On an unseasonably cold and gloomy Sunday evening, a line of about
50 people stretches across Occidental Park in Pioneer Square. The men
and women in line clutch large plastic trays as a group of about a
dozen volunteers from Food Not Bombs (FNB)—a loosely organized
nationwide group of activists working to feed the homeless—offer
up scoops of vegan mashed potatoes, veggie stir-fry, and guacamole.
Just as the food starts to run out, two parks department trucks roll
into the park. One parks employee starts scribbling down the
license-plate numbers of two volunteers’ cars and makes a call. Minutes
later, two Seattle Police Department cars pull up near the edge of the
park.
The young FNB volunteers—some with dyed hair, others wearing
Operation Ivy hoodies—are visibly nervous about the police
presence, but say it isn’t anything new. Volunteers say that in the
last month, they’ve repeatedly been shooed out of the park by the parks
department and SPD. Employees for those agencies, in turn, say the
order to crack down on unauthorized meal programs like FNB’s came
straight from Mayor Greg Nickels’s office. Nickels’s spokesman, Alex
Fryer, claims the mayor has not issued any specific edict to crack down
on the meals in Occidental Park. However, he adds that the crackdowns
are “for safety’s sake and public health’s sake.”
The city’s response is part of a larger citywide crackdown on
perceived health and safety issues associated with the homeless. In the
past year, city and county workers have torn down encampments tucked
away in greenbelts, shut down another meal program in City Hall Park,
and corralled a number of other homeless meal programs, including
Operation Sack Lunch, onto a lot under the I-5 overpass at Sixth Avenue
and Columbia Street—nearly a mile from the halfway houses and
shelters in Pioneer Square and outside the downtown ride-free transit
zone.
FNB volunteers say the group has no plans to follow other homeless
programs to the city-sanctioned parking lot. The organization, which
started as an antinuclear group in the 1980s and gradually evolved into
an antihunger organization, emphasizes healthy meals that are easy for
homeless people to access. And that’s part of what’s gotten them into
trouble.
In an April 23 letter to FNB volunteers, the parks department claims
FNB’s weekly dinner at Occidental Park is a health and safety hazard
and says the city expects “all organizations” to serve their meals at
“the only approved city site,” at Sixth and Columbia. Police officers
say they’re concerned about fights in the park. However, one FNB
volunteer named Ozzie (who wanted to be identified by his first name
only) says, “I’ve seen more fights outside of bars on Pioneer Square”
than in Occidental Park. Nonetheless, Ozzie and several other
volunteers say police and parks officials have threatened them with
parks exclusion citations—barring them from all Seattle parks for
up to a year—if they continue to serve the homeless in Occidental
Park.
The city employees who’ve been dealing with FNB don’t seem terribly
excited at the prospect of writing tickets or issuing citations. One
parks employee bagging up garbage in Occidental Park says he “feel[s]
like a snitch” whenever he has to report FNB, but he’s been ordered to
call police any time he sees a group meal in any Seattle park. One
police officer at the park on Sunday apologetically tells a group of
FNB volunteers, “I don’t have a problem with it; I just have to let you
know [you can’t do it here].”
For now, FNB plans to stay as long as they can. When asked how
important the Occidental Park site is to FNB, Ozzie pauses. “You’d have
to ask hungry people that,” he says. “My personal inclination is that
if it’s not there, there are some people who aren’t going to be able to
eat.” 
