Dear Friend and Community,
We are starting the second year of providing fresh produce and other goods to community families free of charge. To give: Paypal.me/dollyjoseph Venmo @dollyjoseph To give via check or you itemize financial donations on your tax returns, and need a tax letter, please contact BEFORE YOU GIVE.
May 3 will mark 52 continuous weeks of distributing fresh produce and eggs to our community. This project has been a gift in this year of sorrow and transition. There is something grounding and fundamental about sharing and distributing food.
There has been so much community in this evolving and growing project. Community delivered produce to redistribute, and have delivered to the individual homes. Community gleaned and harvested from fertile gardens. Community delivered venison the hundreds of miles from Martha’s Vineyard. Community provided networks and logistical support. Community has given financially to the tune of $18,900. Thank you.
This is satisfying, gratifying, nourishing community work. Friendships and connections have been strengthened. Having fresh produce and other food has nurtured people, and allowed them to put resources towards other needs.
Initially, we distributed the summer and fall shares from Bellair Farm CSA to individual families. We switched to purchasing wholesale from Standard Produce once the local season closed. We also were given goods from individuals and businesses to redistribute.
This work is intentionally working to dismantle white supremacy and systems of oppression, and working within the paradigms of mutual aid and community building. In that spirit, we have concentrated on the connections and consistency, rather than having precise counts of pounds of food, or number of families.
- Between 20-40 families were provided produce and eggs each week,
- Weekly produce and egg budget was in the range of $300-350, with 20 local, organic shares provided, or 8-10 cases of wholesale produce
- Stipends were provided to drivers and redistributors in order to dismantle the culture of volunteerism
The work has evolved over the past year, and we have begun the shift from delivering to individual households, to sharing through neighborhood redistribution. Beginning the week of May 10 we will shift to the neighborhood model only. We have Black Women Elders supporting the neighborhoods of Ridge St and North Garden. They are connected to other unseen community leaders who are able to further redistribute extra food. By working this way, we dismantle oppressive systems further:
- Families can select food that suits their weekly needs,
- Black Women are further seen as the community heart and foundation that they are, and have further autonomy and decision making,
- Community connections are strengthened,
- Institutional structures are not required– you gift money, we buy produce, we distribute, without rent or salaries, with minimal fees/overhead
- White community members and donors are decentered and release power and resources.
