Chicago Politics

Mutual Aid Micro Grants 4.9.26

Description

Mayor Brandon Johnson attends the Mutual Aid Micro Grants announcement.

Transcript

2:40 Good morning everyone again. Like I've said before, it is such a pleasure to be in space with all of you. As a reminder of why we're in this room, you all were recognized for your work as an organization or a collective and how you've been standing up with a mutual aid response in light of the federal impacts that we've seen here in Chicago. So it is with great pleasure that I will introduce Kate Mayer, the CEO of the Greater Chicago Food Depository. Thank you, Ruby. A few minutes ago, as in the hallway, I heard as Ruby was doing the housekeeping, she used the term superheroes. And that is exactly right. It is a privilege to be here with some of the most amazing superheroes who have been not just in the last few months.

3:38 We have navigated what is happening at the federal government, but frankly, superheroes who have been there for our neighbors for months and years and decades. And I am so grateful to be here with you to celebrate what you have done, but also to learn from and hear about how we together continue to rise up to meet this moment for our neighbors. So thank you for everything you have done and everything you will continue to do.

4:12 In a heavy moment like the one that we have been in, what inspires me is that you are not just serving. You are building trust. You are seeing our neighbors. You are there for them in so many ways. and I can't think of a greater gift for this beautiful city than that. So thank you.

4:45 I feel like I have a pretty easy job right now because it's my job to introduce somebody who doesn't need an introduction. And it is a pleasure. and privileged to be joined this morning by the great mayor of the great city of Chicago. So it is my honor to welcome up to the podium Mayor Brandon Johnson. Wow, thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you, Kate, for that introduction. Good morning, everyone.

5:19 It is truly an honor to be with you all today. You know, at its core, government has the responsibility to care for its people, making sure that families can live with dignity, stability, and access to the essentials. I think about this great institution. I'm grateful that President David Sanders always opens up the doors of Malcolm X College. Can we thank President Sanders for your commitment? But it's through the Black Liberation Movement,

5:50 from the days of reconstruction, of education, housing, health care, transportation, good-paying jobs, environmental justice, the essentials. It's government's responsibility and what is more essential than food. At a time when families need more support, the federal government has shirked its most basic responsibility by gutting SNAP and making it hard for millions of people to have access to those essentials.

6:23 But as you all know, as the city of Chicago, we refuse to accept this as normal. In fact, we are stepping up to lead and ensure that our communities are not left behind, especially when it comes to something as vital and as basic as putting food on the table. And if you've never had to worry about food, Perhaps you would not understand the gravity of this moment. I can tell you as one of ten, we didn't always have ends that met.

6:56 And food was a competitive moment in our house. In fact, if you got home after school and you did the unthinkable, like take a nap, By the time you woke up and the aroma hit the top of those stairs, it was already too late. You know, but I'm grateful, though, that we have these 67 organizations across our city receiving city funding to expand mutual aid and to support our residents.

7:30 This effort comes from an executive order that I signed back in November directing additional city resources to address the ongoing uncertainty around SNAP benefits and food access. Through this work, we will continue to partner with nonprofits and food pantries, community groups, and faith institutions to get food into the neighborhoods where it is needed the most. The organizations that you all represent, you play such a critical and unique role in addressing this challenge, food insecurity.

8:00 especially for vulnerable and underserved communities. By being deeply embedded in our neighborhoods, you have the power to meet residents where they are, but you can do it quickly and you can do it effectively. I have to admit, I do know that sometimes government, we can move a little slow. Yeah, thank you for not saying amen to that, but I know, and that's why your work is so essential. And so the $4,500 grants that are issued, We are not just investing in services that you provide, but the leadership that you provide and the trust that you have built with residents.

8:35 You embody the spirit of our collective responsibility, Chicago and showing up for one another, not not as charity, but as a shared goal for our collective humanity and justice. And you remind us the path to a more equitable city. It's built together. We do it block by block or in this room, table by table. The city's investment in you reflects my administration's commitment to strengthening neighborhoods based on the support that you all provide. You are really essential partners.

9:07 And if we're going to strengthen food access in Chicago, we're going to need this collaboration to be fortified. And so on behalf of the city of Chicago, I want to express my deep gratitude for your life-saving impact on our communities. I also want to acknowledge and thank, again, what can you say about the Greater Chicago Food Depository? Kate, thank you for your leadership and your love for the people across this city and this country. You know, because the GCFD, you all have been on a roll.

9:39 I mean, it's been a pandemic. It's been a federal crisis. I mean, the fact that you are still as energized as you are, it speaks to the testament of. Even during uncertain times, the Chicago Food Depository is ensuring that we can make sure that people have access. So thank you again, Kate, for your leadership. And I know there's more for the city of Chicago to do, especially to work around investing in food security and to support your work. And we're going to do that.

10:10 Then through today's discussion, I hope to learn more about the ongoing work that you all are doing on the ground so that the city can better show up for you all. But here's the last point. Together, we can continue to build on solutions that ultimately ends hunger. The people who are going to work today, sending their children into the classrooms, who have experienced a great deal of instability, what you all are doing is stabilizing our communities to work with my administration to build the safest, most affordable big city in America.

10:41 So thank you all. God bless you. And I've got to do this. Go Cubs. All right. Hey, I know it's like all the like the six Sox fans just refuse to clap. I got you. All right. So thank you all again. I'm going to turn this over to Ruby. Ruby Ferguson. Are you all give it up for Ruby? So the spirit of today is to hear from you all. And so this is our attempt to make a roundtable while you can also drink your coffee and eat food and to make it really feel like we are all sitting at a table together.

11:21 And so I just wanted to put out a few questions to the audience so that you could stand up and share about your work. And the first question in particular is about that work. And so would love to hear about the collectives in the room, the work that you do, and how this kind of flexible funding to support mutual aid was beneficial to you. And so I'm going to run around with a mic, feel free to stand up, and I will pass the mic to you.

11:52 I knew you wouldn't be Shaq. Hello, everybody. My name is Kimberly Britt, and I'm with Shy Fresh Kitchen. We are honored to be here today. Shy Fresh Kitchen is a worker cooperative that prioritizes ownership for formerly incarcerated individuals in Chicagoland. And we also get out good, delicious meals like you'll experience this afternoon for lunch. We also we also have been in partnership and in collaboration with the Greatest Chicago Food Depository since the beginning of the pandemic.

12:33 And we're just happy to be here today. Thank you. Good morning, everybody. It's amazing to see all of these people here. I mean, just between the washing my hands in the bathroom, you know, Metro, right to here. I had conversations with five people who were representing groups that were doing such amazing things that I already felt like the laziest person in the group. Y también quiero saludar a toda la comunidad hispana que estén con nosotros esta mañana.

13:09 Es un placer estar con vosotros, con todos ustedes aquí. I represent Mayfair Mutual Aid, so we're located on the northwest side. Nobody ever knows where Mayfair is. Like, it's between Albany and Jefferson Parks. Come check us out sometime. We started during the pandemic, and we have since been adapting and evolving thanks to the crises that we have coming from Washington. We have been patrolling schools to ensure that families feel safe,

13:43 get their kids safely to school, especially at Palmer Elementary. We have also been launching, we have been doing food deliveries to families every Saturday. Thank you to the support of the Chicago Food Depository. And we continue to expand and try to inform our neighborhood of the fact that we're here and that we are a group of people willing to help. Just contact us, and we'll do the best that we can. We just started doing, like, dog walking. Like, hey, Metro's late. Can someone walk my dog? We're like, yeah, we'll respond to that. So thank you all for allowing us to be here.

14:15 the food is amazing and excellent. Have a great morning, everyone. Good morning, fellow growers and folks that feed the city. The first thing let me give you a good morning in Japanese, Ohio and in Chinese

14:46 is did I give that one already? me how okay and the first thing food is a right not a privilege everybody deserves food as a basis I know folks come on our firm we're from oldest farm only things in season fresh from we're in back of the arts if folks walk up to the farm

15:17 or you got neighbors that want to eat something then they can come on and harvest some food. It don't cost anything but a little time. I know there are over 800 farms and gardens in the city of Chicago, and I think that's why we're the number one city in the country, right? One thing I'd definitely like to see are more love fridges

15:47 in place throughout the city. Every time we stock up our love fridge near us, literally within minutes once the word gets out it's swarmed and that's it so that's something that's very vital and it helps in a sense fulfill the gap in the hunger chain and also in divested communities we really need to see these more, I don't say, I like to say food apartheid zones, simply because a lot of it stems from

16:25 systemic racism, and we definitely need to do better with that. But again, hello to all my fellow growers, farmers, gardeners, love to you all, and hope to get around to some more farms this summer, and power to the people. Hi, everyone. My name is Scotty. I'm with Veggie Mija Chicago. We're a nonprofit that focuses on plant-based and ancestral foodways. Specifically, our focus population is BIPOC queer folks.

17:05 We do a few things, but specifically as it relates to food distribution, we have a plant-based fridge in Little Village. This past, earlier this year, we officially joined the Love Fridge Hub. We're located 25th-01 place, right by the prison as well. We have been impacted with a lot of folks similar, you know, with the cuts, and so it's really an honor to receive this award, but then also adjusting to the climate we're in

17:40 and collaborating with a lot of folks in this room, with Cedillos, CUSP as well, to kind of meet the needs of our neighbors. We also do a monthly sandwich making club where we make plant-based sandwiches with the Groove Chicago every Sunday from 1 to 3 if folks want to join us. We just we have sandwich ingredients. Folks bring some stuff as well. And we all just like have a good time, connect, play some music, make sandwiches. And then we distribute those across the leverages as well.

18:11 So this is a little bit about what we do. If anyone wants to connect or is in Little Village, please reach out to us. Thank you. Good morning, everybody. My name is Mariah Foster. My pronouns are she, her and hers. I am the deputy director at Life is Work. So Life is Work is a black trans lead organization located on the west side of Chicago, 600 North Cicero. I knew you would appreciate that, Mayor. I knew you would appreciate that. So we provide health and human services to TLGBQIA plus individuals.

18:45 So that looks like housing, gender-based violence housing, re-entry housing, housing for individuals who are living with disabilities. We also provide prevention services, so HIV testing, linkage to PrEP, linkage to treatment for STI treatment. We also have a food pantry where we were able to expand, giving out food bags for individuals who are homebound, allow individuals to walk in to utilize our food pantry. And then we do a drop in center where we provide life skills development on the West and South side of Chicago, right off of 63rd and Cottage Grove, where we're able to provide hype meals to community members.

19:20 and so we were able to expand our reach through these drop-in centers that happen weekly thursdays 11 to 7 on the west side and then the fridays 11 to 7 on the south side of chicago we also have a clothing closet to address clothing needs and communities so that looks like hoodies hygiene kits, t-shirts, tucking gear, anything that community needs and so we are super excited to be here, super excited to be doing this work with you all that are pushing for efforts to expand and address needs and community and this is our CEO, Zahara Bath, and she's here. So if you all have any

19:52 questions, if you all want to partner with us, we would love to collaborate with you all. Thank you. Hi everyone. First and foremost, I want to offer gratitude to all of you for doing the work that you do, the very important work that you do in the city of Chicago. My name is Yolene Lozano. I'm with Healthy Hood Chicago. We're an organization that was created to bridge the 20-year life expectancy gap by addressing root causes, one of them being food insecurity. So we operate a food pantry

20:23 twice weekly. We also do deliveries to homes, specifically through our rapid response group for families who can't leave their home due to the uptick in federal agent presence in our city. And we're moving into crime drought season. So if you're going to be on the west side of Chicago on May 21st, come to Crane High School, just down the block. We'll come through if it's your alarm. Okay. And experience the beauty that is high school students providing food to their community.

20:53 The freshman class organized this health and resource fair. And so we would love to have all of you there. It's May 21st from 1 to 4 p.m. Hi, everybody. I'm Jake with Chicago Food Rescue. I started the organization a year and a half ago. We believe that hunger is not a supply and demand issue.

21:25 It's a supply chain issue that we can solve with logistics, coalition building. We work with many of you in this room. Jillian, we love you at Healthyhood and are looking forward to working with many more of you in this room. So if you don't know us, come say hi to Hannah and I at some point today. We'd love to work with you. The way we do work is by getting excess food from food donors. We send a volunteer to pick it up in their vehicle, deliver it directly to nonprofit community organizations like many of your own. So if you have excess food or need food, come find us, say hi,

21:59 and we'd love to get to know you. And then I'll come back. Hi, good morning, everyone. My name is Maria Orozco. I work with the Street Vendors Association of Chicago. We are – thank you. we're located in a little village we've been an organization for more than 20 years i started about a year ago and back in september when federal agents were attacking our vendors

22:31 and our communities we decided to step up and do a go fund me for them so we asked for community help and people they heard us they saw what was going on and thanks to everybody people around around the world, around the community as well, around the country, and we were able to raise $600,000 to deliver $500 checks to our street vendors. We are a very small team, so we are still trying to get these checks out.

23:02 We've delivered and hand-passed out over 1,200 checks already. We're almost close to being done with that. And then we also partnered up with Cycling Next Solidarity, a group that does mutual aid. They reached out to us as well, and what we did was vendor tours. So we basically gave them a list of vendors, and then they would come in a group, 20, 30. At the end, it was like 50, 60 cyclists that came, and then we would buy out the vendors.

23:32 And then after that, we would deliver the food to love fridges as well. We would take tamales, fruits, anything that was viable, as well as to shelters. So thank you guys so much. Buenos dias. Mi nombre es Juan Gama. Soy vicepresidente de la Organización de Vendedores Ambulantes. Good morning. My name is Juan Gama. I am the vice president of the Organization of Street Vendors. Y muchas gracias por ser parte, por invitarnos a ser parte de este desayuno, de este evento.

24:04 Un gusto conocer al mayor, Brandon. I just want to thank everybody for being here and for inviting us and thank you to the major for being here our heart gets excited when we see you nice to meet you también representamos a una cooperativa dentro de los vendedores ambulantes y con esta ayuda pudimos repartir unos ricos y deliciosos tamales y vasos de fruta en cuatro barrios diferentes We also associate with a cooperativa, and thanks to this, we were able to deliver some delicious tamales to other organizations.

24:41 Repartimos tamales en el barrio de North Londer, La Villita, Brighton Park y Gage Park. We were able to distribute tamales in Brighton Park, La Villita, Gage Park, and North Londale. Muchas gracias, y gracias a ustedes por estar aquí. Thank you so much to everybody for being here. Good morning, everyone.

25:13 My name is Dulce Morales. I am co-founder of Cedillo's Fresh Produce. I know a lot of you in this room, and I collaborate with a lot of you in this room, and I'm very grateful to be here with all of you. Thank you for the invite, and thank you for helping us support what we do. What does Cedillo's do? We do a lot of different things. One of them is feed our community. Who is our community? Tadios is in Inglewood, and our community is anybody that is marginalized in any kind of way and cannot afford food.

25:53 We have a CSA that allows us to feed whoever supports our community-supported agriculture, but we also get grants to feed people that cannot afford their food. We participate in farmer's markets that have LINC or SNAP programs, like Plant Chicago Farmer's Market, which we're going to have one this weekend. Please come and join us.

26:25 And so what we do is when our customers, our neighbors come and buy from us, and they're counting their SNAP dollars, and they're like, I only have $2. What can I get from this? And I'm like, what do you need? What do you need in your house that is in this table? And that's what you could take. A lot of people don't need to know that, right? A lot of people don't need to know that that's what we do for our community members

26:56 that cannot afford more than what they have from their double value benefits. This is not something we advertise. This is something we do to people that come to us all the time and have no money to pay for their food. We grow seasonally. There's only so much we could grow. There's only so much we could give them. We also get eggs, and we also give them eggs if that's what they need because that's the minimum protein that we could give them. So we're very grateful for the support that we get.

27:29 And if you want to come and volunteer with us at any point or send anybody, we are there every Friday and Sunday from 9 to 1. Come to the Planned Chicago Farmers Markets as well to support us because that's where we bend as well. Support CUSP, support Little Village Farms, support Beji Mijas. These are the organizations we're working with, Otis Farm. So we're working with so many different organizations that if you support them, you're also supporting us. Thank you.

28:03 Hi, my name is Shawna Bowman. I'm the director of Friendship Community Place. We're located in the heart of Jefferson Park in a building called 5150. I say that address because it means a lot to us. We got our start fighting for affordable housing on the far northwest side of the city of Chicago. 5150 is 75 units of affordable housing for folks in everything from studio to three bedrooms. So really an important type of space that we'd love to see repeated again and again through the city.

28:35 Friendship Community Place provides a community hub center on the ground floor. After fighting for years and years for this building to get built, we moved in and invested in the community. And so we provide all kinds of resources. But the heart of our space is our shared community commercial kitchen where we gather residents in the building and neighbors in the community into something we call a kitchen crew. and they meet regularly and they share recipes and build out menus and then scale them and feed 200 servings to themselves in the community once a week. It's a very collaborative mutual aid

29:09 model and we draw a lot on our partnerships in the neighborhood for resources. The gift of this grant is going to allow us to expand our open hours, access to our love fridge and our pantry and also expand our community garden, which is in our backyard this year. It's so good to be here with all of you. Good morning, everyone. Good morning, everyone. I'm sorry. I like to do that to make sure we're being intentional in the spaces when we're here.

29:43 I'm going to look around the room real quick, and I can tell I'm probably one of the youngest individuals in the room today. Don't let the gray hairs fool you now. Look, don't let the. OK, see, now I got everybody woken up. Hello. Good morning, everybody. My name is Kevin Johnson, Jr. I'm the lead organizer for Working Family Solidarity. We're a nonprofit organization based in Pilsen. We work around equitable development, trying to comb together communities, especially African-American and Latinx communities, understanding the strength and solidarity that pushes from that.

30:15 How we understand what the food securities is doing goes back way before, like I know some people here today have experienced, Just like myself, being a young African-American boy in the Inglewood community, trying to figure out what's going to be my meal at night. Where am I going to go for these resources? Now, not only just because of Mayor Brandon Johnson, but also other plans by the Department of Planning, we have different resources hubs in my community, like the 79th and Green Building that's there with the resource hubs and the fresh farmer's market. How we come in with our organization, we work and support individuals by combing together these communities and giving them the access to these resources.

30:50 We host at least two to four large food donation drives every single year, as well as we do attachments with other organizations throughout our communities. Just as recently as two weeks ago, where we gave out over 150 bags of groceries and food and things for community residents. And how we want to be able to see this, be able to comb together as a whole, is we want to bridge the gap between what it is to not only just have good quality food, especially in our low income and people of color neighborhoods, but then also how can we also give them the job spaces, right,

31:23 to be able to create the monetary value that they need, not only just to properly feed themselves, their kids, and their family, but also take care of their lives in a way that sustainably moves them forward. We appreciate you guys for allowing us here today. And, yeah. So the good news is we have a lot more time together. Don't worry. but we need to get a group photo before the mayor has to leave what I want to ground in

31:54 is I want to thank you all for sharing and what is super inspiring is November was as Kate has called it a dress rehearsal for what is about to come with SNAP and this room was ready and prepped for the dress rehearsal and will be ready and prepped in May when we see folks who are impacted by those work reporting requirements So I want to thank all of you for being ready and doing it with love and dignity and thinking about how we support Chicago in the best way we know possible.

32:25 So just want to thank you all for that. We are going to pivot to take a picture, and then there's going to be an opportunity to take individual pictures with the mayor. In that time, there's space for us to network. I know, surprise, mayor. maybe not sheila my bad if that's not true we're gonna come take a picture right here i have some signs that you can hold up if you would like to um and then we'll have space to network and then we're gonna get back and get into the conversation because there is so much to learn from folks in

32:58 this room my bad mayor johnson so if everyone could come up here to get ready for a photo So that would be phenomenal. That says save SNAP. Yeah.

33:29 So good to see you. Yeah. Sorry.

35:26 right up here. One, two, three. Stay where you are. We have the mayor right here on the side, and we'll just make this the line going out, okay?

Sources and methods: how we get and count this data · report an error