Roots & Dreams and Mustard Seeds

O.U.R. Resurge -a place to call home @ 117-129 Fenn St. Pittsfield, MA

The real-estate closing for O.U.R. Resurge community building was back  in September! We are so excited to transform the former Lach's Lounge into a community space! We're new to architects and contractors and they are all so busy! The process has been a little slower than we expected but we're making progress. We have 18 committed members to support the work with their skill-sets and labor.

There's no doubt caring for our community has called us to move out and into spaces where it's most needed and to ally alongside movement builders who we call friends and partners. We must never stop moving out and into all the places we are called. It is safe to say, though, we have also longed for a home-base, a space that can carry our community when it needs to heal, create, and/or accomplish it's goals. The choice here is key and thanks to this building donation we are no longer displaced. 

With this building, we hold the opportunity to extend the welcome our donor gave us - a place for local groups, artists, and grassroots initiatives to feel held,  a place for a home-base. O.U.R.'s (Our United Resources) or O.U.R. Resurge is community owned and run. Members have a vote in how the building develops, it’s utilization, and it’s goals. By donating the land it’s on back as a community land trust, it also gives opportunity for the space to stay as a community resource even after we're gone. 

Our video slide captures all the different spaces we move,serve,and create - from art and theater production, to community school, to feeding vulnerable families, to protesting, to creating new models for equity, including three worker co-op start-ups and the structuring of our first co-op housing multi-family!  There seems to be an underlying goal that presupposes our shared ideals - no one should have to feel displaced, alone, and/or with out support. 

Featured slide photos features - Corazonidos Community School, Mercado de Vida, Worker Co-op Development, Harvest of Hope Festival, Women's Fight against Domestic Abuse at the Great Barrington court house, allying with Native Americans at the state house to change the racist seal and insignia on our flag (it's been done!), performing a play that transformed the Christmas Tale, Scrooge, into Three Kings with a theme that successfully related a story about justice and a call to reunite immigrant families and release children from cages, issues of Fronteras Comunes Bi-lingual Social Justine Art Zine, Co-op Housing - structuring the first model, and photos of us with our extended community and allies at Mumbet's Freedom Farm, Cloud Kingdom, Reformation Academy and Cathedral of the Beloved. We threw in a few good oldies with members we love dearly but  who have passed - Akosua and Jose. 

Our GoFundMe has two phases! This first one will focus on the initial costs to rehab  Lach's Lounge into a community space so that we can start using it! The second phase will attend to updating the bar and an extremely outdated kitchen into a commercial kitchen for community use, which includes our two Latina led business groups, Gustitos Boricuas and members of Berkshire Seamstresses who will be selling thier baked Latino staples to our local grocery stores.  We will be raising funds via this campaign as well as applying for suitable grants!

Thank you so much for your support and we hope you, too, will find community at O.U.R. Resurge! 

Learn more about our work in our most recent mail-chimps!

https://us6.campaign-archive.com/?u=1cbfc9bbb0de5aa4aea6fe11a&id=12d8e4e604

https://mailchi.mp/02a9d9fefc0e/zbux3yf6dt-5125909

Read our most recent edition of our bi-lingual magazine Fronteras Comunes!

https://www.flipsnack.com/fronterascomunes/fronteras-comunes-despertares-edition-verano-2021.html

Signed,
Roots & Dreams and Mustard Seeds Inc. & Manos Unidas Cooperative

All donations are tax deductible. Our EIN is - 82-3012805. You can also request a form documenting your donation. Email [email redacted]

Phase 1 -
Architect - $3000
Electrical Work - $3100
Sheet-rocking - $1200
Plumbing - $2200
Interior Painting - $870
Exterior Painting - $900
Men's Bathroom rehab - $1400
Flooring - $2700
Restoring tin ceiling - $1300
Total - $16,670

Phase 2 - 
Community Commercial  - $15,000

Donate here! 
https://gofund.me/8a609bef


-- 
Roots & Dreams and Mustard Seeds Inc.
& Manos Unidas Multicultural Cooperative
Seeding a Berkshire Grown Solidarity Economy! 
https://www.rootsandmustardseeds.com/
Ph. [phone redacted]  
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The Olive Tree Branch - shop with us!

Support La Cocineras Latinas Co-op raise funds for their food truck appliances!

Estamos recaudando fondos para nuestros electrodomésticos Food Truck!

Leer En Espanol Abajo!

For the last ten years, we (Mariam Orengo of Gustitos Boricuas, Mariosl Estrella, and Maribel Polanco of Celeste Comida)have been preparing our delicious Puerto Rican and Dominican cuisine within our community for social good, as a part of Manos Unidas’s outreach endeavors! In collaboration with Manos Unidas and BCC, I raised $7000 for roofs in my home-country of Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria and when the pandemic hit, we (Mariam, Marisol, and Maribel) hit the ground running - cooking together and delivering 200 meals per week as a part of Manos Unidas’s Atravesendo Esto Juntos pandemic response, a program that ran for two years. Aside from catering gigs with Manso Unidas’s collaborators, from Jacob’s Pillow to BCC to Whitney Center for the Arts to local resident families, we have struggled to access capital to get our business idea off the ground. Having been social entrepreneurs for years together, we decided to conjoin our dreams and create a co-op. Not only do we now have a wider variety of food (Dominican & Puerto Rican) on our menu, we can support each other in creating a co-op business! We took a leap of faith and purchased a food truck just six months ago! We are now raising $10,000 to purchase it’s appliances.

This last year has been a tough one for us as Marisol's son, Miguel, was killed by Police at only 22 years old when Police were called for mental health support. Miguel like his mom, gave back to community working with our farmers market, Roots Rising, and building homes with Habitat for Humanity. Our community is still healing from this wound and deciding next steps to ensure this type of trauma never happens again here in Pittsfield, MA. Some weeks are harder than others for Marisol and her family, but she knows Miguel would want her to keep her dream alive - to successfully leave behind two decades of low wage work cleaning for a hotel to sharing her talents of being an amazing Dominican Chef with all of us here in the Berkshires!

Our co-op works with Cooperative Development Institute, Roots & Dreams and Mustard Seeds Inc, Manos Unidas, and our statewide coalition, COWOP (Coalition of Worker Owner Power) to access technical support and mutual aid so we can better reach our goals. All donations to this fundraiser are tax deductible through Roots & Dreams EIN— 82-3012805 . If you prefer checks to the gofundme, you can mail them Roots & Dreams and Mustard Seeds Inc. 164 Skyline Trail, Pittsfield, MA. Enter in the check memo line - La Cocineras Latinas Co-op.

www.rootsandmustardseeds.com [email redacted]

https://www.facebook.com/manosunidascooperative/

¡Durante los últimos diez años, nosotros (Mariam Orengo de Gustitos Boricuas, Mariosl Estrella y Maribel Polanco de Celeste Comida) hemos estado preparando nuestra deliciosa cocina puertorriqueña y dominicana dentro de nuestra comunidad para el bien social, como parte de los esfuerzos de alcance de Manos Unidas! En colaboración con Manos Unidas y BCC, yo (Mariam) recaudé $7000 para techos en mi país de origen, Puerto Rico, después del huracán María y cuando llegó la pandemia, nosotras (Mariam, Marisol y Maribel) nos pusimos manos a la obra: cocinamos juntas y entregando 200 comidas por semana como parte de la respuesta a la pandemia Atravesendo Esto Juntos de Manos Unidas, un programa que funcionó durante dos años. Aparte de los conciertos de catering con los colaboradores de Manos Unidas, desde Jacob's Pillow hasta BCC, Whitney Center for the Arts y familias residentes locales, hemos luchado para acceder al capital para hacer despegar nuestra idea de negocio. Habiendo sido emprendedores sociales durante años juntos, decidimos unir nuestros sueños y crear una cooperativa. ¡No solo ahora tenemos una variedad más amplia de comida (dominicana y puertorriqueña) en nuestro menú, sino que podemos apoyarnos mutuamente para crear un negocio cooperativo! ¡Dimos un salto de fe y compramos un camión de comida hace solo seis meses! Ahora estamos recaudando $10,000 para comprar sus electrodomésticos.

Este último año ha sido difícil para nosotros, ya que el hijo de Marisol, Miguel, fue asesinado por la policía con solo 22 años cuando la policía fue llamada para recibir apoyo de salud mental. Miguel, al igual que su madre, retribuyó a la comunidad que trabaja con nuestro mercado de agricultores, Roots Rising, y a la construcción de casas con Hábitat para la Humanidad. Nuestra comunidad todavía se está curando de esta herida y decidiendo los próximos pasos para garantizar que este tipo de trauma nunca vuelva a suceder aquí en Pittsfield, MA. Algunas semanas son más difíciles que otras para Marisol y su familia, pero ella sabe que Miguel querría que mantuviera vivo su sueño: ¡dejar atrás con éxito dos décadas de trabajo de bajo salario limpiando un hotel para compartir su talento de ser una increíble chef dominicana con todos nosotros aquí en Berkshires!

Nuestra cooperativa trabaja con Cooperative Development Institute, Roots & Dreams and Mustard Seeds Inc, Manos Unidas, y nuestra coalición estatal, COWOP (Coalition of Worker Owner Power) para acceder a apoyo técnico y ayuda mutua para que podamos alcanzar mejor nuestras metas. Todas las donaciones a esta recaudación de fondos son deducibles de impuestos a través de Roots & Dreams EIN: 82-3012805. Si prefiere cheques a gofundme, puede enviarlos por correo a Roots & Dreams y Mustard Seeds Inc. 164 Skyline Trail, Pittsfield, MA. Ingrese en la línea de nota de verificación - Cooperativa La Cocineras Latinas.

www.rootsandmustardseeds.com

https://www.facebook.com/manosunidascooperative/