Now, in an attempt to give back to these luckless food sellers, Occupy Wall Street has announced its new partnership with food vendors, whereby you (yes you!) can make an online donation to the Halal carts and smoothie stands, which will then funnel back into free food being donated to Zuccotti Park’s free kitchen.
The Street Vendor Project, as it’s called, attempts to project it’s message of the 99% as a gesture of solidarity among the actually-employed food truck workers. According to the memo we received today:
“City street vendors are no strangers to police harassment and excessive fines,” said Sean Bazinski of the Street Vendor Project, which advocates for the city’s 10,000 vendors. “Last week the FDNY abruptly seized a generator from a legally-permitted street vendor in Zuccotti Park — that’s just one example of an all-too-common trend of harassment of vendors that hampers their ability to pursue their own livelihood and make an honest living.”
So let us get this straight:
Despite having $500,000 already in funding, OWS still refuses to buy local food (and last we checked, was cutting back on the food they were already serving in an attempt to dissuade the homeless from just coming in and Occupying the space with them). Instead, they’ve decided that you should pay for their hot dogs, kabobs, and various other food stuff. And in return, food vendors will continue to suffer, as the barricades and protester presence discourages usual customers from coming anywhere near the park.
We understand that OWS is trying to help out the community, but if they are trying to curb the soup kitchen issue and give money to local vendors, why don’t they just encourage people to buy their own local food and take care of themselves? After all, how much does a hot dog cost these days? One dollar? Even if you only had a $100 going in to this thing, one purchase would still leave you with 99% of your money.
