Butte County Pandemic Mutual Aid
Donation protected
We’re a socialist organization; and hold as a high principal for all of our work solidarity. Solidarity means that even when some or most of us don’t feel like the most affected, we dedicate ourselves to support the people that are.
The COVID-19 pandemic spread rapidly and we find much of our communities under-resourced and under-prepared. People are all scrambling for resources, and racist tropes and hoarding have manifested in our city . Many folks don’t have access to healthcare, transportation, or food delivery service; and are being asked not to leave their homes.
These particularly include our elders, who often live in subsidized apartment complexes and mobile home parks, but also people of all ages with compromised immune systems.
While the capitalists inject incomprehensible quantities of money for meek returns in the stock market, we’re left with rent and mortgages to pay, mouths to feed, and unemployment. We are not working with the expectation that the government is going to extend a hand to us in a timely or appropriate manner — rather, our best hope is in collective action in solidarity. We need all hands on deck.
To combat the potential humanitarian crisis caused by this confluence of corporate greed and government inaction, the Chico Democratic Socialists of America has created a mutual aid program for all those in our community who need help during this period of the coronavirus outbreak. We are actively receiving calls and emails from community members with requests for supplies, and designed a process for coordinating deliveries to cover their basic needs. We practice a rigorous sanitation protocol to ensure that we are keeping the recipients of these supplies safe from all risk of infection.
We come to you today because our program is in need of funding. Once we started spreading the word, we received call after call from folks not just in Chico, but throughout Butte, and into Tehama County requesting support.
Your donation would go towards:
* Upkeep of sanitation supplies - we sanitize everything, including our vehicles, so we don’t risk transmitting anything,
* Gas for deliveries - so that our volunteers (who are effectively unemployed at the moment) can keep the deliveries coming without taking the financial burden upon themselves, and
* Subsidies for groceries and food for people who can't afford to purchase them - we have received numerous calls from folks who have no means by which to purchase their own supplies (it’s illegal to use someone else’s EBT), or who are in need of assistance. Any leftover money will go towards this.
Make no mistake about it, capitalism has created the situation that we are in. Our healthcare system is inefficient except for private treatment and woefully inaccessible to most people. Now due to this pandemic, many folks are out of an income and may no longer be able to provide for themselves and/or their families. We in Chico DSA, along with many other grassroots organizations across the country, are stepping in to help fill the gap that capitalism and a neoliberal government leave us with.
Mutual aid can help us get through this together. Help us so we can help each other.
In solidarity, Chico DSA Mutual Aid
The COVID-19 pandemic spread rapidly and we find much of our communities under-resourced and under-prepared. People are all scrambling for resources, and racist tropes and hoarding have manifested in our city . Many folks don’t have access to healthcare, transportation, or food delivery service; and are being asked not to leave their homes.
These particularly include our elders, who often live in subsidized apartment complexes and mobile home parks, but also people of all ages with compromised immune systems.
While the capitalists inject incomprehensible quantities of money for meek returns in the stock market, we’re left with rent and mortgages to pay, mouths to feed, and unemployment. We are not working with the expectation that the government is going to extend a hand to us in a timely or appropriate manner — rather, our best hope is in collective action in solidarity. We need all hands on deck.
To combat the potential humanitarian crisis caused by this confluence of corporate greed and government inaction, the Chico Democratic Socialists of America has created a mutual aid program for all those in our community who need help during this period of the coronavirus outbreak. We are actively receiving calls and emails from community members with requests for supplies, and designed a process for coordinating deliveries to cover their basic needs. We practice a rigorous sanitation protocol to ensure that we are keeping the recipients of these supplies safe from all risk of infection.
We come to you today because our program is in need of funding. Once we started spreading the word, we received call after call from folks not just in Chico, but throughout Butte, and into Tehama County requesting support.
Your donation would go towards:
* Upkeep of sanitation supplies - we sanitize everything, including our vehicles, so we don’t risk transmitting anything,
* Gas for deliveries - so that our volunteers (who are effectively unemployed at the moment) can keep the deliveries coming without taking the financial burden upon themselves, and
* Subsidies for groceries and food for people who can't afford to purchase them - we have received numerous calls from folks who have no means by which to purchase their own supplies (it’s illegal to use someone else’s EBT), or who are in need of assistance. Any leftover money will go towards this.
Make no mistake about it, capitalism has created the situation that we are in. Our healthcare system is inefficient except for private treatment and woefully inaccessible to most people. Now due to this pandemic, many folks are out of an income and may no longer be able to provide for themselves and/or their families. We in Chico DSA, along with many other grassroots organizations across the country, are stepping in to help fill the gap that capitalism and a neoliberal government leave us with.
Mutual aid can help us get through this together. Help us so we can help each other.
In solidarity, Chico DSA Mutual Aid
Organizer
Chico DSA
Organizer
Chico, CA
