FEBRUARY 2023
Haga clic aquí para ver El Despacho de febrero en español.
Click here to view The February Dispatch in Spanish.
MUTUAL AID LA: DIRECT AID
This year in The Dispatch, we’re eager to share some ideas around wealth redistribution and the practice of direct aid. But for now, we’re gifting you a cute Valentine’s season idea: fall in love with direct aid, and break up with strings-attached giving. We’re encouraging people with funds left over after basic living expenses are met—especially white folks—to give money directly to people who need it instead of defaulting to big organizations with shiny ‘donate’ pages. Let’s trust that people know what they need, when they need it, instead of trying to control other people’s lives by attaching expectations to the funds we redistribute.
Speaking to my fellow white people for a moment: let’s not forget that, like this land, what we have been taught to view as “our” money is not ours. It isn’t earned. It’s acquired through the system of racial capitalism that allows those at the top of the racial hierarchy to exploit those at the bottom for financial and social gain. This is yet another reason it’s time to let go of the idea that we have any right to control the wealth we redistribute—it isn’t really ours to begin with!
There’s no time like the month of love to get extra passionate about bursting the systems that create concentrated wealth. Own your big, thumping heart and redistribute radically to strengthen a system of community care where everybody has what they need to survive and thrive.
We’ll be back with more on this throughout the year, but we’ll leave you with some direct aid accounts to follow, as well as an incredibly helpful budgeting guide made by Pocket Change Pools on IG @pocketchangepools. These tools can help all of us take up our responsibility to consistently and intentionally redistribute our wealth.
The following accounts make posts and stories for you to act on by giving funds and circulating to your networks so that folks’ needs can be met: @heyrox___, @bunnyishthing, @thesapphicsiren, @isabella0700, @queer_funds, @BlackGirlMighty, @redistributeurwealth, @pocketchangepools, and @aidformamas2
Also IRL when folks ask for it! Carry cash and give when asked.
Written by Sarah and Celeste, who organize with MALAN, Los Angeles Community Fridges and other grassroots efforts around LA.
FEATURED EFFORT: SKID ROW PEOPLE’S MARKET
“I don’t know what we’d do without Skid Row’s People Market,” says Stephanie Williams looking at the bodega across from her white portable shelter on the corner of 5th and San Pedro in downtown Los Angeles. “We’re like a family.”
Stephanie has known about the Skid Row People’s Market since she began organizing in Skid Row ten years ago, back when it was named the Best Market.
“It means a lot that the People’s Market is right across the street,” says Stephanie. “I can charge my phone, use their fridge to store food, use their water to clean the sidewalk.”
May Park and her husband Bob bought the Best Market in 1995. When their son Danny took over in 2018, he changed the name to Skid Row People’s Market — part of a deeper, intentional transformation to embrace the ways this bodega is rooted in community, healing and mutual aid.
“We’re figuring out what is best for the community, bringing in healthy foods, and making sure that everyone feels welcome whether they have money or not,” says P.K., a People’s Market staff member and Skid Row resident.
Danny and the staff are keenly aware of the troubled legacy of Korean store owners in majority-Black neighborhoods that have been under-resourced and neglected by lawmakers. One of the ways they are actively working to rectify the historic divisions is by embracing the principles of mutual aid instead of extractive capitalism. They keep prices low, run tabs for people to help them build credit (the vast majority of participants pay back the micro-loans).
The People’s Market partners with community-supported agriculture programs like With Love Community to access fresh fruits and vegetables for the store. They host Skid Row community members who cook and give away healthy meals. And they employ Black staff members, some of whom live in Skid Row.
“It’s a challenge to be sustainable, it requires a lot of hours from very few people to keep the store running,” says P.K. But the years of building connections with Skid Row residents pay off in other ways. “Yesterday someone collapsed on the floor crying, and while I was helping them, another community member jumped in to fill in my role behind the counter. That just wouldn’t happen in a big chain store owned by Amazon; they’d resort to police strategies and drag them out.”
“We’re a safe space rooted in community. It’s like the saying up here,” P.K. says, pointing to the words painted across the bodega’s wall: A safe space for the Skid Row community to heal our spirits and develop healthy identities.
How YOU can contribute…
- FOLLOW the Skid Row People’s Market on Instagram or Facebook.
- DONATE towards creating healthy food access, equitable jobs and beloved community practices here.
- INCREASE PEOPLE BUYING POWER by purchasing neighborhood grocery gift cards and sharing them with Skid Row residents. Cards are available at the Skid Row People’s Market (453 S. San Pedro St).
- FIND OUT more about the Skid Row People’s Market projects supporting community health and wellness here.
Written by Terence Long who is a volunteer at Produce in the Park
DO YOU HAVE TIME, ITEMS*, OR MONEY TO CONTRIBUTE?
DO YOU NEED ITEMS, SERVICES, OR FOOD?
*PLEASE clean, sort & fold all items you are donating. Items should be new or gently used. Socks, underwear and hygiene items should always be unused.
WHO: Northeast Neighborhood Outreach (NENO)
YOU HAVE: TIME ITEMS MONEY
YOU NEED: ITEMS FOOD
NENO is a grassroots group of concerned neighbors looking out for those in our neighborhood who are not currently housed. We provide food and supportive items to folks while they need them. We also accept warm clothing, blankets, tarps, butane, batteries, phone battery banks, and ESPECIALLY tents.
WHEN: Bagging Saturdays 9-10am, Outreach Sundays 10am-12pm
WHERE: Highland Park and Eagle Rock neighborhoods
$$$: Donate at neno-la.org/donate
WHO: Miracle Friends
YOU HAVE: TIME
YOU NEED: SERVICES
Miracle Friends matches unhoused adults in interim housing with a 1-on-1 phone buddy for weekly supportive conversations and companionship over the phone. Most of our unhoused Miracle Friends reside in interim housing (A Bridge Home, Project Roomkey, Project Homekey, Tiny Home Villages, etc.) across LA County, and they want help combating the day-to-day isolation and monotony of waiting for permanent housing. 1 hr/wk phone time with their unhoused friend; optional 30 min/wk volunteer huddle; all remote.
WHEN: TBD (by you)
WHERE: Remote
$$$: You can contribute funds at miraclemessages.org/donate
WHO: Fairfax Mutual Aid (FxMA)
YOU HAVE: TIME ITEMS MONEY
YOU NEED: ITEMS
Fairfax Mutual Aid (FxMA) is a network of care formed to address our unhoused constituents’ immediate needs across the Beverly Grove and Fairfax neighborhoods of Los Angeles. Our goal is to provide as much community support as we can. We do this through material aid, providing transportation to resources, encampment sweep support and policy advocacy. Our work is focused on the hyper-local neighborhood, encampment and individual scales which allows us to sustain ourselves and nurture the relationships we form. We currently are in need of tents, sleeping bags/blankets, warm clothing, shoes, personal hygiene items, tarps, dog food. To coordinate drop-off please email: fairfaxmutualaid@gmail.com.
WHEN: Weekly outreach Sundays from 1-3pm or sporadic back-end support
WHERE: Fairfax and Beverly Grove
$$$: You can donate funds at www.opencollective.com/fxma and we have an Amazon Wishlist that you can order items from and they will be delivered directly to an FxMA volunteer.
WHO: Go Beyond The Dance Floor
YOU HAVE: ITEMS MONEY
YOU NEED: ITEMS
Go Beyond The Dance Floor creates care packs with basic essential items that can be given to people in need on the street. Folks who would like to support them can participate in collection drives, mutual aid, and fundraising.
WHEN: Ongoing
WHERE: San Fernando Valley
$$$: Purchase items for the care packs drive via their Amazon wish list.
WHO: Hunger Action Los Angeles
YOU HAVE: TIME ITEMS MONEY
YOU NEED: SERVICES FOOD
Hunger Action Los Angeles ends hunger and promotes healthy eating through direct service, educational programming, and advocacy for improved public policy on hunger and poverty. Join us for our weekly food distribution to households experiencing food insecurity by volunteering to package items or drop them off. Or, become a monthly donor to purchase food items and grocery gift cards for those in immediate need of food. Food bags are packaged and delivered to people with limited food access due to disability, income, or ineligibility for food benefits due to immigration status.
WHEN: Every Wednesday between 9am-2pm in Koreatown.
WHERE: Koreatown, LA Farmers’ markets, remote
$$$: Become a monthly donor by texting FRUIT to 53-555 or at hungeractionla.org to purchase grocery gift cards, food items for unhoused persons such as: string cheese, protein bars, water, fruit, non-perishable ready-to-eat items.
WHO: Cathartic
YOU HAVE: TIME ITEMS MONEY
YOU NEED: ITEMS
Cathartic connects community organizations with health and hygiene products that can benefit the populations they serve while taking care of outreach and logistics. Folks can volunteer to go on runs with their partner Share-a-Meal, to distribute burritos, or to distribute donations. Accepting donations of unused socks, blankets, sunscreens, and period products! DM us on Instagram to coordinate a drop off time and location :)
WHEN: Wednesdays and Fridays from 6-8:30pm
WHERE: All Over Los Angeles
$$$: We accept monetary donations at our PayPal link! All money goes directly towards funding our health and hygiene product distribution programs.
WHO: Riot Plancha
YOU HAVE: TIME MONEY
YOU NEED: FOOD
Riot Plancha started in 2020 serving free hot meals to front liners during the George Floyd Uprising in Los Angeles. With an unwavering commitment to Black Liberation and the complete overthrow of white supremacist capitalism, we continue to serve hot food in the streets whenever we can. We’re looking for folks to learn how to cook with us as well as help with transportation and shopping. Email riotplancha@proton.me or DM on IG (@riotplancha) to plug in.
WHEN: Varies
WHERE: Downtown LA
$$$: We need monetary support to help us replenish our food, propane, cooking utensils and other plancha materials as well as printing costs for abolitionist zines. Venmo is the best way to donate: @Riot_Plancha.
WHO: Grassroots Morning Garden Project x Sugarhouse Workshop
YOU HAVE: ITEMS MONEY
YOU NEED: ITEMS FOOD
The Healing Care Baskets for Black Mothers and Little Ones is a collaborative effort of the Grassroots Morning Garden Project (Ashley J. May) and Sugarhouse Workshop (Jessica Lewis Stevens). This project is founded upon the collective wish that Black mothers and their little ones feel supported during this moment in history, and this year’s effort centers the restorative healing of those in the South LA area. (Our definition of Black motherhood is inclusive of Black cis, femme and trans mothers, gender-expansive parents and other mothers.) One component of this project is our healing care baskets, created to meet the needs of maternal caregivers and little ones during their first year or so earthside. Baskets include quilts, calendula salve, and herbal preparations. Donate new or gently used baskets and funds to support the project. DM Ashley (@mayashleyj on IG) to learn more.
WHEN: Through the end of March 2023
WHERE: South LA - Inglewood, West Adams, Baldwin Hills, Watts, etc.
$$$: PayPal @grassrootsmorning; Venmo (please put a basket emoji in comments or write “healing care baskets”).
WHO: Vida Mobile Clinic
YOU HAVE: TIME
YOU NEED: SERVICES
Vida Mobile Clinic is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit org dedicated to providing healthcare access to underserved individuals and mentoring future healthcare providers. Vida Mobile Clinic is in need of volunteer MDs/POs/NPs/PAs to support Vida on clinic days. You can sign up to volunteer on our website.
WHEN: Twice/month (exact days TBD)
WHERE: San Fernando Valley
$$$: Vida Mobile Clinic is funded by grants and donations. You can donate by visiting our linktree.
WHO: Joy’s Baby Clothes Recycling
YOU HAVE: TIME ITEMS
YOU NEED: ITEMS
Joy’s is a Black woman-led organization that collects, sorts, organizes, and stores infant and toddler items like diapers, wipes, toys, car seats, and clothes in preparation to redistribute them to low-income families – and this is only one part of the operation! Clothing is organized by age (0-24 months and 2T-5T) and gender. DM on IG (@joys_baby_clothes_recycling) to set up an appointment to shop or to receive the donation drop-off location. Joy’s could also use your help washing and organizing clothing donations, so send a DM to get the details and coordinate for that as well.
WHEN: Accepting donations up until 2/15 and will resume 3/26. Closed 2/16 - 3/25.
WHERE: Near Midcity
$$$: Donate via Zelle and Apple Pay: 3235275273, PayPal: preshjoy3@gmail.com or Venmo: Precious-Hayes-2
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