Our latest Public Newsroom shows how residents can come together to fill in the resource gaps in their communities.
By Ellie Mejía
Last week, our Public Newsroom provided insight into what it takes to start and maintain a mutual aid project in our neighborhoods. The topic was inspired by the people-powered efforts that sprung up in early June in response to the Chicago Public Schools decision to pause their meal distribution network. This happened in the wake of city-wide actions spurred by the police killing of George Floyd.
To share their experience and knowledge of mutual aid efforts, we were joined by:
Trina Reynolds-Tyler, a data analyst and co-founder of the People’s Grab-N-Go, a distribution site that gave away food, PPE and other supplies every Monday outside of Burke Elementary in Washington Park
Brittanee Rolle, a teacher at Butler College Prep who ran Feed the People, a weekly food and supply distribution site a few blocks away from the school; and
femdot. a rapper and founder of Delacreme Scholars who runs Scholar Slide By, a program where primarily South Side residents submit a grocery list for delivery
Our moderator was Resita Cox, a freelance documentary filmmaker and artist who helped organize Oasis on 95th, a food and supply distribution site in Roseland—who happens to be a City Bureau fellowship alumna!
Here’s what we learned:
Look to the needs of your neighborhood
Understanding and being part of the community was an important part in determining the food distribution sites for organizers. Rolle wanted her students to be part of the efforts because she wanted them to see that anyone can step up and help their community. “My personal vision is to help students think about what they can do in their own neighborhoods because I think movements really do start with the youth,” she says. For Reynolds-Tyler the decision to set up People’s Grab-N-Go in front of Burke Elementary in Washington Park was intentional. She made sure to identify the CPS network where she lived and chose a school that was in a high-traffic area. “It was incredibly important that we were in a place where people could see us and that we were in a neighborhood we lived,” she says.
Building relationships is essential
Whether it’s with volunteers or with the community you’re serving, building relationships is vital to the success of mutual aid efforts. When recruiting volunteers for People’s Grab-N-Go, Reynolds-Tyler made sure to connect with people she trusted. She shared the call for volunteers with her own network and avoided sharing it widely online. “We had to identify people who we knew wanted to plug in, or who we could have honest conversations with,” she says. Rolle echoes the sentiment, noting the challenges she faced when working with volunteers who she didn’t know or weren’t part of the neighborhood. “People that were passing out food [looked] like the community, meaning that Black people were passing food to folks and that Black people were talking to folks primarily,” she says. “It was very difficult to have conversations with people who were non-Black and talk to them about how we wanted our site to look because I hadn’t built the relationships.”
Impact over intention
If you’re thinking of creating or participating in a mutual aid project outside of your own neighborhood or community, be cautious of your impact, suggest organizers. “If someone is already doing work in that community or you’re joining with someone that’s doing the work, they already have the relationships established so there’s a certain way you have to move and you have to respect that,” femdot. says. Reynolds-Tyler says it’s important to recognize that despite the best intentions, sometimes someone’s presence can be harmful to the community. “Impact over intention,” she says. “If your impact—by your presence, by your actions, by how you decide or desire to show up for people—is negative then acknowledge that and take a step back,” she says.
Consistency is key
Your mutual aid project doesn’t have to be a well-oiled machine to get started—the most important part is showing up and doing the work. It took a while for volunteers and organizers to find the most effective process for distribution, according to Reynolds-Tyler, but showing up every week helped them become more organized and better equipped to understand the needs of the community. “We’re just the people, young people who live in this community who decided we were gonna pull up and make an impact,” she says. Consistency also helps spread the word, building trust with residents while creating more opportunities for donations. “People were always excited to give,” says Rolle. “Every week the donation grew.”
Food distribution and mutual aid are imperative
Where does food distribution and mutual aid work fit in the overall movement for Black lives? According to organizers, both are imperative. “A lot of the issues that we have are because there isn’t access or resources to begin with,” says femdot. “If you want to see real change in what’s going on, then changing the communities and situations around you is how it’s going to happen.” He adds, “Being able to feed people and distribute food creates a different sense of trust... that’s very imperative in terms of just creating community.”
You can view the full Public Newsroom here:
This event was part of City Bureau's Public Newsroom programming, a series of free workshops that highlight efforts to provide mutual aid, meet information needs and hold space for joy during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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