- FNB Boston Newsletter
- Posts
- The Raised Carrot #004
The Raised Carrot #004
The Food Not Bombs Boston Newsletter
Food Not Bombs Boston
August 20, 2025
The Raised Carrot #004
The Food Not Bombs Boston Newsletter
The Raised Carrot is back after another scorching month of summer! Make sure you and your neighbors are staying hydrated and cool on hot days; we’re doing our best by distributing ice, cold drinks, and cool packs as much as we can. This month the Roxbury Food Not Bombs chapter moved to a new location, the Quincy and Braintree chapter had their second ever meeting, and we want to shout out our slightly farther away friends in Worcester Food Not Bombs! We also have an article explaining what “mutual aid” actually means, with a spotlight on community fridges. As always, we would love to see you at any of our regular serve locations, to help out, or just to enjoy the delicious food we cooked. Don’t hesitate to contact us either, we would love to hear how you can get involved!
We’re loving the fresh summer produce we’ve had donated to us
Table of Contents
Join Us For Our Free Meals All Around Boston
There are a few Food Not Bombs chapters in the Boston area, come join us at one of them for a free meal! The best way to get involved with us is by coming to one of our serves. You can help us distribute food and goods or just enjoy a good meal and get to know us. There is no need to sign up in advance, and everyone is welcome! If you aren’t able to attend our serves then you can also send an email to your local chapter and ask what you can do to help out.
Boston Food Not Bombs serves a meal in Cambridge every Saturday 1-3 PM at James Cronin Park.
Email: [email protected] Instagram: @bostonfoodnotbombs Donate: ko-fi.com/food-not-bombs-boston
Roxbury Food Not Bombs - Roxbury Food Not Bombs serves a meal at Dudley Town Common on Blue Hill Avenue, every Sunday 1-3PM. We’re in the park at 2 Blue Hill Ave.
Email: [email protected] Instagram: @roxburyfoodnotbombs Donate: ko-fi.com/roxburyfnb
Waltham Food Not Bombs serves a meal in Waltham every Sunday 2-4 PM at Waltham Common, and also distributes free groceries every Wednesday 6 PM in a lot by 240 Moody Street.
Email: [email protected] Instagram: @foodnotbombswaltham Donate: Paypal [email protected]
Malden Food Not Bombs serves a meal every 1st and 3rd Saturday of the month at 1:30 PM right outside of Malden Center Station.
Email: [email protected] Instagram: @malden_fnb
Donate: ko-fi.com/fnbmalden
Somerville Food Not Bombs is coming soon!
Quincy and Braintree Food Not Bombs is coming soon! If you want to get involved with the monthly planning meetings send an email or follow the Instagram for upcoming details.
Email: [email protected] Instagram: @foodnotbombs_quincybraintree
Events
Our table and banner from the MAMAS Back to School Free Store this month.
MAMAS Free Store - August 9th
On August 9th we tabled at the MAMAS Back to School Free Store. We had a great time sharing coffee and pastries with the shoppers!
Help by AMG Founders Day 2025 - August 9th
Also on August 9th we tabled at Help by AMG’s vendor/resource fair in celebration of Founders Day. We shared zines, patches, stickers, and cookies.
Mutual Aid: Community Fridges
The Allston-Brighton community fridge loaded up with fresh veggies
What is Mutual Aid?
If you’re reading this newsletter, you’ve probably at least heard the phrase “mutual aid”. It is often used interchangeably with the word “charity” by left-aligned groups, but in fact mutual aid is a much different and more radical process. Mutual aid is the horizontal organization of a community in order to meet the needs of its members. Every member of the community has the option to participate and every member of the community is welcome to receive aid.
Mutual aid is different from charity in that charity is a one-sided relationship where one person is always expected to give and another is always expected to receive. This can sometimes come with baggage, like the receivers being required to meet certain moral standards; only receiving help if they are free from drugs, meet some threshold of “need”,or if they follow a certain religion. Even a charity that gives without requirements is different from mutual aid. Charity can be good, we always support helping people, but when we engage in mutual aid we do more than just help people. Mutual aid is transformative. It actively challenges the way capitalism expects us to live. When our community meets its own needs without profit motives we are not just helping people, we are prototyping a different type of economy where people freely help each other.
The basics of mutual aid come naturally to humans. When you do a favor for a friend or family member you are participating in the most basic level of mutual aid - you help a friend move their furniture, another friend feeds your pet while you are away, a third friend bakes cookies they share with all of you: everyone gives freely and can expect help when they need it. The power of mutual aid comes when we intentionally build our networks to include our whole community. Food Not Bombs strives to be one of these mutual aid networks; a place where anyone is welcome to provide and everyone can take what they need. Today we want to talk about another project for mutual aid, that we often make use of as Food Not Bombs, community fridges.
Community fridges are also sometimes called “Freedge”s!
What is a Community Fridge?
Community fridges are literal fridges setup in public spaces for anyone to access; they often have a pantry for dry goods as well. They are usually outside and there is no requirement to even talk with anyone to use one, you can just walk right up and take whatever you need. Most community fridges have an attached group of volunteers that regularly check and clean the fridge, but the fridges are stocked by anyone with food to offer. Anything that isn’t fresh produce or prepackaged should be labelled with ingredients and the date it was put in the fridge so that people can make informed decisions about what to take. As Food Not Bombs, we often load up our local community fridges with the leftovers from our serves!
There are a number of community fridges around the Boston area. You can find a volunteer-run directory of all the community fridges in Massachusetts here with locations and information about each fridge. We highly recommend you become familiar with your local community fridge. If you ever need support in getting food they are a great resource, and they’re an easy way to share with your community. We love mutual aid, and really believe in its power to transform individuals and communities, and your local community fridge is a great place to start!
Worcester Food Not Bombs
Meeting every other Saturday at the Worcester Common, this iteration of Food Not Bombs in Worcester started in August 2024 and hasn't missed a scheduled serve since. WooFNB strives to create a space for our community to sit and have a hearty meal. we also do small-scale distribution; WooFNB gives out harm reduction supplies, clothes and zines at every serve.
If you want to get in touch with our friends at WooFNB, you can email them at [email protected] or follow them on Instagram at Instagram.com/woofoodnotbombs
A cart of clothes donations for distributing to our neighbors
Support Food Not Bombs Boston
All of the food, clothes, and supplies that we are able to share with our neighbors come from donations. If you have anything you can donate to help us out you can send us an email or DM our Instagram! We also use financial donations to fund purchasing high demand items like underwear, socks and soap. If you are able to give, we would greatly appreciate a monthly or one-time donation.
Check out Malden Food Not Bombs!
Hello! We are Food Not Bombs Malden, a new chapter in the area! Many of our current members are branching out from chapters in the Boston area. We realized we were all riding the orange line across town when we could be doing some mutual aid goodness closer to home.
We serve fresh food on the first and third Saturdays of every month. You can find us near the circle of benches at the corner of Commercial and Pleasant streets, right outside of Malden Center Station. If you are interested in joining us for a free meal, we hope to see you there. If you have resources to share or want to help out, email us at [email protected].
Our organizing objectives are similar to other chapters: build community through food so we have the strength to resist another day. We’re especially excited to invite people to shape what good food for the community means and support other groups doing cool, bottom-up work in Malden. If you have ideas, come and find us at Malden Center!
Also check out Roxbury Food Not Bombs
Roxbury Food Not Bombs is a younger sister organization of Boston Food Not Bombs, for folks south of the Charles River. Since October 2024, we’ve served vegan food for our neighbors, as well as distributing clothes, harm reduction materials, and literature. Like Boston FNB, we are not a charity where the rich give to the poor, we are a mutual aid organization standing in solidarity with, and providing for, all who have been harmed by capitalism and our government.
If you want to get involved, coming to our serve is the best way to get started – there is no need to sign up, you are welcome to just show up! Roxbury Food Not Bombs serves Sunday 1-3 PM in Dudley Town Common, at 2 Blue Hill Avenue.
Follow what we’re doing on Instagram at @roxburyfoodnotbombs or email us at [email protected]. You can make a one-time or recurring donation on ko-fi. We also appreciate donations of vegan food, clothing, and hygiene supplies.
Links
