IRMA UPDATE
In the wake of Hurricane Irma, GrassRoots Alliance, a newly formed 501(c)(3) based in Colorado has joined a coalition of Dr. Bronner’s, Organic Valley and community groups in the effort to provide disaster relief to those in the heavily affected areas of Southern Florida. They have joined forces in hopes of providing upwards of five thousand meals per day to communities ravaged by the storm. A mobile kitchen and shower unit will be deployed for a long as the need prevails.
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News
In response to the recent destruction caused by Hurricane Irma in Florida, a collective organized by the Grassroots Alliance www.grassrootsalliance.orgworking with Camp TransFOAMation and a dedicated group of burners and rainbow family, will provide food, water and basic services to disadvantaged communities most heavily impacted by the storm. This same team led the incredible New Waveland Café effort after Hurricane Katrina. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Waveland_Cafe_and_Clinic
We will be in Immokalee Florida, an area that has been heavily impacted by the storm and is a majority migrant community that is often overlooked by state and federal support. Tragically FEMA support can’t go to undocumented people. http://www.naplesnews.com/story/news/2017/09/15/hurricane-irma-u-s-rep-diaz-balart-fema-arrive-immokalee-everglades-city/671793001/ Our mission is to serve up to 6,000 high quality meals/day and provide water, power, medical support and other basic services.
The kitchen will start serving tomorrow and we are ready to begin receiving in-kind food donations and financial support. 100% of all donations will be spent directly on feeding people and will be organized through the Grassroots Alliance, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, procuring food from local food service distributors at discount. All contributions are tax-deductible and please go to www.grassrootsalliance.org to donate. Paypal donation link is here. For in-kind food donations, please and ship to GrassRoots Alliance Cafe, 122 S 1st St, Immokalee FL 34142. Please cc donations@grassrootsalliance.org to let them know what financial and in-kind donations you can make, and contact Justin Baker justin@grassrootsalliance.org with any questions. We anticipate a two to three week deployment and $100,000 budget approximately, to serve free meals at less than $5 cost per meal, far less than Red Cross and other service providers.
In addition, we need volunteers and supplies locally. We are looking for folks that can help cook, clean and provide basic services. And while we have basic infrastructure, we also need additional key equipment like disposable serving ware, generators, RVs, sleeping cots, radios and other supplies that may be useful in this situation. If you have people in your networks locally who would like to volunteer or have equipment that could be useful to us, please let us know: volunteer@grassrootsalliance.org
Thank you for stepping up to help at whatever level you can.
Sincerely,
David and the GrassRoots Alliance team