Ask and you’re given – mutual aid at its best
Do you need anything? Just ask. Mutual aid is based on asking and helping each other’s goals come true! Get to know more about it below.
As you know, for the past four months, we have been making vegan sandwiches for those in need. We reached out to Food Not Bombs Toronto to offer some saved food items. Then we got to talking with a volunteer from there and he introduced us to mutual aid. A term we knew about but didn’t think of it so much before. Mutual aid is perhaps new to many therefore needs a wider introduction.
In organization theory, mutual aid is a voluntary reciprocal exchange of resources and services for mutual benefit. Mutual aid projects are a form of political participation in which people take responsibility for caring for one another and changing political conditions.
Source: Wikipedia.org
Anyway, besides that, he told that FNB is looking for people who would love to take over the sandwich making. As the other team was just ending their work. We were like, okay, but 100 sandwiches sound like a big deal. Making food for so many people wasn’t definitely a skill in our CV’s. But we thought that perhaps this is how we can introduce veganism to a wider audience. To show that vegan food is beautiful and nutritious.
Aiming for the best
Ever since we started with our task of making sandwiches we strived for the best. As vegans, we love and appreciate food. For a couple of years, we have also been fighting for food waste. What a great moment for us – save food and feed people! Also since we are not into consumerism and are frugal, we wanted since the beginning to keep the costs for Food Not Bombs as low as possible.
So far we have offered sandwiches made of different kinds of beans, such as black, white and kidney beans and our favourites, chickpeas. Few times we have been experimenting with wonderful results with vegan eggplant bacon. With mayo, tomato, and fresh lettuce leaf, this has proved to be a hit. At least amongst us two 🙂 One time we were lucky to score 10 packages of Ives gluten-free burgers. We smeared them in barbecue sauce and grilled them in the oven, these burgers were a hit among the receiving end.
Mutual aid started to work little by little, as we received food from different people. Many times people just gave away what they didn’t need, and we were able to put this to work while making sandwich fillings. Awesome! We didn’t think that there is so much free food to save if you just happen to be at the right place at the right time.
Though we like what we are doing, we also like to excite ourselves during this process. So we are trying to come up with new ideas and offer a more varied sandwich selection. But fabricated vegan products are quite expensive, so we have been mostly using vegetables and beans for delivering healthy sandwiches.
Would you be able to donate?
At the end of the last year, I really started to think about what I could do to make these sandwiches better. I knew that there had to be a way. Perhaps reaching out to vegan companies would bring some results. Though I wasn’t really sold on that idea, I decided to give mutual aid a chance and see what it may bring.
I contacted more than twenty companies. Some small local companies and some huge brands from the United States. When writing to them I didn’t think that they will take a step. As the companies have branches in Canada as well and perhaps even in Toronto, so it would be easier to communicate and deliver.
Anyway, we got back, I think around 6 replies. Guess what, responses came mostly from larger companies. This was really surprising, as I have been doing cold e-mailing before and they usually never get back. Wow, so I actually had some leads I could tie down to deals. My heart was full of joy and happiness. Mostly I was glad that people cared and gave mutual aid a chance. Even if it was just a promise to donate something in the future.
Yes, please! I want to Follow Your Heart!
One responder really stood out from the rest, as they were ready for action. The person was representing the company Follow Your Heart. If you are a vegan you are most likely familiar with their famous vegenaise. And perhaps you know their variety of vegan cheeses.
The representative of FYH was really supportive of what we are doing and offered their contribution to make better vegan sandwiches. They were all business when they asked for our mailing address. On Friday UPS delivered a 45 lbs box for our sandwich making. Just on time for our Saturday preparations.
When we opened the box, we were blown away – so many slices of cheese and vegan mayo! Yay, looks like we are on for grilled cheese sandwiches. And for many more ihttps://followyourheart.com/products/avocado-oil/n the future!
Thank you, mutual aid!
On Thursday I reached out to community members near us and a couple of friends. I contacted people from whom I have received free items or delivered similar things to them. Or people who have shared their surplus food with us. We have to talk later about the idea of the Buy Nothing Project, which practicing mutual aid actively.
Anyway, many didn’t have an electric griddle to lend, but our two friends, Ian and Maimu had. We were really happy and were hoping to make these sandwiches with two machines. Ian was even so kind to drop his griddle off. And I bought Maimu’s from her nearby porch.
We had an electric griddle for 8 sandwiches and an electric pan for 4. We were on!
Conclusion
The idea of this article was to give you a little idea of what mutual aid is. Encourage you to ask for what you need and be grateful for what you have.
From this article, many other subjects were hatches, which we will introduce to you in the near future. Such as the idea of the Buy Nothing Project, how to make perfect grilled sandwiches, and introduce mostly on photos how a large company can be environmentally friendly and make a change in people’s lives.