Soupstock; a Food Not Bombs retrospective
Photos Taken on Film by the Guard Dog for Santa Cruz’s Soupstock
The event celebrated 45 years of continuous love and mutual reciprocity to the local community by the collective Food Not Bombs. Since its foundation in 1980 by a group of anti-war activists, including pictured Keith McHenry, FNB has spread its philosophy of combating poverty through giving free meals to everyone throughout 60 countries worldwide with over 1,000 independently ran, consensus driven chapters. In many ways, the event mirrored the rhetoric that they use here in Santa Cruz while conducting their operation; everyone was allowed to eat for free and volunteer. People sat and enjoyed the sun while local bands performed on a makeshift stage and families and dogs visited their fathers and mothers on the hill where everyone decided to eat lunch.
On the outskirt of San Lorenzo Park where the event was held, canopies shading tables full of food were posted. Volunteers formed an assembly line and piled whatever food a person would want on brown paper plate before handing it off. Around these canopies were other tables that served as information booths for various political issues happening around the world and in the United States. These information booths held flyers and paper packets of context for things like the genocide occurring in both Sudan and Palestine or the housing crisis along with signup sheets to get connected with organizers. Nearby, there were some independent art vendors and there was a line of children waiting to get their faces painted. Even though I was an hour early, I could still feel the heavy weight of gratitude in the air as the musicians on stage began their set.
Many of those in attendance were homeless, as are most of those who frequent FNB’s tent throughout the week. Making conversation with these folk is always easy and many of them caught up with familiar volunteers they have known from food distribution throughout the years. One FNB volunteer passing out food told me she was now clean after years of drug use on the streets of Santa Cruz. She told me giving back to FNB was a way of thanking the organization for helping her in her time of need.
To me, they are the most important thing a community can have: the ability to create direct change to a corrupt system that uses natural rights like food for social control. A system of mutual aid full of people that understand that living in community with other people means entering a symbiotic relationship with members who share your humanity. FNB’s existence itself is a revolutionary act because the United States has proven to us that they only value the humanity of a handful of people- individuals who exploit the abundance of natural resources on this planet and sell it back to us.
We live in the richest nation in history, yet almost 50 million people faced food insecurity in 2023, the same year Doug McMillin, CEO of one of the largest grocery chains in America Walmart, made 27 million dollars. We should not view it as normal when we see hungry people sleeping outside the same company buildings that have the power to funnel resources into solving one of the world’s most preventable tragedies exacerbated by the greed of the elite.
My time volunteering with the Food Not Bombs Santa Cruz chapter has been as easy as it was beneficial to feeding your neighbor. The only hard part is not spilling the soup we cooked on my car seats on the way to an event.
The United States and its genocidal ally Israel also employ their starvation control tactics overseas, specifically on the population of Gaza. Palestinians have been the subject of a mass starvation campaign orchestrated by Israel since March of 2025. The IDF closed its borders to aid distribution trucks to amplify the effectiveness of their genocide and begin the annexation of the West Bank in Palestine, and now the Ministry of Health in Gaza is reporting 147 deaths due to malnutrition and starvation since October of 2023. 88 were children.
We are witnessing the first live streamed genocide in history while the leaders of nations watch with apathy. The people of Gaza and the rest of the population of this planet watching in horror will have to endure the burden of the capacity of the world’s cruelty. Yet we persevere. And we do not fall silent because we do not have the right to. Volunteers at Food Not Bombs and people like the activists who sail the Gaza Freedom Flotilla are setting the example for those who feel like their efforts have turned into screaming into the void. Keep screaming, and eventually the rest of the world will join.
Fighting for the right for food is fighting against an inherently unnatural philosophy. A human being needs food and water to survive. Intentionally depriving someone of something necessary for their survival is cruel and unnecessary. Especially when the United States has the means for providing everyone with basic care. Ultimately, Soupstock celebrated a collective that recognized the inhumanity of that. Long live Food Not Bombs and free Palestine.
Cassius