1.) Gov. Walz today, after signing MN's universal school meals bill, providing free breakfast & lunch to all K-12 students
2.) Alaska's Gov. Dunleavy unveiling his gender-restrictive "don't say gay" bill earlier this month
Soup kitchens should be a neutral territory - a DMZ of humanity - & not JUST on Christmas Day. "Hilarious" that the community patrol is so understaffed as to no longer be a resource for us, but FOUR TROOPERS can come take away someone who's just eating breakfast.
#RefundCommunity
@farmereva_
Elie Wiesel said that “The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference... the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference.”
Even (especially?) in the face of certain doom, to love & to live takes making our own meaning. My motivation is to not go indifferently.
Recently, 3 elders in Stebbins were hospitalized for malnutrition due to Alaska's SNAP backlog. Today, pandemic food relief also ends for the rest of the US's hold out states.
Hunger is a policy in this country, decided on by well-fed politicians.
My pal, an unhoused Fairbanksan froze two weeks ago. His death didn’t make the paper, but his arrest for trespassing (into a warm building to sleep) just before sure did.
Fairbanks NEEDS a harm reduction day shelter.
@LStrannigan
This week, a houseless client was in deep crisis at our soup kitchen. We called the mobile mental health team, who called the cops. The police told us the client had come to their station *hours earlier* & that they had KICKED HIM OUT INTO THE -20°F NIGHT WITHOUT PROPER SHOES ON.
@mistermoviespod
I run an anti-hunger nonprofit & it’s the hardest/most rewarding thing I’ve ever done. My job shouldn’t exist *at all* but I’m glad to be able to do since it does.
“Alaska has approximately 58,000 children who would be eligible to receive the Summer EBT benefit in summer 2024." FIFTY-EIGHT THOUSAND CHILDREN.
Hey,
@GovDunleavy
- you wanna stand tall behind your "pro-life" lip service? Prioritize feeding Alaska's children.
Alaska is among a slim majority of states not registered as of Wednesday to participate in a permanent summer EBT program providing $40 a month per child in food assistance to low-income families that begins next year, according to the USDA.
Today the City of Fairbanks dropped an eviction notice on a group of unhoused folks who made camp together at the edge of town. In winter. In Alaska. At Thanksgiving.
Best part was the porch crew ribbing the Troopers, asking if there were open jail beds cos no one has anywhere warm to go, "leave her - can I come with you? I'm homeless & it's cold."
@TheBlackNerd
19 & working alone at a late-night coffee shop. An older man came in & confessed that he was secretly gay, a married minister & struggling… we talked for HOURS. I lowkey assumed it was an attention-seeking fib but, a month later, he gave the eulogy at my friend’s church funeral!
Real uncool how Alaska's
@GovDunleavy
just introduced a DON'T BE GAY bill that is somehow even worse than Florida's.
This is a GREAT time to tell our bigot-in-charge that
#Alaska
doesn't do hate & (democratically) give him a piece of your mind. 🏳️🌈
Please, light a candle for my grandmother. The one & only Ms. Marcella Hill passed on peacefully at home, early this morning, surrounded by her loving family. We are so blessed.
🖤
Hello. I am a high school & university drop out. All y'all cracking hatekeeping jokes about how people without degrees deserve less our worth, can absolutely go fuck yourselves on the high horse you rode in on.
I've been struggling to get up in the mornings & thought I'd been turning off my alarm(s) in my sleep, but today I caught MY CAT DRAGGING MY PHONE ACROSS THE TABLE TO SMACK AT THE SCREEN & STOP THE ALARM ...what the fuck?! It's a conspiracy!
On the news this morning, a Fairbanks City Counselor noted his opposition to land acknowledgments because “this land belongs to god” since absolutely fuck the First Amendment, I guess 🤷
#LandBack
At the vet, paying for Buddy's stupid expensive Rx food, when the surgeon suddenly comes out to tell a couple that their dog made it thru & is doing well. They’re crying & hugging & saying "she's ok, she's ok" & NOW I’M CRYING & WE’RE ALL CRYING & THE DOG IS OK!
🚨HEY ALASKA - do you not hate kids? Do you believe in fucking EQUITY? We have to fight back Dunleavy's anti-LGBTQ+ HB 105 with public testimony TONIGHT.
Yes, we're tired & the firehose of bigotry hurts real bad. But this is for the children of AK. This hateful shit stops here.
10% of women globally is 390,000,000 people yet endo is REGULARLY ignored by medical professionals. It takes (on average) 10 YEARS of self-advocacy to be taken seriously & there is *very little* research for this pervasive issue cos women are expected to cope with lifelong pain.
I'm driving to ANC for work this week, so if y'all could *not* get 20" of snow &/or FLOODING during those 360 miles, I sure would appreciate it...
#PlasticJesus
Until today,
#FairbanksAlaska
was the coldest city in the US without a warming center. FBX HopeLink changed that.
Open 7 days a week, from 11PM-7AM, FBX HopeLink is a low-barrier, accessible space for anyone who needs safety from the cold. ANYONE.
FUNFACT - it takes 8 gallons of sauce to have biscuits n gravy for for the whole soup kitchen ...but Chef made a little bit extra so the staff could have a "family meal" together after service. ♥️♥️♥️
#JustSoupKitchenThings
My grandmother is in hospice & so was Dan, the man who rented upstairs. We give 24/hr care for my grandmother - Dan was alone & refused all help. Dan died this week & no one but us (& hospice) knows.
Tell your people you love them & light a candle for Dan tonight.
Two days after the Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day, a man was found frozen outside the tent he lived in @ -20°F. Allowing people to die on our streets in unacceptable.
#FairbanksAlaska
NEEDS a low-barrier shelter, open warming stations & more permanent supportive housing.
Alaska food banks are inundated with demand as the state works to fix its food stamp backlog. “The anti-hunger network was not designed to replace SNAP," said Ron Meehan, Food Bank of Alaska’s policy and advocacy manager. via
@AlaskaBeacon
Want to see what a year's worth of SNAP backlog looks like in Fairbanks, Alaska? Our little soup kitchen is struggling to keep up with increased need while food donations are down... it's been REAL HARD & there's no relief in sight.
#AKLeg
@RndmStreetMedic
Said it before & I'll say it again - if you've never known any queer/trans people, it's because you've not been a safe person to tell.
Well, 2 years in the thick of it & the Rona finally got me. Damn, that was a good run.
I’m so proud of our little soup kitchen/my rad housemates for taking the pandemic seriously & being SUCH badasses on the daily.
The greatest gift anyone can give me is the gift of not having to make EVERY goddamn decision for EVERY goddamn little thing EVERY goddamn moment of EVERY goddamn day
92,000 Alaskans use food stamps - many have not received benefits since OCTOBER. The state's "charity network" has been strained to the breaking point by Alaska's failure to respond. This is our 4th such backlog in recent history.
#AKLeg
Good news Friday: 3/4 of the
#FairbanksFour
are getting $1.59M each after being unjustly incarcerated for 18 years.
Their case highlights the racism & bigotry inherent to Fairbanks' power structures. $1.59M is *nothing* next to what happened to the F4.
Today, the littlest girl at the soup kitchen found out her favorite person doesn't work with us anymore & - inconsolable - laid under a table sobbing, "I don't want friends anymore if they go away!!" 💔
Chef Matt really outdid himself today & made the best breakfast ever at the soup kitchen: volunteers served 100+ hot meals of fresh cranberry oatmeal, scrambled eggs, home fries, snausages, biscuits, fruit salad, apple crisp & local pumpkin soup!
FFS - white people - consider this selfishly immature reaction & reflect on why we're stuck in this embarrassing behavior cycle of enthusiastically being on the shittier side of history.
IT WAS A SYMBOLIC GESTURE OF COMMUNITY & RELATIONSHIP YOU UNFATHOMABLE ASSHOLES.
Anchorage Museum is suspending new policy of free admission for visitors who self-identify as Alaska Native.
Email says they "want to make sure all policies involving access and availability are in line with the community’s expectations while following all legal guidelines."
I'm driving to ANC for work this week, so if y'all could *not* get 20" of snow &/or FLOODING during those 360 miles, I sure would appreciate it...
#PlasticJesus
Y'all. This is not great. One actionable thing that EVERY Alaskan can do is contact their state rep & advocate for passing SB149 & HB196 ("Food Stamp Program Eligibility”) introduced by Sen. Giessel & Rep. Mina, respectively. Email, call - whatever... get civic for food security!
Today we served 61 hot meals & 61 sack lunches at the soup kitchen.
At minus -30°F hypothermia can take hold in just 10 minutes. Fairbanks’ warming centers are open for a combined 6 hours, daily. That leaves a cold 1,080 minutes outside for many Fairbanksans.
@GovDunleavy
Alaska’s “first true conservationists” are it’s Indigenous people - whose land was well & sustainably tended before colonizers stole it & put a price on life. Indigenous folks now suffer the highest rates of poverty & hunger in Alaska. So glad YOU can fill YOUR freezer, Governor.
Voted with 3/4 of the housemates this morning, got a flu shot at the soup kitchen from the public health nurses & am hosting a FREE somatic skills community workshop later - feeling EXTREMELY civic today!
All summer, a friend had been unusually off radar… turns out, because they’re an unhoused person in the
@cityoffairbanks
, their feet froze last winter & were amputated @ the knee.
This is the human price of our City rejecting community care as a value worth investing in.
It took 2 years for COVID to get past our defenses & take the morning crew out (they’re on the mend)… even still, the Stone Soup Cafe hasn’t missed a beat because this little
#SoupKitchen
has a rockstar crew who steps up - every time - to keep “feeding people & affirming lives.”
I did some maths today & figured that our lil soup kitchen, the Bread Line's Stone Soup Cafe, has served almost 47% over last year's record - 33,600 meals have gone out the door in 2023... nearly 10,000 more meals (so far) than by this same time last year.
In the big ol words of Elizabeth Peratrovich: "...asking you to give me equal rights implies that they are yours give. Instead, I must demand that you stop trying to deny me the rights all people deserve."
Once upon a time, Alaska was a forerunner of civil rights. We could be again, if we fight for that.
Contact your local
#AKLeg
Representative & Senator ✨TODAY✨ to oppose Dunleavy's harmful HB 105/SB 96 & support LGBTQ+ Alaskan's equality with HB 99!
👇
Folks talking at me about “personal choices” …I completely agree. We CHOOSE to force people into homelessness instead of having accessible housing for all. We CHOOSE who “deserves” help, what kind of help they get, when they get it & for how long. We choose this.
Two days after the Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day, a man was found frozen outside the tent he lived in @ -20°F. Allowing people to die on our streets in unacceptable.
#FairbanksAlaska
NEEDS a low-barrier shelter, open warming stations & more permanent supportive housing.
In Alaska's last big cold, several of Fairbanks' most vulnerable neighbors lost parts of themselves to the weather. Seeing folks released from hospital directly back into homelessness, hobbling around our shitty winter streets in medical boots on their half-feet...
TODAY'S THE DAY Y'ALL. The opposition has spent the last week unearthing every terrible troll they can & Alaska's LGBTQ+ kids need to know that WE will fight for them.
Please, take the time to call in tonight. If you called last time, get two friends to call today. It's serious.