Activist group Orlando Food Not Bombs to appeal

You can understand what business owners have to say considering they don't want their customers reminded that while they have money in their pockets and credit cards to use to buy things, there are people right here in Orlando without food or for many, even a place to go home to. After all, would you want to spend over $20.00 for lunch when you know right around the corner there are people thanking God for one good meal to eat all day long?

That really is the point to all of this. The people of Orlando have a conscience and it breaks their hearts to be reminded of so many with so little. It is heartwarming to know there are caring people out there trying to make a difference in the lives of others who have fallen on hard times. Most of us are one pay check away from joining them. Seeing other people doing good makes others feel guilty over what they have to enjoy. Yet instead of businesses encouraging the spirit of generosity and helping people to feel good about themselves, they want to hide the poor away from the shoppers. You'd think that they would welcome the opportunity to have goodwill reputations instead of pulling something like this when they actually want to stop feeding the hungry.

People think twice about spending money in places that are all about themselves instead of customers and yes, even the most needy in the communities they do business in.

Homeless advocates decry court ruling restricting feedings in parks
Activist group Orlando Food Not Bombs will ask full appeals court to rehear the case

By Kate Santich, Orlando Sentinel

10:51 p.m. EDT, July 7, 2010
Orlando's homeless community and its advocates expressed outrage Wednesday over a federal appeals-court ruling that allows the city to severely restrict large group feedings in downtown parks — a restriction that has primarily targeted those who feed the homeless.

Orlando Food Not Bombs, a plaintiff in the original lawsuit disputing the constitutionality of the city's feeding law, decided late Wednesday to challenge the ruling by asking the full 11th Circuit U.S. District Court of Appeals to rehear the case. Tuesday's ruling came from a panel of three judges, two of whom ruled in favor of the restrictions.

Eric Montanez, a member of Orlando Food Not Bombs, helped carry on the group's regular Wednesday night feeding at Lake Eola Park as scheduled — and pledged to continue doing so regardless of what happens.

"The city is criminalizing homelessness and poverty and criminalizing individuals and organizations in the community that are trying to address those problems," Montanez said.
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Activist group Orlando Food Not Bombs

Orlando Food Not Bonds wins right to feed homeless in court

Hallelujah! Orlando has it's heart back and compassion for the least among us as Christ commanded His followers to do and simple human kindness requires of anyone with a conscience.

Federal judge: Orlando's law against feeding homeless a civil rights violation
Willoughby Mariano | Sentinel Staff Writer
5:26 PM EDT, September 26, 2008
A federal judge has permanently barred Orlando from enforcing a rule barring large group feedings of the homeless in Lake Eola Park because it violates activists' basic civil rights.

In a ruling released this afternoon, U.S. District Judge Gregory A. Presnell criticized the city's ordinance saying there was no "rational basis" for it.

"Rather than address the problem of homelessness in these downtown neighborhoods directly, the City has instead decided to limit the expressive activity which attracts the homeless to these neighborhoods," the ruling states.
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Orlando mayor defends regulations for feeding the homeless

Orlando mayor defends regulations for feeding the homeless
Mark Schlueb Sentinel Staff Writer
June 25, 2008
A confident Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer took the stand in federal court Tuesday, defending the city's regulations on feeding the homeless in public parks.

It was the final day of a trial that pitted the rights of the homeless against the city's responsibility to protect its parks and citizens.The homeless advocates who are suing the city over the 2006 rules are the ones who called Dyer to testify. But that decision may have hurt their case.

Attorneys for Orlando Food Not Bombs and First Vagabonds Church of God questioned Dyer for less than five minutes, and he had no problem coming up with answers.

The city's lawyers then questioned the mayor for 20 minutes, discussing his administration's programs to help the homeless and the complaints the city had received about feedings that regularly drew dozens of transients to Lake Eola Park.