The story of FOOD NOT COPS in Lyon (France)
The first idea of FOOD NOT COPS was introduced during a meeting with the french collective 'état d'urgence'. The aim was to make fresh vegetarian meals which were served for free in outside in public spaces of the 7th arrondissement in Lyon, to anyone without restriction. Word of mouth and annouNcement on activist's websites, such as 'yala' or 'rebellyon', had an effect which led to the creation of a collective of twenty people or so.

This new collective dedicated its first meetings to define aims and objectives the project would reach, and to decide about political actions the movement could support or not ( Was it simply about vegetarian meals served in outside or political activism aiming at regaining the streets? ) Although we shared common values, those questions were even more complicated as all the people involved came from various backgrounds. (Some of us are activist, non-activist, beginner, resident of the locality, outer participant, vegetarian, vegan, all-eating. Some of us are in favour of a contribution to the distribution of meals on one's own initiative, and others defend its free nature. Thereby, opinions differed as to the decision to create through the project a denunciation of global waste or simply to make possible those meals in outside and served to anyone without restriction.

However, based on the idea of proposing fresh meals to homeless people facing tough loneliness, each of us agreed about recovering on local markets fruits and vegetables that would otherwise be thrown out. It was the opportunity to limit outlays and waste. Finally, meals were vegetarian, more often vegan, in order to target a part of local population as large as possible. We agreed that waste would be comdemned on flyers, translated in several languages.

About actions and events
As a collective, we've been confronted to many issues. First, we had no comon kitchen. The preparation of food divided into individual parts makes the organisation even difficult: on one hand, there was a lack of space to create a comon place to cook, to set up meetings. More than that, only 10 people were available to dedicate a few hours to recovering, cooking and distribution. But on the other hand, the movement responded to a real situation of emergency and needed to gather the motivation and the energy of each of us. That's why a first action has been rapidly scheduled.

Then, we had to make a choice about a place, easily reachable and
noticeable for the local participants while keeping distances from the police as well. Due to its large trees surrounding the child playground and its location close to the homeless residence of 'la rue du Père Chevrier', the place, situated 'place Raspail', close to the Rhône borders, was both friendly and strategic at a time.

We decided to promote our activities using several ways : posters and flyers have been made, announcement on local activist websites.

But most of all, some of us went down town, in order to meet and to give to homeless people some explanations about the event, pointing out that it was in outside, free and that any person interested was more than welcome to share food, talks, or other stuffs. From this improvised start, rather exciting, emerged the desire to turn this event into a regular one and to schedule free meals twice a month on sunday. First actions of Food Not Cops went quite well, with more or less crowd and limited ressources. But our motivation made those events a nice moment shared all together.

We came up against our first obstacles when the police interfered in our plans. Some disagreements appeared when we had to decide how to behave with this situation. Cops made clear that, as a large group Food Not Cops represented, it was strictly forbidden to eat in public spaces, and that we had to stop immediately all of our actions, otherwise, we would be submitted to material seizure, punishment, control etc, etc, etc. Confrontation with the police was a real issue among the collective, because we had to debate about the strategy to develop - i. e. the choice between resistance or renunciation - , or to decide to fix a banner ( or not ), in order to present our actions as a global resistance movement to the loss of individual liberties. As well, an other issue was linked to the security of the participants: some of them have no legal statute, and obviously, we feared the risk to take them under hostage, through our convictions. That's why we had to think about this dangerous aspect, considering that the name 'Food Not Cops' itself introduces a certain notion of resistance. Other issues emerged as well, about regular actions in order to create a kind of habit and social bonds.

More than the need of food and the refusal of setting up a kind of charity spirit - which would have no sense at all, regarding to our project – we, as a collective, also had to take under account the symbol linked to our actions,. Other questions had been left without response until springtime.

Summer time provided some kind of technical responses to those questions: only 4 or 5 people were available regularly to continue: it meaned that it was impossible to prepare food and to distribute meals as it was previously done, because there was no way to carry material and food, to confront with the police. In the end, Food Not Cops turned into a distribution tour of sandwichs for the summer.

It seemed to be a good substitute of action and a partial regeneration of the project. Indeed, touring permits to get in touch more easily with local population, and to produce an intimate atmosphere, very positive for the people who would have been confused while participating to such an event among a lot of other participants. However, this solution gives no response to the question of reclaiming the streets. It obviously means a unreciprocaed contact with people willing at being alone, and includes a charity aspect more than a relationnal one. Regular meal distribution conducts to a greater atmosphere, it is a kind of rally point, and permits among the homeless community to meet new people. That would be impossible in a different situation. Then, it is more about sharing food, space, time and creating new social bonds than anything else.
By consequence, at the fall of the summer, there were less people involved, and a lack of motivation made the collective even more weak.

Back to september, a new squat had seen the light, named Khawa ( rue Monstesquieu ): this opening led to new dynamics. We had the opportunity to cook in a collective kitchen, which made the preparation easier. A new breath permitted to design new motivations and became the rally point of the original collective. Khawa led to a new start, and Food Not Cops welcomed new participants. As a rally point, this squat provided some solutions to the questions of recovered food and food stock. This issue had been avoided and it gave us more independence for Food Not Cops itself, and among the collective, as it was no longer enough to register the private places available to prepare food. Some distributions happened inside, which was very handy during winter, but from that emerged a new issue: the idea of reclaiming the streets was no longer available and this closed place did not permit spontaneous talks, even though this was not the main problem of the moment.
( Other distributions happened Place Carnot, not so far from Perrache train station. Other meetings have been set up in front of the squat, in order to enjoy sunshine and to provide an easier way to reach the place for outer participants.)

The new global dynamics were more than welcomed at winter time, but it was just temporary: involvement into Food Not Cops and Khawa used all our energy. Recovering food, maintaining 'office hours' at the squat in order to let the place opened to everyone, day by day, can not lead to a lasting project such as Food Not Cops. As well, some of us had dedicated a lot of time to FNC during the first year, and were very tired for its second one.

Police threats against the Khawa created a new issue concerning the sustainability of the place: a major part of the residents, deeply involved into Food Not Cops, had to be relocated because of several eviction warnings.

One year of Food Not Cops
The collective is currently inactive, until September. We expect a new start, with new people and new basis, in order to refresh the original dynamics.We have dedicated this first year to experiment the project: it gave us the opportunity to test several operating ways, to learn with our mistakes, and to shed light on communication problem among inner and outer participants.
As soon as september will come, the idea is to create a restart, with a new basis creating new and clear objectives, with the agreement of all. To decide and to talk about diffusion process, regularity and communication. We'll have to make the public more aware about Food Not Cops with shows, and generate enthusiasm for the project, in order to welcome new participants ready to involve themselve. We will have to find a similar place to the Khawa - which could contain a kitchen - to recover or to buy material, property of Food Not Cops and to recover enough money to create a monetary found for shopping in relation with the kitchen and which cannot be recovered ( rice, coffee, tea, spices ... )

To conclude, this first year has been quite positive, despite many issues. All the people invloved in FNC agreed on the fact that the movement needs a necessary restart, with new people, laiming at re creating a strong collective.
 
Food Not Bombs presentation
Food Not Cops lyon is an independent movement butlinked to the international network FOOD NOT BOMBS. Any movement is independent from the others, but all share comon values and ideas. Some solidarity actions exist among them, such as the Food Not Bombs Action, organized in March to the benefit of the San Petersburg collective. Recently, the same event happened in Lille (France). Some movements are composed of 2 or 3 people such as Food Not Bomds Grenoble, or Food Not Bomds Toulon, which is about to start. Other ones gather many people and lead to a collective such as Food Not Bomds Dijon, or Paris, or Arrezzo (Italia, more or less 30 people)

For more information about Food Not Bombs, check out
www.foodnotbombs.net