The Mutual Aid Network of Ypsilanti

The stress on our supply chains during the Covid-19 outbreak has made it harder to keep food pantries stocked. The Mutual Aid Network of Ypsilanti (the MANY), a worker self-directed nonprofit and cooperative support community, is working hard to keep up with increasing food needs in Ypsilanti. For the past year, we’ve been collaborating with Beautiful Gate International Church’s food pantry  through our Pantry Support Program.

Visitors to the weekly food distribution have gone from averaging around 100 to now over 300 people in the past few weeks, and as we move into a recession, the need for more free and accessible food will continue.

While trying to reduce the spread of coronavirus, it’s harder to safely process individual food donations as everyone stays home and follows social distancing. However, you can help the MANY reduce food insecurity from the safety of your own home by donating to this sustainability fundraiser.

Here are some examples of our plans depending on how much money we raise to decrease food insecurity in Ypsi:

$2,000 sustains Beautiful Gate’s food distribution for 8 weeks and funds our hand sanitizer program

$5,000 sustains Beautiful Gate for 20 weeks

$9,000 allows us to order 8 tons of bulk isopropyl alcohol and the bottles to distribute it across our networks

$10,000 sustains Beautiful Gate for 40 weeks

$25,000 allows the MANY to purchase a box truck to increase our efficiency and autonomy in collecting and distributing essential donations 

$400,000 allows the MANY to purchase a warehouse so we can have a safe, consistent, community owned space to store and distribute supplies, sew masks, make hand sanitizer kits, and generate infrastructure for the long-term efforts ahead