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Ransom True
Volunteers gather in Heekin Park, draping a Food Not Bombs banner over a plastic folding table. Ruby June Haller is the Muncie branch's founder. One part of an estimated thousands of branches all over the world all operated independently.

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Ruby June Haller
So Food Not Bombs is a historic global initiative that was originally started by actors who were busking, and they noticed a lot of their friends that lived outside were panhandling and would often get persecuted for doing so in the same ways that they would get persecuted for busking. And so these actors, they started gathering excess food from local producers, farms, bakeries, etc., and then repurposing that food that would otherwise go bad, into meals for those who live outside. And that is a tradition that we carry in our mission, in our chapter as well.

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Ransom True
Muncie Food Not Bombs collects donations from the farmers market at Minnetrista, typically receiving a weekly pickup of excess produce. This produce is prepared and brought to the weekly meal share. After the first group's disbandment, Haller believes a disconnect between Ball State students and Muncie residents was partially to blame.

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Ruby June Haller
And ultimately, we think we've discovered that the Muncie locals and the students are frightened of each other. But I do suspect that a big issue that has had in the past is learning how to bridge that gap and bridge truly into the community, because most of the time it is students that are volunteering.

00;01;22;26 - 00;01;36;06
Ransom True
Now, the group has tried to bridge this gap by engaging with the local food insecure and unhoused community, even directly visiting local camps to invite them to the Thursday evening weekly meal share. In Muncie Ransom true IPR news.