Food Not Bombs handed trespassing notice from city
Group which supplies free meals ready to take matter to court
Food Not Bombs Peterborough served 60 free meals in Confederation Square on Monday evening, opting not to leave after security guards gave members a written trespass notice and told them police would be called if they didn’t go away immediately.
Police never attended, and the meals were served in an hour — whereupon the volunteers packed up and left.
The notice stated the group is breaking the City of Peterborough’s parks and facilities bylaw, which prohibits serving food or pitching a tent or structure on city property without a permit.
It was the third time security guards visited on a Monday evening and said that police will be called if they don’t leave. But it was the first time Food Not Bombs (FNB) got written notice that they were trespassing.
Volunteer Myles Conner said the group won’t back down and will return next week (Easter Monday), pledging to never give up “until we’re stopped.
“We believe this is the right thing to do in the face of an oppressive bylaw,” he said.
Food Not Bombs is a worldwide movement of people serving meals in public as a protest against both poverty and war.
The Peterborough chapter got started in November 2005, serving meals on Monday evenings inside the lobby at city hall. The idea was to remind people attending city council meetings that there are people in Peterborough without enough to eat.
When the fire marshal ruled that the lobby needed to be free of obstruction during council meetings, FNB moved across the street to the square.
For years there were no city rules against the group’s activity, and no requirement for a permit. But in 2019, the previous city council adopted the parks and facilities bylaw to prevent overnight camping on municipal property, a response to tenting that was happening in public amid a surging homelessness crisis.
However FNB was never told it needed a permit under the bylaw
until March 4, when security guards hired by the city ordered volunteers to leave or police would be called (officers never attended, that evening).
FNB representatives then had a meeting with Mayor Jeff Leal.
Leal said in a recent interview he offered to pay for a permit and insurance for 2024, out of his office’s discretionary fund — then the city and the group would have time to figure out a longer-term solution.
But Conner said no FNB group has ever sought a permit — they don’t ask permission to feed people. It’s nothing personal, he said. FNB simply doesn’t see a need to ask permission.
“I think it’s worth transgressing,” he said, adding that he’d be prepared to take the case to court “and see how our a**ses are handed to us — whether boiled, steamed or poached.” “Let’s have dinner,” he said. Teresa Wilkes, who said she frequently gets food on Monday evenings from FNB, said it’s “good food” being served by volunteers she’s come to know.
“I’d never go against these people — they’re good friends,” she said as she received her dinner.
Conner said the food is prepared by volunteers in the commercial kitchen at All Saints’ Anglican Church, using surplus produce from both of Peterborough’s Saturday farmers’ markets.