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8/31/22 update: We have adjusted our GiveButter goal to $15,000 (from $12,000) to accommodate extra expenses in support of new neighbors who are migrating in from Texas. Thank you to all who have supported us so far!
What is FAMALAM?
FAMALAM (Food, Agriculture, Mutual Aid, And Literature At La Morada) is an ongoing project that aims to nourish both body and mind by addressing the ever-present need for fresh food and accessible literature. The initiative is led by La Morada, an undocumented-family-owned and operated Oaxacan Restaurant in the South Bronx, Word Up Community Bookshop, Sugar Hill Community Fridge, The Peoples Peoples Fridge, and The People's Fridge at Word Up, all located in Uptown Manhattan. All of this was done in response to the lack of resources and support for marginalized communities, exacerbated and compounded by the pandemic. To learn more about La Morada’s Mutual Aid Kitchen, visit https://lamorada.nyc/pages/la-moradas-covid-19-soup-kitchen.
Who is leading FAMALAM?
As of July 2021, La Morada has partnered with Word Up Community Bookshop, Sugar Hill Community Fridge, The Peoples Peoples Fridge, and The People's Fridge at Word Up to provide fresh farm produce from farms to the communities in the Bronx and Uptown Manhattan every week until the end of the harvest season. In addition, Word Up Community Bookshop will help provide books and other educational resources to community members in all our communities as well as those in the rural towns where many of the farms are located.
If you would like to learn more about each group’s work and how to donate and/or volunteer, please visit our Instagram accounts:
Word Up Community Bookshop/Librería Comunitaria
The People’s Fridge at Word Up
Why support FAMALAM?
At the community fridges, we work and organize around the idea that everyone has value; that everyone should have access to fresh, nutritious food. That nourishment gives presence of mind so we can live, learn, work, and have energy to care for our communities.
All of our fridges are located in communities that experience the very real effects of food apartheid and so we work vigilantly to combat food insecurity, primarily by taking aim at and tackling the food waste that we see so present in our food systems both in our city and our world. We work to rescue + share food in our communities, especially produce, which has been historically scarce + oftentimes unavailable or unattainable for many of us and our neighbors.
Community fridges and other mutual aid spaces are a direct way to take care of each other and meet each others' immediate needs while simultaneously building people power and solidarity around issues of social, racial, environmental, and food justice. Food and work around food access is a great way to stimulate participation, to activate folx, to onboard and orient each other to the broader work of political education and community engagement.
Community fridges are kin to community spaces like Word Up, where we recognize that the systemic issues that prevent equitable access to continuous and healthy food are the same that prevent our communities from access to relevant and accessible literature and educational material. Through a holistic consideration of access, we can work together, in community, and take care of each other.
Fresh produce distribution at the People's Fridge at Word Up.
How does this work?
From now until the end of November, our team will receive a weekly delivery from farms in Upstate New York. Those deliveries will then be distributed, together with culturally relevant books, to our community fridges and groups. But in order for those deliveries to be made in a regular, reliable, and sustainable way, it is vital that we provide financial support to our farmers and drivers through payments and stipends respectively. We are aiming to source produce from, increasingly, BIPOC-owned farms, which are especially disproportionately affected by COVID-19 and are historically excluded from financial aid and other governmental resources. We hope to work with Upstate contacts to source requested books for farm workers and their communities.
What am I helping to fund?
Is my donation tax-deductible?
Yes! As this project is in collaboration with Seven Stories Institute D/B/A Word Up Community Bookshop, which is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, your donation is tax-deductible to the fullest extent of the law. Through Word Up's programs over the years—from the CSB [Community Supported Bookshop] member program and CSB Harvests, to Story Time Family Breakfasts, to our collaborations with the groups here—we have developed a strong belief that nourishment of the body cannot be considered separately from our efforts to nourish the mind. To learn more about Seven Stories Institute D.B.A. Word Up Community Bookshop, or to inquire about donating via check, visit https://www.wordupbooks.com/about
