ABOUT THE KITCHEN
Sweet Om Community Kitchen provides hundreds – sometimes thousands – of delicious meals, fresh coffee, and snacks at Rainbow gatherings, festivals, and wherever else needed. All of the food, snacks, coffee, and drinks served are donated from kind souls from within our collective community and beyond.
Initially started as the “Sweet Om Alabama Kitchen”, the kitchen has been around for quite a while. The first time the kitchen was set up at an annual Rainbow Family Gathering was during the 1995 National Gathering in New Mexico. The kitchen continues to serve community although it has grown and adapted in many various ways. One of the kitchen’s main sources of energy was River Man who passed away unexpectedly in 2014. Though – a tragic and unforgettable loss to our collective family – Sweet Om collective members were able to work together and continue to build to serve with the support of both old kitchen trolls and some newly arrived occupiers.
As we gather to serve, we do so in honor of all those who have served community beside us. From River Man to the many other beautiful spirits who have preserved the sanctity of “the thing”, ensured proper hand-washing procedures were followed, or most importantly – did the family’s dishes – we may not always remember your name, but we definitely remember you. We do this for our own family, our extended family, and all our relations.
In 2012, River Man and Sweet Om took part in Wookiefoot’s “Project Earth” festival, a former non-profit annual “family” festival held at Harmony Park in Southern Minnesota. This was the first time in Sweet Om history that Sweet Om operated within a commercialized event. Initially, we did not serve meals to festival-goers; instead, we provided snacks, filtered water, hot water, coffee, the blisspit fire, and other resources to those in the park community. Our meals were initially reserved for the volunteer force before the gates opened and, more notably, after the gates closed for “Family Night Dinner.” We limited our service out of respect for the vendors participating in the event.
Overwhelmed by the love and acceptance of the Harmony Park community, Sweet Om has continued to be invited back to serve in the sacred oak grove of Harmony Park Music Garden. Given this support, we now strive to serve everyone by providing our staples along with daily meals for all those participating in the event community, regardless of their volunteer or paid ticket status. We have become somewhat of a fixture in this community, serving countless individuals throughout each festival season. Initially, we served Project Earth, but we have since branched out to include service at Shangri-La Music Festival, Revival Music Festival, and, most recently, at the Harmony Park Family Campout. When we’re not serving in Harmony Park or at a National or Regional Rainbow Gathering, we keep ourselves occupied by supporting the community in various ways.
In 2016, we played a role in organizing, participating in, and serving those involved with the #Up2Us Caravan to the DNC in Philadelphia, PA. During the stand-off against the Dakota Access Pipeline installation on the unceded lands of the Standing Rock Indian Reservation near Cannonball, ND, we worked to serve elders and families at Sacred Stone Camp. Despire our unfortunate departure from Sacred Stone Camp, we still continued to organize mutual aid donations from within Harmony Park into what then became the growing Oceti Sakowin Camp. Now – every time we meet – we continue to focus on areas where we can our global community. When we are not deployed, but rather, when we gather as a collective we continue to spontaneously cook meals and distribute them to those in need… so long as we have the capabilities and the collective energy.
The Sweet Om Kitchen has always been 100% free of charge. We show up with our gear, tarps, and direction—the family contributes the food, money to buy food, funds for additional supplies and resources, firewood, and the help needed to make the kitchen happen.
ABOUT THE KITCHEN TROLLS
Our outstanding crew of volunteers exerts a massive amount of their energy in order to set-up, serve, tear down, and clean up during each and every kitchen deployment. No individual person maintains a specific role within the kitchen structure, but rather, we each take up different roles as needed.
The Sweet Om Alabama Community Kitchen is your kitchen (welcome home). The best way to get involved with us is to first approach the our crew and kindly ask “how can I help” – regardless of the time of day there are typically things to be done. If you catch us during one of those rare moments of downtime and are not put to work – hang around the bliss pit for a while or return again at another time and ask once more… eventually you will be put to work.
As soon as the Sweet Om crew familiarizes themselves with your name and work-ethic, and once you begin to pick up on how the kitchen functions, you will be integrated into the crew itself. Our entire operation is dependent upon the experience and energy our volunteers – which is why there is no official ‘volunteer process or application’ for our community kitchen.
There are no individual ‘leaders’ within the kitchen crew. We are leaderful – everybody is capable of focalizing upon their own tasks. Overall, we are a horizontally-based collective of individuals who come together to reach consensus in order to prepare, set-up, hydrate, and serve our family.
ABOUT THE RAINBOW FAMILY
Around the bliss-pit “annual gathering” means the Rainbow Gathering held every year from July 1 – 7 in the United States of America. Unlike most gatherings held in Europe and other countries, where there is only one central kitchen, the American annual has many kitchens feeding the Family, each with its own traditions and culture. Many of them send food to the Dinner Circle in the main meadow every evening, and almost all of them serve in their own camps the rest of the day.
Some say we’re the largest non-organization of non-members in the world. We have no leaders, and no organization. To be honest, the Rainbow Family means different things to different people. I think it’s safe to say we’re into intentional community building, non-violence, and alternative lifestyles. We also believe that Peace and Love are a great thing, and there isn’t enough of that in this world. We have many different traditions that originate from many different global faiths, and we have a strong orientation to take care of the the Earth. We gather in the National Forests yearly to pray for peace on this planet and support each other locally.