Most mornings at Memorial Park on French Street, day laborers line the sidewalks and hope for an odd job to come their way. Often cold and hungry, they look forward to Tuesdays when free coffee and assorted edibles help pass the time.
The refreshments are not compliments of nearby employment agencies that generate their revenues by finding cheap workers - many who are illegal migrants - for local businesses. Rather, they are provided free of charge by a local chapter of Food Not Bombs, a group comprised mainly of University students.
"They're just sitting out here in the cold so we though we'd come in, set up some coffee We usually have muffins and fruit [too]," said Michael Mangarelli, a Livingston College senior.
A worker expressed gratitude Tuesday morning and said the group does far more than provide food and drink.
"For me, it's a delight, a pleasure," he said. "We're Latinos, but we can see the perspective of the Americans when they invite us for coffee. It gives me pride to think that Americans are helping the Hispanics."
Food Not Bombs also distributes legal rights information in Spanish and translates literature put out by the American Civil Liberties Union. Their main goal though, is the defense of a freedom most people take for granted: the right to eat.
"We serve people in the community who are hungry because no one else will," said Andrew Spina, a Rutgers College senior. "Food Not Bombs is an international movement … that believes food is a right and that everyone deserves to eat."
The local community seems to appreciate their efforts - some come back to offer their help.
"I'm more than happy to be here," said Michelle Narvaez, a local New Brunswick resident, who met Spina earlier and decided to lend a hand after learning about the group's ideals. "I think what they're doing is aiming in the right direction."
Spina said much of the hunger in New Brunswick and the world in general is caused by an economic system that generates poverty in the face of abundance and for this reason, Food Not Bombs is an anti-capitalist group by charter.
The small collective has few rules except a provision that requires all decisions to be made by consensus, he said.
"We're an anarchist group but open to non-anarchists as well," said Mangarelli, who used the term in its broadest sense to describe an organized, non-authoritarian body.
Despite the negative connotation sometimes associated with anarchism, the group thinks its real-world impact has been positive.
"It's a new way of community organizing that's pretty effective," Spina said.
Food Not Bombs was founded in the '80s by a group of anti-nuclear activists who were protesting the Seabrook power plant in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Today, more than 400 chapters exist and their mission addresses issues of fair labor, immigrant rights and humanitarianism, according to The Food Not Bombs Web site.
Mangarelli said New Brunswick's local chapter is always looking for new members and anyone interested in participating should email the group at nbfoodnotbombs@hotmail.com.
