Food Not Bombs handed second trespassing notice

Volunteers feeding the hungry on city property without permit

Food Not Bombs Peterborough continued serving free meals on Monday evening in Confederation Square until the food ran out — even while security guards hired by the city arrived and gave another written trespassing notice, for a second Monday in a row.

Members got the notice, which says they need a permit, and continued serving, packing up about an hour later. Although guards have told volunteers on recent Mondays that police would be called if they don’t leave, city police did not visit this week.

The trespassing notice stated the group is breaking the city’s parks and facilities bylaw, which prohibits serving food or pitching a tent or structure on city property without a permit.

Food Not Bombs (FNB) is a worldwide counterculture 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 going to city council meetings that some people don’t have enough to eat.

FNB subsequently moved across the street to the square in 2011, where they’ve been serving every Monday evening since.

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.

Group 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 volunteer Myles Conner said no FNB group has ever sought a permit — they don’t ask permission to feed people, he added.

On Monday Conner wore a blue T-shirt with the message, ‘It is an honour to serve and to be served.’ A crowd of both volunteers and people there to get food milled around the square as usual.