Free food, no questions asked

A partnership set on bringing perishable foods to the UI campus for everyone

Kali Nelson | Argonaut Henri Sivula is working on the second pot of soup for the community meal.

Every Sunday from August to November, Food not Bombs of the Palouse (FNB) has been giving out a free community meal to Moscow residents.

They gathered at East City Park Sunday at 2 p.m. to set up and start the cooking.

With camp stoves on either end of picnic tables, volunteers with the organization got to work chopping mushrooms, leeks, peppers and onions.

The group filled three tables at East City Park with various food items, cardboard boxes, paper bags and jugs of water.

It took about two hours for the group, but by the end there were two pots of soup, bread pudding for dessert and a salad, all free.

The organization, which gives out free community meals to Moscow residents is aiming to partner with campus groups to expand its reach.

FNB collects food that is close to its sell- or use-by date from Safeway  or local businesses and gives it to community members said member Henri Sivula.

“We are doing weekly meals, we are working with the Women’s Center, and now I’ve talked today with the Center for Volunteerism and Social Action, so we hopefully  will be working with the Food Pantry at large,” Sivula said.

The group reached out to the Women’s Center to set up a weekly drop off for vegetables, baked goods and sometimes meat.

Sivula said the unofficial motto of FNB is “rich or poor, stoned or sober” because the group does not ask for any justification from people receiving the food.

Sivula said the group agreed to partner with the Women’s Center because of the center’s reputation of being an inclusive organization.

“I said we would do one or two trial runs and see if we could distribute the food because it’s all perishable, and so I was concerned we wouldn’t be able to distribute it in a timely manner, but I said let’s give it a go,” said Lysa Salsbury, director of the Women’s Center.

They agreed to a drop-off date of Tuesday, which will be adhered to each week. Salsbury said the Women’s Center has moved to distributing food on both Tuesday and Thursday.

The food is open for all Moscow community members, Salsbury said. The amount of food and type depends on what Safeway has for the FNB group to pick up, Sivula said. The group goes to Safeway on Saturday morning, Sivula said, and they usually get three or more shopping carts of food.

“So, they delivered a large amount of produce and some baked goods the first time and we just took photographs and distributed it via social media, I think we got like 45 shares of our first post, and the food was gone by the end of the day,” Salsbury said.

Kali Nelson can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @kalinelson6.

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