These are some questions we've guessed people might want answered about us. Feel free to get in touch at [email protected] for any other questions or for clarification/elaboration/your views on any of the below. These are not at all complete answers. Our org is always evolving, and much of this is not set in stone. 

What do we do?
We run a weekly distribution in Birmingham town centre where we distribute hot food, hot drinks, snacks and other items such as clothing, hygiene items, etc to anyone who wants them. The food is mostly cooked by us - previously in a commercial kitchen and currently in members' homes. We display banners with our organisation name on and another saying '1312 fuck cops make soup', a Palestine flag and a pink and black anarchaqueer flag. This tends to spark conversations with people, particularly about police and abolition. These chats and this visibility are part of what we're about. We distribute DROPIN leaflets on what to do during a stop and search and other resources about abolition - currently a zine about things to do instead of calling the police, which also briefly explains why to reconsider calling the police in certain scenarios. We plan to expand this and also raise awareness of the many cases of police violence/corruption in Birmingham (some out of many examples being: West Midlands Police's numerous recorded sexual assaults, the murders of Kingsley Burrell,  Mubarak Ali, Dalian Atkinson and Trevor Smith - all of which we are yet to see justice for). We use our socials to boost stuff relevant to abolition and our broader politics. We also distribute copies of DOPE magazine for people to either read or sell to others. We also have been supporting "Self-Defence is No Offence" campaigns around the legal system's targeting of various Asian men for defending themselves and their communities during the recent racist riots.

Who are we?
We are an anti-hierarchical mutual aid group who are brought together by two things. Firstly, our desire to organise together to build community and help people in our city directly through our distributions described above. Secondly, our dislike of police and related carceral institutions and our broadly shared political grounding in the traditions of abolition, anticolonialism, antiracism, class struggle, antifascism, queer liberation and opposition to all forms of domination. We are quite a large, broad and fairly open collective so it would be hard to pin down many specifics beyond this. Many - but not all - of us would self-describe as anarchist. 

Antihierarchical? What does that mean?
By 'antihierarchical' we mean firstly that we are against a hierarchical approach to working together and share a vision of society without hierarchies. However, we organise around this principle from a place of first recognising that non-hierarchy within this current society is a fantasy and various hierarchies between members of an organisation already exist and dynamics within organisations inevitably emerge. What exactly this entails in practice will necessarily be an ongoing conversation requiring compromises and adaptations up until we are in a wider society without hierarchies. But what we don't do is simply declare ourselves as lacking hierarchies, thereby ignoring/invisibilising these, nor do we reinforce hierarchies by giving specific individuals positions/status and official decision making power. We acknowledge that being a distribution organisation obviously is itself a hierarchy between us and people who come to our distributions, but we try and minimise this dynamic as much as possible. 

Why the name?
While partly inspired by the work groups under the 'Food Not Bombs' name do, we felt the name and branding didn't suit our politics, which doesn't fit well with the pacifism/non-violence and strict veganism that FNB is associated with. We humbly learn from historical liberation movements worldwide (e.g. the Haitian revolution) and stand in solidarity with ongoing struggles for liberation - by any means necessary. We wanted our name to reflect our abolitionist and anticolonial leanings.

Where are you based?
We are based in Birmingham - a famously working class and multicultural (but also deeply segregated) city already scarred by Thatcher and Blair's de-industrialisation and privatisation, austerity, decades of racist policymaking and attacks on local communities. It is now facing rapid gentrification and betrayal by local and national political class. Rampant landlordism, police violence and unaccountability and a widespread awareness of not being represented by corrupt local politicians are also just some of the issues here. Structural anti-Blackness, Islamophobia, colonial legacies, caste, cisheteropatriarchy and racist exclusion on the basis of citizenship are some of the dynamics that shape different individuals and communities' interactions with class here. We believe abolition and mutual aid form part of the start of an answer.

Who do you distribute to?
Anyone. We don't means-test in any way beyond people being able to come to our distribution. We don't restrict how much stuff people take, until we run out for the day. Homelessness is a huge issue in Birmingham and while we don't ask people this, we do consistently meet people who mention they are sleeping rough. We love to share a meal, drink and/or a chat with anyone who comes across us though.

Are we a charity?
We try not to be. We don't see food distribution as the solution nor do we intend to take an NGO route of constant target-driven 'growth' in our service - but we see this as a way to build community and be of some immediate help to those affected. We aim to inspire and materially support more mutual aid work as well as generally building a culture of mutual aid and promoting these principles, rather than to grow and become an NGO structure ourselves.  Our uncompromising political messaging and support of genuine resistance to structural issues is a key part of our work - and is exactly the kind of thing the Non-Profit Industrial Complex exists to sideline. This is why we are turning to community to fundraise rather than grants from businesses, foundations, etc, which come with explicit and implicit strings attached. In fact, part of the reasoning behind our name is to restrict us from the natural pull towards liberalisation and depoliticisation that this sort of work can have.

What do we need money for?
Food ingredients, food containers to keep food warm, kitchen hire, printing.

We have self-funded many distributions and have secured some of the more expensive bits of kit already. We are able to avoid costs wherever we can but we have now gotten to the point that we need to turn to the wider community to fund reliable distribution.

If we end up with more than we need we would love to put this towards other abolitionist or mutual aid projects in our city/region and or widen our own work and take on more projects if we have capacity.

Are we a vegan organisation?
No. While most of our hot food is plant-based and some of us are vegan, we do not refuse to provide items with animal products (e.g. chocolates, dairy milk, meat, some clothes) when we come across such options. Ultimately the choice to consume or not consume such items is up to the person eating, not us. It is not appropriate for us to deny people access to such items and to enforce our own morality/culture when we come across, are asked for or are donated these. Even those of us who are personally vegan do not believe the concept of 'cruelty-free'/truly vegan food is possible in the current system given the exploitation of humans in the global food industry's racialised division of labour.

The blood of severely exploited/enslaved humans in the Global South (and North, particularly in the case of migrant farm labour exploitation) that produces food is as much an 'animal product' as cow's milk. Similarly, a commonly-ignored critique of coopted white veganism is empathy for non-humans animals enslaved and locked up in inhumane conditions, alongside a lack of anticolonial, antiracist, abolitionist politics for other animals (humans) treated the same way. The organisation that itself coined/appropriated the European term 'vegan' is based in Birmingham and is a perfect example of this, having been rocked with racism scandals and corporate-pandering corruption recently. We are also mindful that enforced food purity around meat/vegetarianism is rooted in violent caste hierarchy and anti-Muslim persecution. Orientalist views of (upper-caste Hindu) Indian vegetarianism overlook this but we take it as a lesson to respect individuals' autonomy when it comes to food and nutrition. 

We always have halal and plant-based options.