When formal systems stop working, neighbors turn to each other in what many call ‘mutual aid’

NEW YORK (AP) — “Times are tough. We take care of us.”

In early November, Kashish Ali posted those words to her Instagram story as part of a yearslong practice she’s had to fundraise for food and drop it off at community fridges in Atlanta, where she’s from, and now in New York, where she lives. Ali, who is 32 and a first generation Pakistani immigrant, estimated that her friends and family have trusted her with thousands of dollars over the past couple of years.

For her, it’s a practice of giving back and creating connection. It’s also part of a growing interest in grassroots efforts to meet community needs that many call “ mutual aid.” Often, mutual aid just comes down to neighbors helping neighbors, and as many face high prices, cuts to government programs and political uncertainty, organizers say interest has swelled. Donating effort or time to mutual aid organizing is also another way to mark GivingTuesday, which falls on Dec. 2 this year, and has become a major day to support nonprofits.

Ali first noticed a fridge on the street outside of a brewery in Atlanta in 2021 and got in touch with the organizers via social media. She completed a brief volunteer orientation, joined a group text chat and then posted on her Instagram that she would buy and drop off groceries.

“I ended up raising $700 in like three to four hours, which was insane,” she said.

Now, Ali doesn’t think of her grocery runs as volunteering but rather as a habit engrained in her life that directly connects to those around her. She said when she starts putting granola bars, fruit or yogurt into a fridge, people immediately come around to look, chat and grab something to eat.

Afterwards, Ali posts her grocery receipts and photos of the filled fridge to her Instagram account.

“What I noticed was a lot of my friends and family and coworkers and colleagues, they all want to get involved. They want to give back,” she said. “But sometimes donating your cash or money to whatever organization, you don’t really see what happens with it per se, especially not immediately. So this was a way to get almost instant gratification.”

Many see mutual aid as operating differently than traditional nonprofits

One of the principles of mutual aid is that it welcomes everyone. There’s no need to show an ID or prove income or residency, and most often, the organizers of these types of very local projects are all volunteers. Organizers are also often recipients, with many groups seeking to remove the distinction entirely between those who give help and those who need it.

The low barriers to entry and lack of hierarchy are also part of what distinguishes this approach from the work of nonprofits, organizers said. A mantra of mutual aid is, “solidarity not charity.”

Interest in mutual aid organizing often spikes in response to crises, like the COVID-19 pandemic and now, economic and political uncertainty under the second Trump administration.

Aaron Fernando, who works as an organizer for Shareable, which publishes resources about mutual aid and cooperatives, said they saw huge interest in the Mutual Aid 101 webinars they launched earlier this year. Some 1,100 people attended the first one, up from around 70 attendees at a typical webinar.

“It just is and continues to be a disempowering and scary time for a lot of populations,” said Fernando, which he said encourages people to seek new options to find resources and keep their communities safe.

In good times, he said most people don’t concern themselves with mutual aid, but there are always people on the margins who are meeting their needs through these types of exchanges. Those small mutual aid projects can grow when disruptions hit.

“Once things go south, those systems, even though they’re just like rickety scaffolding, they get built up a little bit, and then, they can catch people if if communities have them,” he said.

Finding free stuff and building local capacity

Yoly Nuñez has been organizing food distributions and exchanges of clothes and household items with the Collective Focus Resource Hub in Brooklyn since the outbreak of the pandemic. Formerly a merchandiser in fashion, Nuñez and her fellow organizers specialize at finding free stuff.

Her group started hearing from friends working in the service industry about which restaurants were throwing food away. Now, they have arrangements with Trader Joe’s and Wegmans to pick up food that would otherwise go to waste. They put produce and prepared foods in community fridges outside their Brooklyn storefront and it’s taken almost immediately.

“We thought, we need to organize and see how we could help each other.” Nuñez said. “And that’s literally the whole thought process behind it is like, we’re scared and we need to huddle in and help each other.”

She said people now reach out to them frequently to ask how to start their own mutual aid projects, which she encourages.

“Usually, we want people to branch off and make their own groups because if we all have groups, it just makes us stronger,” she said.

Collective Focus decided to incorporate as a tax-exempt nonprofit in part to afford to rent their space. But they make decisions collectively and rely extensively on volunteers, though they do pay some staff members, including Georgina Edmonds, who has lived in the neighborhood for more than 30 years.

At a recent food distribution where they were handing out lentils, tofu, carrots, potatoes, onions, cabbage and apples, Edmonds said the group empowers its member to make decisions and shape the direction of their work. For example, she wants to start a project with a community garden nearby to grow medicinal herbs from seeds.

“In the beginning, I found myself deferring a lot to everybody else until someone called it to my attention,” she said. “It’s like, ‘You know, you don’t have to keep asking, you can just do it.”

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