we keep each other fed
food & other resources + a call to organize
Dear Beloved,
Last year, I wrote We’re Fucking Hungry. Not much has changed since then.
As another government shutdown lumbers on, people’s health and wellness hang in the balance. At least half of states have announced plans to cut off SNAP and other food aid on November 1st. Hopefully, the fuckheads on the Hill get their shit together and do their job, but they’re never been accountable to us. We need to uproot our reliance on the profit-worshipping death cult that is the United States and take care of each other.
Ultimately, we’re the ones that keep each other fed. It’s time to cut out the middle man.
Mutual Aid
Thankfully, there are mutual aid networks on the ground already bringing food to neighbors. Find one at Mutual Aid Hub.
Food Assistance Resources
Find a local food bank with Feed America or Food Finder. There are also community fridges throughout the country which you can find via Freedge.org or this virtual map. For ready-to-eat food, Food Not Bombs also offers meals.
While it’s getting colder, there is still time left to forage. Here are a few resources to get started on foraging:
You can find nearby fruit trees available for harvest at Falling Fruit.
This is also a good time to plug in with your local library! There, you can borrow books on local foraging and access community-specific resources. Most libraries have wellness programs or offer assistance in accessing what’s available in your neighborhood.
To locate more resources, visit findhelp.org.
“With basic needs met, real organizing can happen. Full bellies, it turns out, are a prerequisite of consciousness-raising.” - Jeremy A. Rudd
Food insecurity sucks. Housing insecurity sucks. Healthcare as a commodity sucks. All of this fucking sucks. And the worst and best part? It doesn’t have to be this way.
All of this human suffering is not only preventable; it’s intentionally manufactured for profit. Our people are starving, overworked, and in debt because some ghouls want to make more money. They’re raiding our public programs, stripping copper from the walls, because they want more more. The richest fuckers in the world are destroying said world because they want more money.
We don’t have to live like this, but we must organize and build entirely new ways of living independent on capitalism and imperialism. We must feed each other. We must house each other. We must educate each other. We must organize together because it’s only by collective that we will uproot systems and plant new ones in healthier soils.
Reading
In The Sioux Chef by Sean Sherman, we get a recipe for decolonization. He gifts us with this reminder:
“Empires build walls and imaginary lines. Kitchens build connection, memory, and resistance. When we eat together, we remember who we are—and what love and respect can taste like.”
Michelle Albanes-Davis wrote about the ol’ Bread and Circuses.
Rev. Benjamin R. Cremer shares a sermon with readers, To Blame the Poor is to Blame Jesus.
Not food-specific but no less satiating to read is No more jobs, bitch! from Antonio Melonio
Billionaires build bunkers, we build community by Para Kore reminds us that we are all we have, and that is enough to weather the storms ahead. While the oligarchy hides in their bunkers, we will not just survive - we’ll thrive.
Seeds for Change
Civil Eats offers 10 new ways to get involved in mutual aid.
Get a copy of Food is Resistance: For the Love of Bread with Reem Assil
Watch Mi’kmaq Show What Indigenous Sovereignty Looks Like in Action
Controversial but for what? Try out Dumpster Diving 101
What resources are in your area? What are you and your neighbors doing to support our communities?