Group Feeds Needy in Spite of Warning

An act of civil disobedience helped ensure that a handful of homeless people received a hot meal this weekend at Mission Park.

The Ventura chapter of Food Not Bombs, a volunteer organization that distributes free food, was out Sunday afternoon despite a warning that the food giveaway would violate city and county laws.

“We have followed through on everything they have asked of us except to cease and desist,” said Phil Heiple, a volunteer with the local chapter of the nationwide organization, which collects food that would otherwise be discarded to feed the needy.

Despite the warning, several Food Not Bombs volunteers arrived at the downtown park Sunday with steaming bags of baked potatoes and bagels. The discreet delivery was a scaled-down version of the usual menu of hot soups, fruit and green salads, mashed potatoes, rolls and other food donated by local restaurants, grocers, and farmers market vendors.

On Nov. 22, while patrolling the park across from the San Buenaventura Mission, Ventura Police Department Officer Russ Robinson said he saw 20 people in line to receive a meal from the group.

Then on Friday, the volunteers were told to find a new place to feed the transients, whom police characterize as alcoholics, drug users and serious criminal offenders--an element they say merchants don’t want in downtown Ventura.

“Every one I saw here in this park today is an alcoholic,” Robinson said on Sunday. “I know these people feel good about feeding them, but it enables them to keep money to buy alcohol.”

Meal organizers, however, say that while it is largely homeless men and women who line up for the 30 or so dinners they serve each Sunday, they also provide hot, balanced meals to local children, small families and people whose welfare checks didn’t stretch far enough.

Heiple said the group has provided free vegetarian dinners in Mission Park for more than four months without incident or police interference until Friday, when he and other volunteers were asked to meet with Robinson, a city parks official, and a representative from the Westside Community Council.

Robinson said the problem is location, not providing food to those who need it.

“They are more than welcome to feed these people,” said Robinson, who works out of the downtown Ventura Police Department storefront on Main Street. “We would just prefer that they not do it in city parks.”