in the Warzone Centre) closed in Sep 03 we didn’t have a base to cook. From then on we became homeless & moved around cooking in various parts of Belfast wherever someone would donate a kitchen for the night. Over the last year we recycled a lot of food (that would’ve otherwise been wasted), made a lot of friends, & served a lot of meals. We learnt a lot about cooking, about group dynamics & grassroots organising. We also learnt that homeless issues are a pretty complex & require a lot more than a free meal once a fortnight. We’re still learning…

Over the summer the PSNI threatened to close us down on several occasions (sharing food with the hungry & curious doesn’t fit with Belfast’s new image of prosperity), but we persevered. Also in 2004 Belfast FNB catered for 1000’s over the Mayday weekend in Dublin, took part in the Ambush Peace Camp at Shannon, served breakfast outside the Belfast Magistrates Court during anti-war trials, & provided free food for the 8th Grassroots Gathering in Belfast.

In the next year we’re trying to seek out a kitchen (so we can open out our cooking sessions to be more inclusive), & we hope to get better at what we do & learn new things…

Belfast FNB serve free vegetarian/vegan meals every second Thursday outside Botanic Rail Station from 6.30 – 8pm. Our next serving will take place on the 23rd of December if you’d like to get involved drop us a line…

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