Victory! Gainesville ends 130-meal-a-day limit on soup kitchens

It took more than a year of organizing.

15,000 people signed a Change.org petition demanding that Gainesville feed all who are hungry.

Dozens of local demonstrations were held, many organized by local college students and the Coalition to End the Meal Limits NOW.

Change.org members even phone-banked the City Commission, demanding to know when a vote would be scheduled.

And finally, on August 18th, the City Commission voted unanimously to end the limit.

Instead,  soup kitchens will be allowed to serve food for a 3-hour period each day, a compromise suggested by Kent Vann, Executive Director of the St. Francis House soup kitchen, which was at the center of this debate.  The city attorney's office will now have to draft a new ordinance and the commission will have to approve it. At long last, Gainesville can move past the ill-conceived meal limit.

Gainesville isn't the only Florida city stopping those trying to help the hungry. Orlando has a city ordinance on the books that requires permits for groups distributing food to large groups in parks within two miles of City Hall. Any one group is limited to 2 permits per year. The city arrested more than two dozen Food Not Bombs activists during their twice weekly food sharing in Lake Eola park. Since the arrests, the group has begun sharing food outside city hall as a compromise of sorts. "However, we still haven't gotten the ordinance repealed," says Thomas Adriaan Hellinger, Secretary of Orlando Food Not Bombs. You can help with this campaign, too, by signing this petition demanding the Mayor repeal the city ordinance.

Photo Credit: bsabarnowl