An alternative restaurant every Saturday between 1pm and 5pm would be “Make food not Bombs” which for the past few weeks, in conjunction with the parliamentary protests, has been called “Make Food not Governments.” The group is an ever-changing political demonstration, depending on their shared political opinions and current issues affecting the world. The original organisation started in America, to protest capital income the government received from produce such as food, which was used for making arms for the military. Recently Friðarhúsið/ The Peace house has been used to prepare the meals, which in itself was created in protest against the NATO base and an army here in Iceland.
Contrary to common opinion, none of the food is rotten and all volunteers involved make sure that the food is healthy for the people to eat. All meals cooked are vegan and several dishes are prepared every week: stews, salads, rice, pasta, roasted vegetables etc. However, the food arranged depends on the people who are volunteering on the day, and what they decide to make when they see what food has been gathered or donated by the supermarkets, the bakery, farmers and restaurants.
The food donated is considered to be unsellable because it has a short “shelf life,” as they say in supermarket terms, and will not last long in the home. Or in the farmers’ case, they cannot sell some produce that will not have much of a shelf life in the supermarket, so it is kindly donated to the organization. All the food is cooked one or two days after being collected, hence little time has been left for the food to go bad.
One volunteer whose son also participates said, “Everyone helps for their own reasons, you take your own meaning from the protest.” It would seem what has been said before throughout its time protesting, is to be aware of your surroundings and not to merely except what is told or untold to the public. This is good advice in any circumstance. So whether you agree with the politics, don’t believe in wasting food, or just would like to share in a good, healthy meal downtown on a Saturday, I would strongly recommend coming down and trying the meals, or even consider participating if you feel inspired to share your culinary skills with Reykjavík.
- Where Laekjatorg, 101 Reykjavík
- How much: Free
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