Nourish Our Neighbors Official Statement on April 7th Distribution Service

What Happened?

On April 7th, 2024 we had our usual meal service as previously posted about on our instagram. This was one of our biggest services in terms of food, with over 200 meals. Unfortunately about 1/3 - 1/2 of the meals we prepared were wasted due to escalation from the Dayton Police Department. After about an hour of interaction with officer J.M Zimmerman and multiple threats to arrest us for giving out food, they handcuffed one of our crew members. He was then placed into the back of a cruiser. Everyone including said crew member was unaware of the reason for arrest. Community members immediately took action, holding signs, chanting, and towing the line. Zimmerman initially stated our crew member would spend a night in jail + $500 fine. This was reduced to a summons arrest, followed by onsite release with no known charges.

Nourish Our Neighbors official statement

We are deeply disturbed by the city of Dayton's ordinance that criminalizes distribution services. We believe food is a human right, not a luxury. The city of Dayton does not provide sufficient services that are accessible to our unhoused community members. In lieu of this, we have built community through mutual aid at Courthouse Square. It's our responsibility to take care of one another. The escalation by DPD is a step in further restricting one of the only public spaces that the unhoused rely on. We and our partners cannot stress enough that these services are bore out of negligence from the city, we do our best to fill those gaps based on a model of mutual aid. This is why we have chosen to continually do our services at CHS, where a large portion of the unhoused congregate. Our work is not done until the city of Dayton addresses the systemic structures and local ordinances that create such conditions.

City Ordinance 137-21: No person shall prepare or distribute food, clothing or toiletries in a public place within the central area of the city without a permit issued by the city. No person shall fail to comply with a permit issued by the city pursuant to this section.