For someone looking for food assistance, Operation Food Source is a great place to find free food, children’s meals, and reduced-price markets via zip code.
St. Louis Food Area Foodbank is another great place to search, which also includes distribution events. FindHelp is another option that can be used across the country, not just locally. You can also use FeedingAmerica.
In Jefferson County, the Health Department keeps a list of resources here.
If you celebrate Halloween and expect trick-or-treaters to your home, this is a great time to learn more about your neighbors and what they need. You can think beyond candy and also hand out snacks or meals with substance, like instant mac and cheese, oatmeal, or ramen. If you have the capacity, offering a choice is ideal so everyone can choose their own adventure! Also, some of your neighbors may not be able to afford candy to pass out, so if you can, maybe you can be more generous than years prior.
Be a grocery / meal buddy.
Join local Facebook groups or use apps like Nextdoor to see who may need a helping hand near you (I saw a request on our local Buy Nothing page). Apps like MealTrain, Instacart or DoorDash include ways to send gift certificates with ease, or allow you to order food and send to someone without sharing your payment information. Or, you can offer to purchase and deliver groceries yourself.
Help your local food bank.
Unless told otherwise, consider donating cash. That way, your local food bank can buy the supplies their community needs, and you’re not contributing to overstocked goods. If you have time, volunteer.
If you work at a company that has a match program, you may be able to double your impact by making a financial donation and asking them to match!
This living document is updated daily and is the most comprehensive resource list.
The People’s Response from Action St. Louis and For the Culture STL has an intake form for assistance, and this is a list of shelters and hotel help. The list also has places for meals, showers, laundry, lost IDs and medicine, childcare, therapy, pets, etc. Note: the SNAP deadline was extended until June 16, at least the last I heard.
4theVille Emergency Hub has been open every day. They have food and water, hygiene supplies, cleaning materials, legal help, etc.
I have seen a lot of discussions about how uneducated most MAGA voters are. Some of this discussion is rooted in data that we have, but like every issue we’re facing, it’s much more complex than that. I also see a lot of these assumptions rooted in ableism. I am sure that it is harder to study, but as an advocate, I cannot help but think that there is also a big portion of folks who are voting/making choices from a trauma response.
For a lot of people, getting out of that angry or terrified mode can be impossible until they get help, and as much as therapy stigma has decreased over the years, it’s still very much there. When I think of how disproportionately voters who support MAGA are the same low-income voters who are affected by their awful policies and then compare that with Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES) altogether, which are also common in low-income households, the reality seems pretty clear and heartbreaking.
If you have ever worked in victim services, you know that people often do things out of fear or anger and against their own best interest. For someone who hasn’t learned anything about trauma, it also seems illogical. “Why did he just start a fight and get kicked out of the shelter? Why did she just spend all of the money she saved for a down payment? Why are they screaming at me when I’m just trying to help?” But logic has nothing to do with a trauma response. That’s why it’s always so frustrating when the judicial branch isn’t trained to be trauma-informed and often judge survivors without considering that their memory loss, behaviors, or emotions are trauma-related and difficult to control–impossible, sometimes, without intervention. I really recommend researching what that looks like, which can be different for everyone. Someone’s screaming or seeming lack of affect or impulsive decisions are often out of their control. It’s often even worse for folks with head injuries or who lost oxygen during abuse.
Add another layer of not learning any critical thinking skills in our push for no child left behind, making teachers teach students to memorize things for tests that impact their funding instead of giving them time for thoughtful engagement, and the nationalism pushed through curriculum, and the lies and confusing wording that politicians use on a daily basis to keep us against each other? Which is the reason the rich invented racism, by the way. And not even touching how unaffordable college is? Sometimes I think it’s incredible that there are as few MAGA folks as there are. Not to mention the fact that they have politicians who are constantly working on this, dedicated keeping us in the dark.
A friend also reminded me that a lot of these news headlines are designed to incite fear or anger, which can lead to anxiety and activation of the trauma response. And when folks are already stressed about medical bills and groceries and insurance premiums go up as natural disasters hit our towns, that’s only going to activate more emotion.
Another friend reminded me that in general, people are rational, but the average person only has about six minutes a week to think about politics, often due to juggling multiple jobs, caregiving, and other responsibilities just to survive. He pointed out that MAGA news is often more accessible via radio, church or TV in common spaces, while more nuanced news is often behind a paywall, and written by academics who use less accessible language. If a message isn’t easy to hear, how can people understand the message?
And as angry as I am about this massive, well-planned, and deliberate misinformation campaign, it does remind me who the real enemy is–the rich who control the strings, education policies, inequity that fosters poverty, lack of healthcare, violence in both the system and in homes that continues to produce hurt people who hurt people. The legislators in my state alone are advocating for more teen parents because they say it’s good for their economy!
When I see people on the left making fun of people on the right based on a supposed lack of intellectualism, all I see is more of that lack of education that they are so quick to blame, with the finger pointed in the opposite direction. And we’re honestly not going to be able to work together to move forward until we can meet each other where we are instead of vilifying one another. And unfortunately, people on the left seem to be the first people to cut off and “cancel” those who could use their presence the most.
One compassionate generation that is fed, housed, and happy, learning active listening skills, socioemotional learning, and supportive parenting skills could change everything… without this purposely violent cycle orchestrated by the rich.
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Sara J. Schmidt 