Ham. Rice. Oil. Sugar. Laundry soap.
These are some of the groceries I shopped for and delivered this week to a family of five, whose parents had both recently lost their jobs due to layoffs. The mutual aid group I volunteer with connected us because Gloria and her family live just five minutes away from me.
We’ve never met. Gloria and I only communicate over text and through grocery deliveries left on her front stoop, yet we have become intimately connected through this crisis. Several times a week, we text and check in about how we slept (or didn’t), and how our kids are doing.
Mutual aid groups, like the one that connected Gloria and me, have organized across the country to help people maintain the things they need like stable and safe housing, and enough food to feed their families.
As Pride Foundation mobilizes resources for our community through our Crisis Community Care efforts, our focus right now is on supporting the organizations who are meeting the immediate needs of our communities to make sure people keep their housing, can access food, and can stay safe and healthy throughout this crisis and into the future.
Whether we live five minutes or three states apart, it has never been more clear that our lives are intertwined and that we are dependent on one another.
That’s why I’m asking you to please make a stretch gift today to support your community through Pride Foundation’s Crisis Community Care efforts. Now is the time for all of us to lean into our values and do all that we can to support one another.
For many people, this pandemic has only exacerbated the challenges and inequities that already exist and that they face every day. COVID-19 has highlighted what we already know to be true: that racism, ableism, and other intersecting structures of oppression are causing marginalized communities, sick and disabled people, immigrants, LGBTQ+ folks, undocumented people, and Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color to experience the worst of this crisis.
We are so incredibly grateful to everyone who has contributed and made our response efforts possible thus far. Thank you for all that you are doing to ensure that we get through this crisis together. If you have not yet made a gift to support this crisis response, we hope you’ll consider making a gift today.
Alli Auldridge is Pride Foundation’s Director of Community Engagement.