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In Florida it is illegal to feed homeless people
Jessica Cross, Ben Markeson and Jonathan "Keith" McHenry were arrested June 1 during a feeding of the homeless at Lake Eola Park in downtown Orlando. (June 1, 2011)
A man who was one of three people arrested Wednesday and accused of violating a city ordinance against feeding the homeless has been ordered to stay away from Lake Eola Park.
Judge Thomas Kirkland told Jonathan "Keith" McHenry, 54, that McHenry must keep away from Lake Eola Park, where the group Orlando Food Not Bombs fed homeless people on Wednesday afternoon.
McHenry said he will represent himself and fight the charge. He lives in Taos, N.M., but is staying with friends near Winter Park, said Ben Markeson, who also was arrested Wednesday.
Markeson, 49, and Jessica Cross, 24, were released early today on $250 bail each.
McHenry is a co-founder of the international Food Not Bombs movement, which began in 1980 in Cambridge, Mass.
The Orlando chapter of the group has been providing dinner weekly for homeless people for the past five years and breakfast weekly for several years, Markeson said. City regulations allow groups no more than two permits each year for parks within a 2-mile radius of Orlando City Hall.
Although the group had challenged the regulation in court, the city won the right to enforce the ordinance in April.
Orlando Food Not Bombs received its permits and staged events to feed homeless people on May 18 and May 23. On May 25, the group also fed a large group of people in violation of the ordinance, police said.
Source: orlandosentinel.com