American Morality Pie
People desperate to eat, people punishing the hungry
Today’s newsletter is a continuation of my investigation of the web of food scarcity. Expect monthly notes and essays on hunger and the US mythology of abundance and interviews about how people navigate scarcity and practice self and/or community reliance in their local food system. Today I’m looking at how governments blocks the act of feeding hungry people.
As early as next month, people in my city living on the street could show up to a park where they’re used to eating for free and meet an empty space. Their energy spent walking, using the bus or light rail in a city that isn’t public transit friendly, is depleted. And it’s July: The hottest month of the year in Arizona, with an average daytime high of 112.3 degrees F in 2024. The heat kills. Over 600 people died from the heat last year, and half were homeless at the time. There is still no standardized way of counting heat deaths and they are often under-reported or undercounted. Arriving at the empty park could be their last move if they don’t have extra water and can’t track down the new location of the free meal.
A few weeks ago, at least 13 Palestinians were killed and 150 injured while trying to get food at two aid centers in Gaza. These particular aid centers are run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation that’s US led and working with Israel. Their “aid centers” have only been open since the end of May and as of June 8, over 700 have been wounded and 130 killed while seeking food boxes.
Free food can become bait. Though the architects of these traps are different it all traces back to a suspicion and objectification of hungry people. In my city, the local government is pursuing changes that will make it more difficult to feed people free meals. The change to city ordinance would mean that any group over 30 people gathering at a public park would need to file a request for a permit two months before the event and pay $500. The groups (Aris, AZ Hugs, New Meal Deal, and more) using their connections and ingenuity to gather food to make and distribute free meals don’t have money for permit fees. The language in the city code may be “content neutral” as city attorney Eric Anderson said, but the effect is violent.
There are plenty of folks who support the ordinance change because it makes them feel safer. They say the “events bring violence and trash to the neighborhoods.” These are people who presumably have a place to live who feel unsafe when people who have nowhere to live are fed in a public park nearby. This is often cited in news stories, not always with a quote so it’s not easy to track the sources. It's a both-sidesism that I despise. In this case the needs of people who don't have reliable food or housing going into an Arizona summer outweigh the comfort of those who have housing. The events are by and large safe, non-violent, and friendly – and I say this as someone who’s attended. I’m reminded of Sarah Schulman: Conflict is not abuse. Also, discomfort is not danger. The statistics tell me that I’m more likely to be murdered by someone I know than a stranger. Discomfort of the unknown leads to fear and that fear is weaponized to make life even harder for those society casts out.
From the Al Jazeera article: “The Israeli military later said its troops opened fire on individuals who “continued advancing in a way that endangered the soldiers,” and claimed the area had been designated an “active combat zone” at night. However, survivors insist the shooting took place after sunrise.” Let’s call a lie a lie – The soldiers weren’t in danger. Perhaps they felt fear (perhaps they should feel shame and guilt, too) but using that feeling as an excuse to kill starving people is wrong.
How could a person be afraid of a starving Palestinian or a homeless person? I have to believe that some people are, genuinely terrified of anyone they perceive as “outcast” because it’s a warning. It could be any one of us, and I think more people see that now. The great connector is that most of us are struggling and afraid for their survival. We see writ large that we’re only as safe as our next paycheck. What safety net? What protection? Then, instead of making things better for more people, politicians jump onto these base fears and use them to make new violent ordinances or kill starving people.
The people who have homes, the people with guns who aren’t starving – their fear leading the argument is absolutely wrong.
If only one could deal with just feeding people. That’s what the folks running Aris, AZ Hugs, New Meal Deal, are doing – and then they run into the barricade of the local government. It shows that the scarcity that's really troubling isn’t limited to food, but is much wider, and deeper. It’s a scarcity of morality. Or it’s a clearer and clearer unveiling of the fact that the morality of the US is one where only people with enough money are deemed human and worthy of rights.
Morality is a word I avoid. It sounds too religious, dogmatic, preachy. Morality isn’t neutral, and doesn't respect both side-ism. And there are many areas where right and wrong aren’t absolute, many more than I was taught as a young Catholic girl. But here I sit in 2025, and I’m very much interested in the distinction between right and wrong, or good and bad behavior – my own and that of others. Without conversations and agreements regarding the morality of issues like feeding people or genocide, it starts to feel hopeless. Being afraid of having conversations about morality for worry of being judgy or preachy – that's just protecting the billionaires, the war mongers. And war mongering is bad, ok? Bad.
Feeding hungry people is right, and eating is a human right. Whether the person is in Tempe or Gaza, their hunger is more important than the aims of people with enough to eat. It’s simple. But writing this I kept getting lost in the weeds. My brain stalling while trying to cohere a sentence. Reading about inane actions the city has taken truly is confusing and enraging. They’ve removed grills that the organizations were using, and then say that they removed the grills because they were in a land preserve but the grills had been there for years and the boundaries of the preserve were drawn up so that there could be grills at the park. The city manager conducted a 17k office renovation, spending like a queen at West Elm, Vinchy Art, and Crate and Barrel, and elsewhere. I searched for minutes from the council meetings where at least ten community members spoke with no luck, while minutes from the meetings where nothing happened were easy to access. Not surprisingly, the best sources are my local neighborhood Facebook groups, the Tempe city code, and hyper-local reporting. The longer I read, the more weeds appeared, the harder it was to make written sense and this is part and parcel of the issues at hand. It’s hard to talk and write about it because this type of violence thrives in the dry, jargon-filled document. Some resolution may come at the July 1 council meeting but it will probably be a result that further punishes people who need a free meal.
I used to think there was an understanding between governments and people providing aid. (Maybe there was.) The government workers knew that people were “falling through the cracks,” and there was a respect for people stepping in to fill these areas where the government was failing to serve its constituents. I read the history books and they always said that innocents were protected during war (well, as much as possible.) People looked the other way as aid was given. There was an informal agreement. What I see now in my city is an emboldened council that is breaking the understanding and working to make Tempe a shiny, modern place for those who can afford the amenities. What I see now following the genocide in Gaza is an emboldened Israel more convinced than ever that it can kill with impunity.
It’s the land of plenty (for a price.)
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A really great essay Devin. So much here to be angry about, to grieve over. The worst of it, though: The Israeli soldiers firing on starving folks in Gaza seeking food — from distribution centers the Israelis and their American allies set up! — are committing murder, and they know it. Their defensive justifications are pure b.s. All part of the their genocidal aims.
The Israeli soldiers firing on starving folks in Gaza seeking food — from distribution centers the Israeli’s and their American allies set up! — are committing murder, and they know it. Their defensive justifications are pure b.s. All part of the their genocidal aims.