#BrooklynShowsLove Mutual Aid Project

DONATE TO #BKSL

Call for Kitmakers!
#BrooklynShowsLove urgently needs your help! Our Food Distribution Community Kits Team needs 5-10 more kit-makers before August 31st in order to quickly get through our backlog and take new food and supply orders.

• Kit-makers are the people who from the privacy of their homes, pack the food and supply orders Kit-makers receive and store supplies, disinfect them, and put the food and supplies in bags
• Kit-makers need adequate space in their homes for bulk storage and will need to be able to commit to working on kits for 5-7 days per week.
• Kitmakers also need to be politically aligned with Equality for Flatbush & Brooklyn Anti-Gentrification Network values being motivated by revolutionary love and solidarity

If you are interested, we have a several step screening process. If you have attended a protest recently, you would need to do a two week quarantine before being a kitmaker. We would also ask you not to participate in protests/actions due to safety concerns. All of our kits team members are following this protocol for our safety.

If you are interested in taking on this responsibility and fulfill the requirements, please reach out to us at (929) 324-7828‬, taylor@equalityforflatbush.org or through bit.ly/bkshowslovevolunteer Thank you for your activism!

Call for #BKSL Drivers!
WE NEED MORE DRIVERS for #BrooklynShowsLove Mutual Aid Project!

Equality for Flatbush urgently needs drivers to make runs for groceries at supermarkets as well as make deliveries to Brooklyn community members. Right E4F delivers non-perishable groceries, household and COVID-19 supplies to hundreds of households in 30 Brooklyn neighborhoods. Many community members count on BKSL for consistent monthly grocery deliveries. The more drivers we have, the faster Brooklynites get BKSL groceries and supplies delivered.

E4F is a Black / POC led organization that has fought gentrification and police brutality since 2013. We started buying and distributing free groceries and supplies at the start of the pandemic in March 2020. We have committed to continuing this work through at least May 2021. Please help us continue this essential work to feed Brooklynites by telling your friends and family to become drivers for #BrooklynShowsLove!

Do you know someone with a car or access to one? If so, reach out personally and ask if they can join the Brooklyn Shows Love mutual-aid delivery team today.
How does it work?

• Volunteer drivers go through an orientation
• Become part of the BKSL team where they can sign up for deliveries and supply runs based on their own availability.
• PPE is provided, along with reimbursement for gas and delivery items

To get involved, sign up for the BKSL Community Kits Team at http://bit.ly/bkshowslovevolunteer and indicate you can be a driver.

Phone Tree Team Captains:
Equality for Flatbush and Brooklyn Anti-gentrification Network will be reaching out to our Brooklyn-wide base to assess what are people’s needs and the ways we can support them. We need volunteer callers to help provide material aid and resources to community members who have been economically and/or medically impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak. We also want to strengthen our ability to rapidly respond with phone zaps and online campaigns to stop tenant harassment and police violence in this period. With every phone call we make, we will ask community members to set up phone trees and/or text loops within their building, on their block, with members of their place of worship, etc, so we can build and/or strengthen neighborhood-based networks of mutual aid and support. We are recruiting as many volunteer callers as possible to help with this effort and we are touch with other mutual aid projects.

Resource and Info Researchers:
E4F and BAN have been compiling and sharing resources about coping with COVID-19, ways to combat anti-Asian violence and xenophobia, potential job opportunities and emergency funds, as well as empowering mutual aid work happening locally, nationally and globally. We want to learn about more resources, especially resources geared toward migrant communities of color, undocumented people, QTPOC/LGBTQ communities, financially impacted people, etc. Please join the Resource and Info Researcher Team.

View #BrooklynShowsLove COVID-19 Resource List Here.

Fighting Collectively for Systemic Change:
As the pandemic impacts Brooklyn and the city as a whole, E4F and BAN are more committed than ever to our mission of fighting for justice, safety, and solidarity in our communities. Along with supporting community members directly, we continue to work with our fellow activists and organizers across the city fighting for housing justice, police accountability, migrants’ rights, and transformative social change. In solidarity with our movement allies we demand systemic changes that, when embraced, will deepen our community’s ability to thrive in this critical time and beyond. At this moment, as always, we are working with a spirit of love and abundance, embracing the range of liberation work that is happening organically throughout the city to keep our communities safe.

Equality for Flatbush (E4F) will launch The #BrooklynShowsLove Emergency Fund for Flatbush, East Flatbush and Crown Heights residents
For hourly wage workers, dollar van and cab drivers, domestic workers, street vendors, home health attendants, nail salon workers, hair braiders/dressers/barbers, sex workers, restaurant workers, artists, contract workers, construction workers, retail workers, daycare and child care providers, Lyft & UBER drivers and others who have lost their source of income during this crisis. We also want to support people living on fixed incomes, homeless individuals, and/or people who are food insecure who have relied on neighborhood food pantries that have shut down in this period.

E4F wants to provide a one-time love offering of $150 to help people pay for groceries, keep up with their medications, take care of loved ones who are sick, etc to as many residents as possible. We will use Cash App, Venmo, PayPal, or paper checks. Our goal is to fundraise for a cycle of applicants each week and distribute funds over the weekend. The 1st cycle to apply for will begin on Friday, March 20th and end on Friday, March 27th at 11:59pm. The funds will be distributed on March 28th and 29th. The 2nd cycle application would start on Saturday, March 28th and end on Friday, April 3rd at 11:59pm, with the funds being distributed during Saturday April 4th and Sunday, April 5th. Our goal is to continue to raise funds on a weekly basis as long as we can.

The criteria for funding is your name, address, neighborhood and method of payment. We have no desire to police who does and does not receive funds or not. No one will be turned away, as we all cope with this unprecedented global crisis. All we ask is that people do an honest assessment of their access to other financial resources and think about the fact the average median income of many historically low-to-middle income African-American and migrant communities of color in Brooklyn is under $30K a year.

We want to raise as much money as possible.
$30K will allow us to give funds to 200 of our neighbors.
$50K will help us to support 333 community members.
$70K will make sure that 466 residents get funds.
$100K will ensure over 660 people receive a $150 love offering.