Date: Wed, 03 Sep 1997 19:28:49 -0700 (PDT)

From: Celia Graterol <celiag@sfsu.edu>

Subject: Food Not Bombs/ FOOD POLICY FORUM PLANNING MEETING ON SATURDAY

SEPTEMBER 6 (fwd)

X-Sender: celiag@apollo

To CCGHS affiliates and members:

I am forwarding an e-mail from Food Not Bombs with information about the Food Policy Forum that this organization is putting together. This Saturday September 6th will be held a Planning Meeting for the mentioned forum. See the e-mail for more information.

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+ Celia Graterol e-mail:celiag@sfsu.edu +

+ Education Director Tel. (415) 338-1949 +

+ BAHP-Bay Area Homelessness Program Fax. (415) 338-0561 +

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Forwarded message-----------------

TO ALL INTERESTED PARTIES:

Thank you for your interest in attending the planning meeting for the FOOD NOT BOMBS FOOD POLICY FORUM. This communication confirms the details of the meeting as follows:

TIME: SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 6 th, 10:00 AM - 6:00 PM

LOCATION: NORTHERN CALIFORNIA COALITION FOR IMMIGRANTS' RIGHTS, 995 MARKET STREET ( between 5th and 6th Streets ), 11th Floor, SAN FRANCISCO

If you travel by BART, you can exit at either the Powell or Civic Center BART stations.

FNB will be serving lunch, but we invite all groups to make this lunch a "pot-luck." This would be an especially good way for those groups which focus on the issues of healthy and environmentally sustainable diets to show their talents. However, do not feel obligated to prepare food for the meeting.

We would also encourage all attendees to bring background information and literature about their organizations to the FOOD POLICY FORUM planning meeting. We are presently expecting representatives from approximately 15 to 20 different groups to be present at the planning meeting. We feel that this meeting will provide an opportunity for individual and organizational networking.

It was the decision of the FOOD POLICY FORUM WORKING GROUP of SAN FRANCISCO FOOD NOT BOMBS that a method of collective consensus decision making should be used as the meeting process for the FOOD POLICY FORUM planning meeting. We have mailed an information packet about the consensus decision making process to those groups for which we have mailing addresses.

A copy of the planning meeting agenda is included with this communication for your reference. Please contact us if you have any questions related to the planning meeting.

Sincerely,

THE FOOD POLICY FORUM WORKING GROUP OF SAN FRANCISCO FOOD NOT BOMBS

PHONE: 1-415-985-7087

E-MAIL: sffnb@iww.org

For questions, call the SF FOOD NOT BOMBS voice mail as listed in the above, or reach Kerry Levenberg at:

PHONE: 1-415-241-0598

E-MAIL: kerryl@sirius.com

AGENDA FOR THE PLANNING MEETING

Opening Statement ( 5 Minutes )

Introductions ( 30 Minutes )

Brief Introduction to

the Consensus Decision

Making Process ( 20 Minutes )

Defining FOOD POLICY

FORUM Objectives:

issues to be addressed

at the FOOD FORUM

desired outcomes

and results

Brainstroming ( 15 Minutes )

Focusing ( 45 Minutes )

Forum Details/Content ( 60 Minutes )

Forum Structure ( 90 Minutes )

speakers, workshops,

panels, films, events

networking, etc.

*LUNCH* ( 45 Minutes )

Forum Logistics ( 30 Minutes )

Demonstrations/Actions/

Solidarity ( 30 Minutes )

Unallocated

Responsibilities ( 15 Minutes )

Next Meeting

(- if needed) ( 5 Minutes )

Closing Checkouts/

evaluations ( 30 Minutes )

ORIGINAL FOOD POLICY FORUM ANNOUNCEMENT LETTER :

July 3, 1997

To whom it may concern:

Food Not Bombs is a non-hierarchical group of volunteers dedicated to social change through non-violent direct action and consensus based decision making. In San Francisco, Food Not Bombs solicits donations of vegetarian food that would otherwise be wasted. We cook and serve this food to the public every day to draw attention to the hunger and enormous inequities of wealth in this country, and to expose and fight the elements of the political and economic system which give the military a higher priority than the welfare of the public.

By August 22nd, all states in the nation will have had their food stamp programs cut. Many will lose these benefits entirely, including all non-US citizens. We find this appalling. The United Nations Universal Declaration on Human Rights declares adequate access to food to be an inalienable human right. This right is immediately threatened by the cuts in this program. Worse yet, additional threats to the availability of nutritious food are coming form many other causes. Nationally, these causes include profit based food distribution systems, gentrification, the increasing gulf between rich and poor, and encouragement of unhealthy diets through the corporate media. Internationally, some causes include trade policies that devastate local economies, unsustainable agricultural practices, and attacks on social support programs by corporate dominated power structures. And the list goes on.

The behavior of the US in the 1996 World Food Summit offers a recent example. This summit was attended by over 1200 representatives of NGOs and over 80 countries. The US defied the norm by not sending any top elected officials, unlike most nations. It then refused to endorse to the resulting resolution. This resolution sought to reduce worldwide hunger fifty percent by 2015. The US justified its refusal BECAUSE it would place the new welfare reform laws, mandating the food stamp cuts, in violation of international law (Melinda Kimble, head of the US negotiating team, cited by Anuradha Mittal, "The Politics of Hunger", Earth Island Journal, Spring, 1997).

Food Not Bombs believes that these issues are connected, and should be discussed by all organizations and individuals working on these issues. We have much to learn from each other about the issues impacting the right to nutritious food, and about the strategies being discussed to protect this right. To this end, we would like to create a forum for these issues to be discussed. This forum should involve the participation of many groups both in its organization and it implementation.

We feel that the forum would benefit enormously from the participation of your organization. We wish to invite your organization, along with many others, to the first planning meeting for the Food Policy Forum. We are asking you to take part in determining the scope of issues to be discussed. We also ask your help in organizing the details of the event.

Enclosed is a questionnaire to help focus the discussions that will take place at the meeting. Please send preliminary answers to these questions back to us as soon as possible, so that we might better facilitate the meeting. Even if you do not wish to participate directly, your answers to these questions would be greatly appreciated as your input can still impact the direction of the discussion.

The date for the meeting is tentatively set for August 16th, but this may be changed based on the results of the enclosed questionnaire.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Hugh Mejia <sffnb@iww.org>

San Francisco Food Not Bombs