Ever wanted to get involved with Asheville Food Not Bombs? For years, the group has been serving free vegetarian meals to anyone who needs food. Currently, we host picnics and informal activist networking every Saturday starting around 3:45pm at Pritchard Park.

Our most recent kitchen space in downtown Asheville is no longer available because the folks who lived in the house where we cooked have moved. A plethora of local community centers and churches have been contacted but nothing has become available for our use. We would like to stay cooking in downtown Asheville because of the convenience and variety of people that help cook and clean; however, as of right now, until another cooking space is found, Asheville Food Not Bombs will return to Warren Wilson College campus to cook and clean.

FROM THE NEWSWIRE: Asheville Food Not Bombs serves free, wholesome, vegetarian meals every Saturday at Pritchard Park at 4pm and is part of a global movement of people dedicated to building a new world by breaking down barriers between individuals and calling attention to the explicit violence that is present in our current society. Help is needed to continue this project! Whether you are looking to help out once, every so often, or all the time (now that's the spirit!), your help would be wonderful!

If you are interested in picking up food on Saturday mornings from the French Broad Food Co-Op, cooking, transporting food to the park, serving, or cleaning, contact Hattie at 303-929-9713 or jamim@riseup.net for more information. At this point in time, the collective is especially in need of individuals to pick up food on Saturday mornings and transport it to our kitchen location in downtown Asheville. In the past, food has been picked up via bicycle or car.

Also, we are actively looking for a new kitchen space! Currently, we are cooking out of a private kitchen but are looking for a community space in downtown Asheville that has space for 10-20 people to cook in. Please contact Hattie if you know of any spaces available.

Lindsay and Wayne enjoying each other's company in Pritchard Park.

FROM THE NEWSWIRE: For years, Asheville Food Not Bombs has been sharing free vegetarian food and hosting informal activist networking. Relying on volunteers who are committed to social change - or who just like to cook - Asheville Food Not Bombs is part of a worldwide movement that was started in 1980 by two anti-nuclear activists who saw the United States government - and society at large - as violent and focused on building and promoting that which causes death rather than life. Early Food Not Bombs activists were astounded at the amount of money, time, and resources the United States government and other governments were putting into developing life-threatening nuclear weapons while millions of Americans sat by hungry and without access to resources or help.

This connection between violence and poverty is not one that has been severed over time. Indeed, today many people are without food, clothing, shelter, and other necessities that they need to survive. Meanwhile, elected officials continue to make poor policy choices that do not support life and corporations continue to make mass weapons and throw away food that could otherwise be used to feed those who are hungry.