When the Occupy Wall Street movement was born last September in Zucotti Park, just one and a half miles from my apartment in New York City, I started noticing some striking images on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and so one day at lunch I walked down there.
It wasn't so much the now ubiquitous handmade signs protesting social and economic inequality, corporate greed, and corruption that drew me in, it was the everyday slices of life. People were living there. To a food writer, that triggers another thought: they are cooking and eating there, too. So I began to document these protest picnics, notebook and iPhone in hand.
Since then, the movement has spread all over the world. I've seen Occupy movements in my hometown of Los Angeles, out by the water in San Francisco, and online through friends and colleagues watching and participating in other cities around the globe.
I became a food writer because of how moved I am by the way food brings and holds people together, and the Occupy movement is no exception. The images herein are from Occupy Wall Street and Occupy New Haven.
I'd been holding this story for a while, thinking I might make my way around the country collecting more images and stories, but when I stumbled last weekend upon Occupy New Haven, smack dab in the middle of the Yale University Campus, I met someone who changed my mind.
His name is John. He is a line cook from Torrington, Connecticut and has served as a chef in what amounts to an igloo of a kitchen at Occupy New Haven, for the last sixty days. As he led me around his kitchen, covered in ice, propane shut down by the cops, wedges of frozen bread and wilted potatoes scattered about, I saw how different this kitchen was from the vibrant autumn mess hall of Zucotti Park, and I realized that this, like the seasons, is an ever-changing story, and I should share what I have right away.
In every case, the Occupy camps put their kitchens at the center of their communities. It's the warm place, it's where people gather, and it's where the lightest spirit dwells. There are the most smiles here. The people who work in these kitchens are focused on their jobs, and proud.
The meals aren't fancy. Some are downright original for the way they combine donated canned goods with yesterday's leftovers, with fallen fruit for dessert. There is a sense of honor given to the food and the people who prepare it.
Ironically, one of the best meals I had at Occupy Wall Street was pizza delivered cold one late fall afternoon. It wasn't cooked or even re-heated on site, but the effect that delivery of nourishment had on the people I sat with was deep. Cigarettes in hand, seated cross-legged on the Zucotti asphalt, they paused an intense conversation on immigration policy to say a blessing. I put down my camera and notebook as they beckoned me to join them. "You're the food lady, right?" Cold pizza passed from hand to hand until it landed in my lap. No plate necessary. This was a protest picnic.
Related: Have Kitchen, Will Travel: A Portable Kitchen Roundup
To see the rest of my Instagram photos from Occupy, and scroll back.
(images: Sara Kate Gillingham-Ryan)
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Lovely, thanks.
Indeed, thank you Sara Kate. Thank you for reminding us of the humanity that we all share through our need and love of food.
Wow Sara Kate, what a profound and moving portrait of the Occupy movement. Food is always part of the story in a community, and you have told this one beautifully.
Very cool. What a lovely glimpse of everyday life during the protest. Thanks!
Sara Kate - What a smart, moving intersection of art & politics. This really speaks to the human condition. Thanks!
Fantastic, thank you
Wow! Thank you!
I love this. thank you.
Thank you for sharing what could be a controversial post. I wholeheartedly agree with Shellrose's comment. Well done.
An excellent post,Sara Kate. Thank you.
You've documented the feel good message of equality for all, but I don't see you including the absolutely filthy conditions they live in and then leave behind for my tax dollars to clean up. Or the fact that the crime rate around these encampments has risen in EVERY city they "occupy." There are constructive ways to protest, and this is not it.
What has been accomplished?
I think you could do something so much bigger with this story, Sara Kate. I found myself wanting to read more & see more about what you've experienced--about how the members of the Occupy movement nourish themselves. I am looking forward to further posts on this topic.
thanks for the pictures. Occupy Wall Street was hardly covered at all , here in India, surprisingly. So thanks again for this insight !
These protesters have shown we don't need violence to change politics. Thanks for giving us the inside story!
I second Breezyslp. I was surprised when the article ended, and wanted to read more about your experience and the camp kitchens
Why don't you cover how the occupy cooks complained about the homeless taking part in their wonderful communal meals? Do you see the blatant hypocrisy there? How about the horrible condition these people have left public parks all over the country? How about the rape, theft, racism, and other shameful acts encampments have been a haven for? You can not gloss over dirty truth behind these hypocritical freeloaders by writing about their eating habits. So they eat. Big deal. So do I. The only difference is, I PAY for my own food.
I hope you don't have money to BUY food someday, Gregory. I really do.
Wow, what an amazing article! For me the way people feed themself and organize cooking has lot to do with the ideas behind a movement. I come from a different background that also tries to connect public cooking and sharing food (Food not Bombs). Althought I do have different views to many topics compared with to occupy movement, I think it is very important to question the way we usually organize daily lifes and get together with other people to try out new forms of living, working, eating, cooking and political activism. When I took a look to Sarah Kates pics my inner activist that tends to criticise the occupy's analysis of capitalism became calm and I could honour their contribution to a better word as small or big it may be. Thank you for sharing the pics!
I must remind those protesting the use of their tax dollars for cleaning up after the occupy movements that, unless you're Mitt Romney, your tax dollars are why they're there in the first place. and your jobs. your home. it gives me great hope to see people rising up out of our complacency-inducing culture to draw attention to the way it really is. fallen apples never tasted so sweet!
HOOSIERVILLE, I have, at times, not been able to buy my own food. The Occupy people, for the most part, don't seem to have financial problems based on the number of iphones and ipads all over the camp. Plus, my original point was that the Occupy cooks were complaining about the HOMELESS taking advantage of the free meals. The homeless are the real downtrodden who actually need a meal, not the people who irresponsibly took out too many loans to attend overpriced colleges.
My first "post" ever, because you are "where the lightest spirit dwells." Here's to you, words and love. Crappa.
Gregory H.- I agree with you completely!
gorgeous photos. so glad you shared this now, sk. you're so right that this is an ever changing story and, as is obvious from the passionate comments, one that strikes right at the heart of things. that's what food does, right? (and combined with politics... oh my!) please continue as the seasons—and the movement—change. there's so much to this!
And they're squatting on either private land or public land, blocking the free flow of foot and vehicular traffic, while overfilling trash cans, demanding free coffee from chain restaurants, tipping over dumpsters behind stores to go through them and not cleaning up, and hiding garbage and fecal material in landscaping.
I've had to deal with them professionally and too large a percentage are piggy, selfish and inconsiderate. And the ones who are better-behaved do nothing to require better behavior in their group - they shrug and say "I'm not pooping in the bushes, I'm being quiet after 10 pm, those people are not my problem."
They feel that they are not required to clean up their cooking areas or properly wrap their garbage or rent porta-johns. They behave in ways they never would at home. Please don't celebrate these vandals!