Jennifer Hsu, Video Producer, WNYC Interactive
Jennifer Hsu produces videos about news and culture for WNYC. She is the creator of the ongoing Know Your Neighbor video series of intimate portraits about living in New York City.
Dinner at Occupy Wall Street and the Farmers Who Grow It
Thursday, November 03, 2011
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Every night at Zuccotti Park, dinner is served around 7 P.M. What protesters may not realize is that their meals are made from fresh, organic produce donated by a dozen or so small farms located throughout the Northeast.
Since the early weeks of the protest, regional farmers have been coming down independently to Occupy Wall Street to donate fruits and vegetables. In those days, meals were prepared in volunteers' homes. Yet, as the protest quickly gained momentum, food preparation needed to get more organized, and Occupy Wall Street set up a daily dinner operation out of a soup kitchen in East New York, Brooklyn.
Once they got use of this professional cooking space, groups of farmers from different regional areas—from upstate New York, Vermont and western Massachusetts—started making regular trips down with produce.
"They all had this related thing: They're small organic farmers competing against big commercial and industrial farmers," says Heather Squire, the full-time Occupy Wall Street volunteer who manages the space. “The kitchen became a place for farmers to come together. It represented that place to take their issues to."
Now, participating farmers from Massachusetts and Vermont make deliveries twice a week, and they've created an organization to represent their efforts and raise awareness of issues affecting the rural small-farm community.
Watch a video of life behind-the-scenes at the Occupy Wall Street kitchen.
Comments [20]
This is absolutely beautiful. Passing it on to our local Occupy movement.
To: debra hartley. Did you even watch the video? These are small - SMALL - organic farmers. These aren't the big agribusiness operations. I was raised on a farm, still live in an area where farming is going on. My dad nor his neighbors had big-azz farms. What they had was enough to support their families, maybe turn a profit, & keep afloat.
Check out companies like ADM, do some reading or books on tape about agribusiness ruining family farming. Our city always has free dinners at various venues around town; I would hope that's repeated all over this country, and I tend to think it is so check our wherever you're "stuck" somewhere on the road over the holidays.
Why dont they go to the truck stops and feed the truckers that will be sitting over much of the holidays, not able to go home cause of being stuck out on our nations hwys cause of lack of freight.
The farmers helped themselves by profiting wall street by selling their corn at such a high price s for yrs. creating food prices to go higher all over the world just to produce ethanol.
SO HOW DO I KNOW THIS CAUSE IM A TRUCK DRIVER THAT TRAVELS ALL OVER THE US. AND DO NOT SEE ANY MORE OF THOSE BIG PLANTS ANYMORE CAUSE THEY WENT BANKRUPT. GOOGLE IT AND YOU WILL SEE EXACTLY WHAT THE FARMERS DID. THEY ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR STARVING ALOT OF PEOPLE.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Occupy-Congress/118171638290728
The Peoples good is the Highest Law (Cicero)
This is amazing !!! As a small organic vegetable farmer I find this inspiring and a true example of community. Shout-out to Western Mass where I learned to farm!
http://agrarianstyle.tumblr.com/
@David, just do it! try going there and asking for the kitchen. keep moving upstream until you find the honcho that can use your talents.
If the point of OWS is to end poverty and get laws changed to create a proper tax code to help redistribute wealth, then where is Ocuupy Congress and Occupy White House, where there are people that are actually in a position to make a change, as opposed to Wall Street, where people just play within the corrupt system that our government has provided.....try occupying common sense
Does anyone know who to contact about helping with the food prep? I'm a cook and have a couple days off each week.
Lovely
This is awsome guys, keep it up. Now the only thing left is to figure out how to solve the starvation problem and eliminate money. I saw this video on 2012 and the Birth of a New World, should check it out. Later
Didn't our country start this way?
I am really impressed....
Greetings from Occupy Houston.This is fantastic! Thank you for your work and for inspiring us..
Good article. Way to go heather
This "red herring" argument that there is a conflict of interest between providing food for Zuccattii Park OWS and poor and hungry people?
The point of OWS is to end poverty. End it. Not allow poverty to go on with food "charity" as the steam valve for growing inequality.
Struggling to end the causes of poverty is in the best interests of all of us. And we all get to support the people who are working at the Park.
disturbed by this, really? first, you should understand that the donations they speak of are for OWS, food/kitchen has been allotted money and they are trying to give back to the farmers. they also state that they use the facilities when the soup kitchen is finished. and as far as feeding the homeless, well perhaps you should take a trip to zuccotti one night. no one is turned away from the food line, and there are plenty of homeless eating that food. look and see the beauty of this piece!
I'm disturbed that facilities, resources, efforts, and donations are being used to feed protesters instead of the homeless.
Heather,
You are doing a wonderful community service and this may lead to a job eventually. I work with mentally ill poverty level clients in Trenton, NJ and I see every day the need that is so great out there.
Hang in there girl, things will come to you.
Hugs,
Pam
This is so wonderful on every level! Excellent!
great story. I was at Zuccatti's park last night around dinner time, and was pleasantly surprised by the healthy choices being served for dinner: beautiful kale, and brown rice. Way to go!
Awesome. True Patriots.
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