Article 2

Intro To Journalism
Article 2
Occupy Wall Street Kitchen To Go on Strike?


For the duration of the upcoming Halloween weekend of October 28-30th
the “People’s Kitchen” at Zuccotti Park will be enforcing a massive
cut-back in its food distribution, in what the Occupy Wall Street
protest has called an effort to “strengthen” their operations.

“Hello Occupiers and Friends!,” states a laminated flyer taped to one
of the plastic folding tables that comprises the food station at
Occupy Wall Street. “In the coming days the People’s Kitchen of Occupy
Wall Street will be initiating some changes to help us better fulfill
our mission to feed the movement.”

Although the Occupy Wall Street protest, which has now been going on
for over a month, has received significant media attention for its
sophisticated cuisine — The New York Times published an article on
October 11th lauding the kitchen efforts, titled “Want to Get Fat on
Wall Street? Try Protesting” — the People’s Kitchen announced that
fare over the three-day undertaking will be reduced to “Simple meals
(such as beans and rice, PB&J, fresh fruit).”

On October 27th, The Atlantic Wire reported that the organization’s
plan to scale-back was nothing more than a logistical initiative to
better organize the Occupied Kitchen that was being sensationalized by
the press. "I can definitely tell you that none of us are concerned
about 'freeloaders,' " said Chris O'Donnell, an organizer, to The
Atlantic Wire.

Contrary to the claims of O’Donnell and the statements formally
released by Occupy Wall Street, kitchen worker Nan Terrie said that
kicking out freeloaders was precisely the aim of the People’s Kitchen.

Terrie, who has been volunteering in the kitchen since Day 1 of the
protest, described security issues at the kitchen as being a bigger
issue than O’Donnell claimed they were.

Terrie said that aside from dealing with frequently vexing behavior
from patrons like “complaining” and “cutting in line”, she was
recently threatened with violence by a visitor to the People’s Kitchen
who was angered that the kitchen staff would not cater to his personal
food request. Terrie said that when she refused to make the man “a
special rice krispie treat”, “[He] pulled a knife on me and called me
the ‘N word’ several times."

Benedict Clouette, a worker in the People’s Kitchen, downplayed
Terrie’s concerns, saying that they were the opinions of one person
and not shared among the staff. “That’s not really the dominant tenor
of the kitchen now,” said Clouette in a phone interview.

Clouette, who said the decision to scale back on food was not a
strike, said that the primary motivation was to make the kitchen run
more efficiently, and give organizers time to reflect on what
direction the protest is headed. “Right now there’s a huge amount of
energy that just goes into running it every day, and in the morning we
don’t know who’s going to volunteer to cook... That’s not really a
sustainable practice,” added Clouette.

When asked whether the Occupy Wall Street protest would be able to
without the kitchen, Clouette said, “I think the whole shape of the
thing would probably change. Part of the occupation of Zuccotti Park
is dependant on certain types of provisions, medical attendance, food,
sometimes a comfort station.”