I’ve been thinking about how to best support my local community during the coronavirus pandemic, within the limits of my capacity.
We have a few big outdoor toys (free to us in the first place!) that Ewok has grown out of; I should list those on Buy Nothing this weekend. Those will help parents entertain their kids when daycare closures hit.
I’m going to sort my seeds soon and then post surplus seeds on Buy Nothing, along with small pots ideal for seed raising. I’ll include in the post a note that starting an edible garden is a way to fight the anxiety and fear of the unknown, plus it’s a heck of a lot more useful than stockpiling toilet paper.
I need to figure out how best to check on my elderly neighbours and support them. They’re both teachers so are in contact with a LOT of kids every day, and will be home full time when schools close.
I’ve already been giving away excess homegrown veges to neighbours; that’s something I can continue doing.
Given we are fairly well insulated from the financial effects of the pandemic, I will try (try!) to fight the urge to hoard money, and instead continue to support local small businesses whose services I routinely hire.
We’re having my grandma and FOO over for lunch on Sunday. We’ve been making extra effort to visit family, especially the elderly, as much as we can while we’re well so they have some bank of social time for when we get sick (sick in general, COVID notwithstanding).
I went for morning tea at a neighbour’s place on the weekend - we all have young kids, so maybe some play time later. The kids (6 total from 3 families) all got along really well.
@HaH inspired me – I made a standing offer of time and energy on my local Buy Nothing group in case anyone needs to quarantine in the coming weeks and needs help with things like getting groceries to their house.
Also posted in our local ChooseFI group to see if folks wanted to do a virtual meetup, since our in-person was cancelled.
My friend invited me to a Zoom Happy Hour for Remote Workers and it was so nice connected with someone who works for a candidate trying to unseat the incumbent trash congressperson in my district, he wants me to speak with them about helping folks with their Medicaid. Don’t know what this discussion entails (and if I need to contact my union first), but it was nice to connect.
Need two different pieces of tradie work, so I’m using my sister’s friend for the electrical work and a neighbour for the more general work.
Reaching out to friends and family more frequently to make up for the lack of in-person hangouts.
Accepted an offer from someone wanting to help us with a practical task and it’s been heartwarming how much people are reaching out to me to provide virtual interaction while I’m physically isolated.
Oh, and elderly neighbours are having trouble getting fruit and veges. I am going to offer them my homegrown bounty ahead of other neighbours, since my other neighbours are all in lower-risk groups than them.
Neighbour posted that she needed a brown onion for tonight’s dinner - I was able to pop a few doors down and leave one on her fence. It’s the little things.
I like that the examples of street stalls provided in this article effectively contribute towards a hyper-local economy. I think a hyper-local economy helps foster stronger communities and shift people towards a kinder, more humane version of capitalism.
I read this this morning and it made me happy. My suburb and the surrounding ones are already pretty into this kind of stuff before the pandemic but I’m pleased it’s popping up more elsewhere
Your local area is GREAT for a certain kind of mindset (more eco friendly, community minded etc) generally - I love that!
We have a lot of free economy in my area (Buy Nothing thrives here, my street’s little FB group has a lot of giving, there’s lots of little free libraries, people leave baskets of lemons by their letterbox) but not much by way of monetised street stalls. Obviously the free stuff is even better than the monetised stuff, but people also need to pay their mortgages, so I’d like to see a mix of both.
Talked to some neighbors the other day when we were all outside entertaining our kids - they were cleaning out their cars, I had mine on a scooter. We chatted about social distancing and how we’re all just kind of terrified but also going about our lives because we have to. I remembered to get their number (previous number swapping failed due to being busy and a note getting lost) and yesterday dropped off some outgrown clothes that their little one could use. Clothes were dropped by the door in a bag so they could dump the whole thing in the wash, text was sent so it wasn’t just a random bag of clothes (although I had mentioned having hand me downs so it wouldn’t be entirely random).
Also waived hi to other neighbors we don’t see often, dad and older daughter were biking around our tiny neighborhood, obviously just trying to get away from the house even for just a little bit.
Reached out to my local circle to remind them that we have a gas stove, gas hot water and emergency lanterns, so if they lose power and / or a tree falls on their house, they can turn up here for a hot shower, hot food and enough light for comfort.
I was invited to a Zoom meeting yesterday for an artist collective. Our artist spotlight guest was an essential worker talking about what she’s been creating during the pandemic. We had a great conversation afterwards about how everyone was doing, what projects we’re working on or planning.
I’ve been keeping the empty toilet paper rolls since I moved into my new place. I have no idea what I’ll do with them. I’d also like to piece together a paper quilt with illustrations of people’s experiences during all of this, but so far no bites from friends and family.
Joined a SURJ (Showing Up for Racial Justice) National webinar this evening - I had to watch on facebook live because there were over 20,000 folks tuned in and only 1000 were able to access the Zoom call directly.
It was so good to see so many folks looking for engagement and action. It was also great to see that one of the leaders of my local chapter was also one of the speakers, familiar faces are good right about now.
Hosted a two-person virtual meeting today to address accessibility issues surrounding community events. Specifically with rallies, protests and marches right now, since that’s the only thing worth leaving the house for (hello covid). I was hoping for more folks to show up, but maybe next week.
In the meantime, we’ll work on putting together some checklists of things for our organizers to look for when planning events. The hard part is that we know we have to leave a bunch of stuff out because otherwise the literature will just be ignored. It feels like we’re starting from square one here, so…baby steps.
Invited a daycare friend of Duckling’s to the park for a playdate. They accepted and we are making progress in Project Make Local Friends.
I’ve also got open the website for local government that has all the paperwork for organising a local street event to meet neighbours. They are running an initiative and offering help to arrange things if residents get things started. I don’t think I can do much beyond read up at this point, but it’s a start.
connected with someone who works for a candidate trying to unseat the incumbent trash congressperson in my district, he wants me to speak with them about helping folks with their Medicaid. Don’t know what this discussion entails (and if I need to contact my union first), but it was nice to connect.
and it’s been heartwarming how much people are reaching out to me to provide virtual interaction while I’m physically isolated.