"This policy of non-prosecution is very frustrating and distressing. . .there are also inherent problems if the department ceases enforcement... [Food Not Bombs] would no doubt 'rub it in the face' with visible, blatant, and untimely distribution of food. It could result in a chaotic situation and set a dangerous precedent for other groups who refuse to abide by the law... 
-- Captain Dennis P. Martel Commanding Officer, Northern Police Station, February 9, 1990, in an official San Francisco Police Memorandum 

"Many of those interviewed said the frustration and anger on all sides of the issue is likely to mount unless more money is found for services. Without more money, they say, this fall's skirmish between police and Food Not Bombs could be just mild warnings of conflicts to come. 'If the homeless were organized, if they received some heavy leadership. . . you might have social unrest,' said Harry de Ruyter, director of social services for the Salvation Army in San Francisco. 'You might have an uprising.'" 
-- San Francisco Chronicle, October 31, 1988 

"They [Food Not Bombs] feel they can manipulate the homeless issue to set the stage for some kind of radical new social order."
-- Art Agnos, Mayor of San Francisco, August 26, 1988 

"They [Food Not Bombs] never sell the food, but always give it away for free. Again, in over eight years, we have never had any public health-related complaints or difficulties with this program. They enjoy broad-based community support. In fact, this group works cooperatively with the city in our mutual agenda of educating the public about the dangers of nuclear war and encouraging peace through nuclear disarmament." 
-- Alfred E. Vellucci, Mayor of Cambridge, January 20, 1989, in a letter to Ben Gale of the San Francisco Health Department, found in the San Francisco Police Files
 
 

C. T. Lawrence Butler moved to Boston in 1976 with a theater troupe he had helped form in his hometown of Newark, Delaware. In 1979, he joined an affinity group at the urging of an actor friend and participated in two major occupation attempts at the Seabrook Nuclear Power Station. These actions introduced C.T. to two concepts -- nonviolent direct action and consensus decision-making -- that changed his life. Over the past decade, C.T. has pursued his exploration of these two disciplines by becoming a war-tax resister and participating in numerous social change/political action groups. 

In 1980, C.T. and a group of friends formed the Food Not Bombs collective in Cambridge. Later, C.T. was acknowledged for his work in Cambridge by being appointed to the Commission on Peace Education and Nuclear Disarmament of the city. 

Currently, CT. lives in Portland, Maine, with several friends who are creating a Green intentional community. He is a father, author, political activist, pro.feminist, nonviolence trainer, and vegetarian chef. He is active in the National Organization of Men Against Sexism, the Greens (USA), the War Resisters League, the New England Nonviolence Trainers Network, ACT UP/Maine, the Casco Bay Greens, and the Maine War Tax Resistance Resource Center. C.T. is co-editor of The Dove, a newsletter on war-tax resistance in Maine. He is writing his third book The Food Not Bombs Cookbook 

Keith McHenry was born in Frankfurt, West Germany, in l957 while his father was stationed there in the army. His patemal great-great-grandfather signed the U.S. Constitution and was Secretary ofWar under George Washington, and his matemal grandfather helped plan the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki 

In 1974, Keith began studying painting at Boston University; after college, he worked three years for the National Park Service, traveled across the United States working odd jobs, and made trips to Seabrook, New Hampshire, to protest nuclear power. 

In 1979, he started an advertising firm in Boston. In 1980, Keith and seven friends joined to create Food Not Bombs. After eight years of serving free food and designing graphics, Keith and his wife, Andrea, moved to San Francisco, where they started another Food Not Bombs group. Since then, Keith has been arrested over 50 times for serving free food in city parks; he has never been convicted. Andrea and Keith continue to volunteer with Food Not Bombs, design publications, and roam the beaches and mountains of the West with their dogs, Pluto and Bear.