I’m writing to you with a heart full of gratitude and hope. Last week, we asked for your support to power our Defender Free Food Program food distribution. This weekend, thanks to you, we delivered 100 food boxes to 100 Black families across the KC Metro.
This was ESPECIALLY possible due to the extremely generous support of the Urban League of Kansas City who we partnered with and who made a substantial contribution.
Each Free Food Box was packed with various items ranging from fresh peppers, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, and kale, to milk, bread, eggs, turkey, sausage, beef, chicken stock, pasta, cooking oil, and snacks for the kids.
And we intentionally practiced cooperative economics by procuring the food from Black-owned grocery store Sun Fresh at Blue Parkway to ensure we continue to circulate the Black dollars we fund raised back into the Black community.
We delivered nourishment to hundreds of Black babies, children, parents, and elders. In the face of devastating SNAP and WIC cuts, a city that would rather provide $500,000 for artificial intelligence police drones and $300 million to KCPD while our children starve, our community demonstrated the revolutionary power of mutual aid.
This work shows why, long-term, we must understand such efforts as the only true path towards survival and liberation, enabling us to have self-determination over our own food systems.
A Glimpse of the Impact You Made Possible:
- Many elders with limited mobility, told us our delivery was the only way they could get fresh food for the week.
- Parents sent us pictures of their children beaming with joy next their food box and the snacks inside.
- Perhaps most powerfully, one woman shared that due to being furloughed, she hadn’t eaten a full meal in over 45 days. The food we delivered was the first time she was able to cook and feed herself completely in a month and a half.
We believe this kind of work is the groundwork of a new world. The practice of liberation in the here and now, building the food sovereignty we know is possible.
A Radical Act of Community
This monumental effort was brought to life by our incredible, intergenerational Defender Mutual Aid team, from comrades in their 60s to youth as young as 11, all working side-by-side to pack and deliver these boxes with love. (I’ve attached a few photos from the day so you can feel the energy).
And in every single box, we included the fresh-off-the-press, exclusive 2nd Print Edition of The Kansas City Defender.
It provided vital political education, our most damning investigative reporting, practical resources like “Who to Call Instead of the Cops When Emergencies Arise” and a directory to get plugged into community organizations like KC Tenants, Decarcerate KC, Community Movement Builders KC, and the National Black United Front KC.
We are FEEDING THE PEOPLE, BODY, MIND, and SOUL!
This is Just the Beginning
We laid the groundwork in the early fall when we co-launched the Hamer Free Food Program with our comrades at KC Black Urban Growers, Ivanhoe Neighborhood Association and every Black farm in KC. And this weekend The Defender continued to build upon it.
A better world is possible, but only if we are willing to organize and fight for it. It reminds me of the timeless excerpt from the Fred Hampton 1971 Speech;
“If you ever think about me and if you ain’t gonna do no revolutionary act, forget about me. I don’t want myself on your mind if you’re not going to work for the people. Like we always said, if you’re asked to make a commitment at the age of 20 and you say, I don’t want to make a commitment only because of the simple reason that I’m too young to die, I want to live a little bit longer. What you did is… you’re dead already. You have to understand that people have to pay the price for peace. If you dare to struggle, you dare to win. If you dare not struggle then goddamnit you don’t deserve to win. Let me say peace to you if you’re willing to fight for it.”
Thank you for being a part of this organizing. Thank you for your trust, your support, and your belief in a future where our community is fed, warm, and free.
