Dayton, Ohio, burdens charities, punishes kindness with permits to share food

McKahla (Red) Moran started Nourish Our Neighbors in 2022, driven by a simple, yet powerful belief: Grassroots action can transform communities. Armed with a mission to alleviate hardships endured by the most vulnerable residents of Dayton, Ohio, the organization’s volunteer members got to work providing free food to the hungry. 

Rather than encourage and support these acts of kindness, the City stifles, and even criminalizes, them. When City code enforcement put a volunteer in handcuffs, the chilling message became crystal clear: In Dayton, charity can be a crime. 

Nourish our Neighbors’ growth over nearly three years exemplifies community impact. After gaining nonprofit status in January 2024, the organization expanded its local business partnerships and broadened its services to haircuts, education, housing assistance, and community events. Meanwhile, food assistance remains at its heart, sprouting from 50 hot meals and bottled water into a vital community resource serving up to 150 people per month. 

Volunteers approach their stewardship with great care, serving food primarily in downtown Dayton’s Courthouse Square, a central location frequented by the city’s homeless. They collect trash before and after all food service and leave the surroundings cleaner than when they arrived. This dedication to public spaces reflects their broader goal of building community in a place where poverty, homelessness, and hunger are all too common. 

This hard work and inspiring progress came to an alarming halt on April 7, 2024. During the otherwise-routine food distribution day at Courthouse Square, a police officer, enforcing a city ordinance that criminalizes public food aid without a permit, ordered the volunteers to stop. Just as this was happening, a homeless man walked up to volunteer Mitchell West asking for food. Despite the officer watching, Mitchell chose compassion over compliance and handed the man a burrito. The officer responded by handcuffing and arresting Mitchell, detaining him for more than 30 minutes—over what amounts to a misdemeanor. 

Although he was released without charges, the incident immediately cast a long, chilling shadow. Attendance at food events plummeted by nearly half, as many program recipients avoid these gatherings fearing police interaction. Volunteers, faced with the prospect of arrest for the mere “crime” of charity without a permit, have become increasingly harder to recruit.  

The permit requirements of a $50 fee per event and a $250 security deposit for organizations with prior violations would undercut Nourish Our Neighbors’ ability to serve those most in need. McKahla finds it particularly unjust that the same government that perpetuates the homelessness crisis penalizes citizens who step in to fill that gap. 

Even more telling is the law’s arbitrariness—no permit is required to hand out cake and ice cream for a birthday party at the same location.  

Dayton’s permit requirement is unnecessary anyway—the City has other laws addressing trash and litter, the supposed concerns behind the food handout ordinance. It’s also unconstitutional. Courts have ruled that food sharing is expressive conduct protected by the First Amendment. Furthermore, the ordinance unfairly discriminates among similar activities and violates the fundamental right to engage in charitable acts. 

The government does not hold a monopoly on charity. Americans have the right to pursue their calling without burdensome regulations standing in their way—including helping those in need. The government should support citizens working to strengthen their communities, not impose unlawful permit mandates or arrest them.  

Now, Nourish Our Neighbors is fighting back with a federal lawsuit challenging the City’s unlawful restrictions on charity. A victory would not only restore its right to serve Dayton’s neighbors in need but also would protect the rights of all Americans to pursue similar acts of compassion free of unjust government interference.