People’s Pantry
A PVWC Mutual Aid Program
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The PVWC People’s Pantry is a mutual aid program that started in the winter of 2017.
The program began when farmworkers from the Springfield worker committee made a request to allocate funds for direct food support for PVWC membership. The People’s Pantry was originally conceived as a winter program. It was designed to provide support when the majority of the farmworker members experience high levels of food insecurity as the availability of work tapers off with the end of the growing season. The mission held a key mutual aid value: in order to organize and struggle against state violence, communities must have their essential needs. Back then, this looked like a once a month distribution of staples like oil, rice, beans and corn-flour for members who attended the Springfield worker committee.
That drastically changed when Covid-19 hit. Overnight, the People’s Pantry responded. As immigrant workers were laid off overnight with no sense of when their next paycheck would come, the need for food and other forms of support drastically increased. By building on existing networks and forging new relationships with community members, we have dramatically scaled up the program and are currently distributing in Springfield and Great Falls. Since the beginning of the pandemic we have served over 14,000 people with the program.
Anybody from the community is welcome to receive the food and supplies we're distributing. Distributions are almost entirely volunteer-run, with the support of PVWC organizers.
Get involved!
If you’re interested in getting involved as a volunteer or wish to donate food or any other materials, please don’t hesitate to reach out!
JOIN US!
Together, we will use this land to grow the food justice movement.
“Ese trabajo me gusta y día a día, pues, uno va viendo la cosecha…las frutas y como van creciendo…No me gusta estar encerrada. Me gusta andar en lo libre.”
— Claudia Rosales, PVWC Executive Co-Director and former farm worker