Thread: "Comida no Migra!" serves day laborers in Carrboro

http://www.heraldsun.com/orange/10-758776.html

Group serves up tamales with a side of acceptance

BY JENNIFER FERRIS : The Herald-Sun
jferris@heraldsun.com
Aug 5, 2006 : 7:25 pm ET

CARRBORO -- It's a muggy summer night and the air in Neal Robertson's kitchen is thick with the smells of boiling corn and exotic South American spices.

Robertson and several friends have formed an assembly line in the small, un-air-conditioned space. One chops homegrown tomatoes while another fills a bowl with corn husks. Despite the punk rock sounds drifting in from a stereo in another room, the atmosphere is peaceful and friendly.

It might look like they are preparing for a fiesta, and in essence that's exactly what they are doing. Robertson and his friends are members of a group they call "Comida no Migra!" -- which translates roughly as "food, not border patrol."

Members of the group gather together each Wednesday night to prepare food for 40 to 50 people, and each Thursday around 7:30 a.m., they bring the food to the immigrant day laborers who wait for work near a gas station on Jones Ferry Road.

"When they see us coming they shout 'tamales!'" Robertson explained.

Comida no Migra! is a local offshoot of an international group called Food not Bombs that delivers food to the hungry in hundreds of cities.

The idea of Food not Bombs is somewhat political in nature; in addition to delivering a message of peace, members of the group seek to bring awareness to what they view as wasted surplus food that could be used to bring an end to world hunger.

All over the world, members of this loosely knit group scour grocery stores and farms for excess produce and bread products and then use their finds to cook big group meals.

Locally, Robertson says he has agreements with produce managers at several stores and is able to score almost everything he needs from items that would otherwise be trash.

"Hardly anything we use is bought," he said. "But for a few basic supplies like bulk goods and spices, some members of the group use food stamps."

Often, Robertson said, he ends up with even more food than he can cook. He has started bagging these extras up and distributing them to the immigrant workers when he serves them tamales. Later this year he hopes to get a community pantry program going to provide for needy families around the neighborhood.

Still, the members insist they are not a charity.

"The goal is to get involved with the people you are serving," Robertson said. "We want to blur and ultimately get rid of the divisions of 'helper' and 'helpee.' We live in the same neighborhood as a lot of them, so what better way to meet the neighbors than over a hot tamale in the morning?"

Nationally, Food not Bombs has received quite a bit of recognition, not all of it positive. Some cities find the group's mission to be controversial, and many find their community meals to be unsavory.

The city of Las Vegas banned the group from serving public meals, and just this week the group filed a lawsuit charging discrimination. In other cities, Food not Bombs workers have been repeatedly arrested.

Robertson reports he has received no harassment locally, and that the one police officer his group has encountered was only curious about what they were doing.

"Everybody who sees us has so many questions," Robertson said. "Usually it's 'are you with the church?' We're not preaching to them, we're not going to them like we are activists. Usually the response is good."

What they are doing is illegal in my city. Do those people have food handlers licenses and does the health department know they are cooking and distributing food? Have their kitches been inspected for sanitation and other health code standards?

Dixie

We live in the same neighborhood as a lot of them, so what better way to meet the neighbors than over a hot tamale in the morning?"

Then how about meeting with you neighbors over bacon, eggs, and toast instead of tamales.

"Hardly anything we use is bought," he said. "But for a few basic supplies like bulk goods and spices, some members of the group use food stamps."

Of course they have to use our tax dollars.