Program areas at Equitable Giving Circle
COVID-19 created immense economic hardship throughout all communities on a national scale. In particular, BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) communities were hit hardest as a result of generations of discrimination-based social destabilization and lack of access to equitable resources. Income instability very often leads to food insecurity. Our approach to addressing this issue is two fold: Purchase CSA shares from Portland's BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) farming community to support revenue in a time when restaurant clients are no longer buying. Gift CSA shares to BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) families experiencing food insecurity who are not currently being served by the social services networks. The second tier of our food justice programming is our weekly pop up pantry or free farmers market. We host this free weekly food event on Thursdays from 10-2pm at our work space: This is a weekly access point of fresh produce, high quality pantry and protein items and more for BIPOC Portlanders.
The third arm of our work is direct actions of how we can learn, grow, and reclaim lost traditions in a way of addressing community wellness. For us it looks like the following programming: Plant Jam Care Packages Special Projects. Examples: backpacks, joy boxes, and period products Monthly Educational series: lunch + learn, happy hour discussion, monthly money talk Community Events
The aim of our second initiative is to equitably provide assistance with stable housing for single mothers and their families in the Portland metro area. We believe equitable solutions to housing insecurity can be addressed through radical community support. Person-to-person. What does that look like? It looks like donations that will support down payment assistance and rental payments. It looks like generating social capital for long-term growth. It looks like leveraging network equity to find affordable housing options that are not tied to government subsidy. It looks like working together to build a long-term, action-oriented community of support and resources around this issue that lives on outside of the bureaucracy of the system.