Thread by @mellemusic

Running a community-based food org during the pandemic has made me painfully aware of our existence as both part of the solution and part of the problem within the food system, linked to the charitable network. What I'm guided by is our roots in mutual aid(🧵):

A lot of critics will say that being part of the charitable food network take a huge role in capitalist economy, that we avoid advocating for systemic anti-poverty solutions like raising the minimum wage and universal healthcare, that is not true in my case

.@polospantry was born out of a need to stabilize the food resources for outreach groups working with our unhoused communities, it has since expanded during covid, but we focused on mobilizing OTHER mutual aid groups so they can get their programs off the ground quickly

Along w/ #homeymademeals which was our (@polospantry + @Eayikes) Covid-19 response, this network mobilized hundreds of people to be part of the solution in providing healthy/delicious meals to our unhoused neighbors, we also connected our volunteers to the larger movement

We do not have the trappings of large salaries, massive tax breaks or corporate gains, running Polo's as a hybrid and keeping it relatively small allows us to push for systemic changes rather than seeking expansion, I don't have plans to do this forever. Those of us in this work

should move to drive ourselves out of business. THAT is a our role, we are bridge workers.

While the food system is run by large corporations, non-profits and institutions who gatekeep, run by mostly wealthy white, what we must continue to do is be led by the leaders of the

communities we work with, to seek their guidance in solution building, to center their needs and connect them to resources, and to let them lead and work together. That is the path to real food sovereignty. To break the chains of dependence. That should be our North Star.

Capitalist systems seek to concentrate wealth to certain areas, mutual aid is designed to redistribute it. This also relates to power. It will take all of us to address hunger and it's not heroism and saviorism that will get us out of it. It's collective work

Here’s some additional reading, we cannot allow #Covid to strengthen the Hunger Industrial Complex, we should seek to break it:

The COVID Crisis Is Reinforcing the Hunger Industrial Complex thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/the-covid-cris… #covid19 #SNAP #SocialJustice via @mitpress