A Brief History of Rebel Food Sharings in Florida

Following Saturday's arrest of 7 Food Not Bombs activists in downtown Tampa, there has been another flurry of social media outrage regarding the criminalization of homelessness. Like the last several times this has happened, there has been a flood of questions - how can sharing food be illegal? How could this happen? And so on.

Tampa Food Not Bombs before arrests on 1.7.17

The criminalization of sharing resources with the homeless, along with so many other aspects of homeless life, is hardly a new phenomenon for Florida. Generally, homeless oppression goes on in all 50 states without as much as a whimper from the majority of Americans - it just tends to bubble to the top every once in awhile when it makes an attention-grabbing headline. As we saw so very well here in Fort Lauderdale in 2014, the accuracy of these articles is...highly variable - it's actually one of the main reasons this site exists. So for those who are once again hearing about the criminalization of food sharings for the first time, we are offering a brief, incomplete primer.

Tampa in the Aughts

Tampa FNB arrest, 2004

This is not the first time this has happened in Tampa. Tampa once specifically banned the sharing of food in public parks with the homeless, resulting in 5 arrests over the course of a couple of months in 2004. The City also fenced and largely shuttered Herman Massey Park, the park Tampa FNB shared out of back then, resulting in a period of dormancy for that FNB chapter. Eventually lawyers helping FNB convinced the City to reconsider enforcement of these laws due to the lack of legal standing the laws would have needed to withstand a potential lawsuit. When TFNB began to share again in new locations in 2011 or so, no serious conflict would occur again until the events of this past week, even during the heavily policed Republican National Convention of 2012.

Orlando

Orlando FNB arrests, 2011

One of the longest running food fights in Florida history was that of Orlando Food Not Bombs versus the City of Orlando. Orlando FNB shared at Lake Eola Park in downtown Orlando for many years until the City planned a multi-million dollar facelift for that location and passed a law stating that sharings for more than 25 people in that park require a permit. After a few original arrests in 2007, the conflict became a legal battle for over 4 years, with FNB plaintiffs winning several times before the City finally got an appeals court to rule in their favor. For about 6 weeks, over 25 food sharers were arrested, until the international bad press, hacking attempts, and general all-around outrage convinced Orlando to reach a compromise with FNB, allowing them to continue sharings at the nearby City Hall, and dropping all of their charges. To this day OFNB still shares at City Hall.

Gainesville

In 2009, the City began to enforce a rule practically nobody had heard of which restricted food sharing services to 130 meals per 24 hour time period. This law was exclusively enforced against St Francis House, which was unpopular with local developers and City officials. The Coalition to End the Meal Limit NOW!, composed of Gainesville FNB, church groups, and others, fought for 2 years to end this food sharing law. Part of this story is told in the film "Civil Indigent," featuring the since-departed, irreplaceable, Pat Fitzpatrick.



Sarasota

Sarasota tried to follow Orlando's lead in 2011 to cap the amount of people who can be shared with without a permit, and tried other measures such as banning smoking in public parks, but most of these ordinances did not stand up to legal scrutiny. You can read much more on Sarasota's terrible history with the homeless.


Daytona

Retired couple Chico & Debbie Jimenez were infamously fined over $2,000 by the City of Daytona Beach for their once a week food sharings. Their fines were later thrown out.

Ft Lauderdale FNB arrest, 2014

Fort Lauderdale
Did you know a 90-year old chef was arrested multiple times in Fort Lauderdale in 2014? In reality, almost a dozen people were ticketed with sharing food in defiance of the City's sharing ban law in late 2014, and only 3 people (all with Fort Lauderdale FNB) were ever actually arrested, but the internet was flooded with outrage (as well as clickbait news stories that variously reported that Arnold Abbott was a pastor, that he was actually handcuffed and taken to jail multiple times, and so on).

Currently the law is still in effect, but there are several lawsuits against the City, filed by Chef Arnold's group Love Thy Neighbor, and Fort Lauderdale Food Not Bombs, that prevent it from being enforced.


There's many more facets to the criminalization of homelessness, all across Florida. From Pensacola's attempts to criminalize the legal homeless tent site known as Sean's Outpost to the Big Brother-style attempts by St Pete to criminalize all homeless activities, there's far more than the occasional and outrageous sight of food sharers being arrested. We can post links about these problems all day (look, here's another good one) but you'd be better served by just scrolling the rest of this site, which has been documenting these kinds of enforcements for almost 3 years now.
The next Tampa Food Not Bombs sharing is tomorrow morning.