Supporting Heart of Dinner & Stop AAPI Hate

Hi everyone! Effectively the same blurb as the one I posted on FB; if you want another long read, strap in!

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At present, so many issues (both new and, mostly, long existing) have been brought to the fore—there is so much that needs to be done, and so many different groups in need of support. While there are many, many important and worthwhile initiatives, I hope to highlight two in particular that hit close to home.

I was blessed enough to have grown up with all four of my grandparents until I was 20 years old, when my 爺爺(paternal grandfather) passed after a hard-fought  battle with dementia. My 婆婆 (maternal grandmother) raised my brother and I as my mom was ill and dad was working to support our (very large) family, while my 嫲嫲(paternal grandmother) is the most quietly, steadfastly considerate and caring person I’ve ever met. And my 公公(maternal grandfather), well, he’s one of my best friends and an absolute legend.

Hate and discrimination against any group is both saddening and despicable; it is senseless and baffling and just f*ing awful. The recent rise of hateful rhetoric and attacks against Asian communities around the world (US, yes, but also UK, Canada...etc.) has been especially painful to me because of the harm done to elders—grandmothers and grandfathers like my own. Set against the backdrop of COVID-19 and its stressors (particularly acute for marginalized populations and minorities), this hate has been all the more damaging.

I know this is a huge, overwhelming issue within a sphere of many other huge, overwhelming issues (some similar, some different, all important). But I’m hoping to start somewhere, and these are two initiatives that particularly resonated with me:

1. HEART OF DINNER (NYC)
https://www.heartofdinner.org

“Heart of Dinner exists to combat food insecurity and isolation within NYC’s elderly Asian American community. We do this by delivering care packages of hot lunches and fresh produce every Wednesday, lovingly paired with a handwritten and illustrated letter in Chinese or Korean.”

2. STOP AAPI HATE (SF)
https://stopaapihate.org/about/

“In response to the alarming escalation in xenophobia and bigotry resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Asian Pacific Planning and Policy Council (A3PCON), Chinese for Affirmative Action (CAA), and the Asian American Studies Department of San Francisco State University launched the Stop AAPI Hate reporting center on March 19, 2020. The center tracks and responds to incidents of hate, violence, harassment, discrimination, shunning, and child bullying against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the United States. Our approach recognizes that in order to effectively address anti-Asian racism we must work to end all forms of structural racism leveled at Black, Indigenous, and other communities of color.”

I’ll be matching up to this donation goal of $1000 CAD (around £600 GBP) and will be splitting between these two initiatives evenly at the end of the donation period; please do consider donating however much you can. I know we can get into the politics of charity and whether donations like this actually help—regardless, I think it’s an important step right now, and can be valuable when combined with sustained education, advocacy, and engagement (in whatever way that is meaningful to you/that you are able to do, visible or otherwise).

Anyway, sorry for the long post—grateful for whatever you can spare but, in any case, thank you so much for giving this some thought and time. 

*Thank you to my good friend Tingyee Chang for her recommendation of Heart of Dinner/for generally inspiring me with her commitment to advocacy and action 

*Thank you to another good friend Jesse Singh for being gracious with rent arrangements to allow me to be able to match donations