JOIN US TO DEMAND THAT DOWNTOWNDC BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT ALLOW UNHOUSED RESIDENTS OF FRANKLIN SQUARE TO RETURN; FOOD NOT BOMBS AND OTHER MUTUAL AID/RELIGIOUS GROUPS TO SERVE IN FRANKLIN SQUARE

In late July of 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic and against CDC guidelines, the DowntownDC Business Improvement District (BID) closed Franklin Square for a renovation project done in partnership with the National Park Service and the DC government. The closure displaced the unhoused residents of the park and interrupted the services of several mutual aid groups and nonprofit organizations providing food, hygiene supplies, and other support to the Franklin Square Community. Now, as the construction comes to a close, the Washington, D.C. chapter of Food Not Bombs (FNB) wants to ensure that the DowntownDC BID (BID), which is overseeing the renovation project, makes a written and verbal commitment  allowing unhoused residents to resume sleeping at the park and Food Not Bombs to resume serving the Franklin Square community. When asked about this in a July 28, 2021 public meeting, the BID declined to make such a commitment. We aim to show the BID, Mayor Bowser, and D.C. Council that DC residents care about their unhoused neighbors and demand they retain their sources of support.

Join us in demanding of the DowntownDC BID and Mayor Bowser that unhoused people are able to sleep at Franklin Square, Food Not Bombs is able to return to Franklin Square, and that the BID needs to make a verbal and written commitment allowing FNB to continue to serve the unhoused community of Franklin Square, please sign our petition.

Who are we?

- Food Not Bombs is a decentralized, consensus-based mutual aid movement committed to non-violent direct action. We are focused on recovering food and other supplies that would otherwise go to waste and redistributing those resources within the community, to ensure no one goes hungry. Our chapter has been operating in Washington, D.C. since 2013, focusing on the unhoused community in Franklin Square. During the park’s closure our services have temporarily been relocated to McPherson Square.

What do we want?

- We want to ensure that as Franklin Square reopens, it is accessible and open to all residents. We want to ensure that unhoused community members are not forgotten and cut off from major sources of support. Therefore, we are calling on the BID to make a written commitment allowing Food Not Bombs and any other community, religious, or mutual aid organizations to distribute food and other supplies to all visitors and residents, housed and unhoused alike.

When do we want it?

- We want the DowntownDC BID to make this commitment before reopening the park in mid-September.