Pascua Yaqui, Tohono O'odham respond to community needs during coronavirus pandemic

Mutual aid programs run by Black women have filled critical gaps in public assistance during the pandemic by feeding hundreds or thousands of people in multiple Southern cities. From Durham's Mustard Seed Project to St. Louis' Potbangerz to others, these community-based care programs center their aid on prepared meals, but they often add other donated goods for people in need: personal protective equipment, groceries, and household and baby items. In some cases, the nonprofits' organizers have formed intercity friendships and alliances that help spread their tactics.

Two women living on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming helped to provide mutual aid when they saw many families in the area facing difficulties during the onset of the pandemic. The pair set up a fundraising page and a Google form to raise funds and track peoples' needs and started distributing goods like groceries, diapers, and hand sanitizers to over 300 families on the reservation.

The Gaza Sunbirds para-cycling team shifted from preparing to compete in tournaments, like the 2024 Paralympics, to distributing food and aid packages to displaced people in Gaza on their bikes.

Texas mutual aid groups raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to help people with food, housing, and other supplies after natural disasters, which are increasing due to climate change. Organizers go door-to-door and use social media to identify people in need of assistance, particularly people impacted by structural inequalities in low-income communities, communities of color, and people with insecure housing. Donors, most of whom also come from the community, help with cash or goods donations. Recipients aren’t means-tested and the neighbors-helping-neighbors model allows for quick and passionate action.

Seattle’s urban agriculture community saw a boom during the COVID-19 pandemic and Black Lives Matter protests. BIPOC-led urban farms — like YES Farm and Black Star Farmers — had an increase in volunteers and people wanting to help provide food security, agricultural education, and land access to communities who don’t have their basic needs met. In the first half of 2020, the city of Seattle assigned plots of land to 439 new gardeners to pursue urban farming, with nearly half of them going to underrepresented populations.

Urban Tilth, an urban farm in California, is providing food directly to communities in need and upending the traditional food supply chain so they can help people access healthy and sustainably-grown food. They have been providing local organic food to 190 families financially impacted by COVID-19, almost six times more food they’ve distributed since the pandemic began.

After Boston Public Schools closed in March because of the COVID-19 pandemic, about 70 volunteers tended schoolyard gardens at 14 schools to grow food for local families experiencing economic hardship. While students were not able to participate because of COVID restrictions, residents during the summer months cleaned garden beds and planted vegetables like eggplants, cucumbers, and peppers. Organizers expect to harvest about 300 pounds of vegetables by the end of September.

Community Services Unlimited (CSU) is a local organization in Southern California that is helping to increase access to healthy foods for families all year round, but especially now during the Covid-19 pandemic. Unlike many food aid programs, the goal of CSU is not just to provide food, but to "create more empowered food communities" by teaching the local community valuable and usable skills around food production and distribution.

In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, groups of women around the world have started mutual aid initiatives such as coordinating volunteers to help immuno-compromised residents get groceries and other essential goods and raising money for emergency aid. Women have a long history organizing mutual aid ventures in response to social problems and crises. Though operating to scale can be difficult because it requires a lot of volunteers and coordination, women-initiated groups in the United States and United Kingdom provide aid and services to meet needs not being met by governments and elected officials.

The Lee Initiative, Beam Suntory, and Pernod Ricard are three brand-sponsored initiatives that have provided meals and essential goods to cooks, servers, hosts, bussers, and bartenders that are out of jobs because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The organizations partner with local restaurants to provide meals and goods to those in need on specific days and times each week. The programs have reached many in an industry that was hard hit by the shutdown. The Lee Initiative has provided more than 9,000 meals nationwide and Beam Suntory’s Shift Meals program has served about 10,000 meals nationwide.