McHenry was born in Frankfurt, West Germany in 1957 while his father was stationed in the army. The family then moved to Logan, Utah while his father got his masters degree at Utah State. Keith’s father became a park ranger in the National Park Service and lived at a number of parks including Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Big Bend, Shenandoah and Everglades Starting in 1975, McHenry attended Boston University studying painting and sculpture taking American History with Howard Zinn. Keith and his work with Food Not Bombs is mentioned in “A People’s History of the United States” and wrote the introduction to McHenry’s first two books.
Activism
While at Boston University, McHenry became active with Clamshell Alliance making several trips to Seabrook, New Hampshire to protest nuclear power. He began to organize actions in cities on the east coast of the United States against nuclear arms and war, while promoting alternative energy and organic gardening. In 1980, he and others started the first Food Not Bombs chapter in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The group provided entertainment and vegetarian meals in Harvard Square and the Boston Commons after making deliveries of uncooked food to most of the housing projects and shelters in the area. In 1988, McHenry moved to San Francisco where he started a second Food Not Bombs group. He was one of nine volunteers arrested for sharing food and literature at Golden Gate Park on August 15, 1988. In the following years, Keith was arrested over 100 times for serving free food in city parks and spent over 500 nights in jail. He faced 25 years to life in prison under the California Three Strikes Law but in 1995, Amnesty International and the United Nations Human Rights Commission brought about his release. He has started Food Not Bombs groups around the world. In 2005, he helped coordinate food relief as well as shipments of clothing and other supplies to the survivors of Hurricane Katrina. In 2012, he founded the Food Not Bombs Free Skool, which teaches a summer course covering social issues, community organizing, nonviolent social change, cultural events, and sustainable agriculture.
Awards
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American Civil Union “Hammer of Justice Award” 2017
