04/13/2025
In the lead-up to our joint 10-year anniversary fundraiser on May 1, we will be sharing stories about key moments in our organizing history.
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In 2020, the world was hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. In the 33rd Ward, this caused us to close our storefront office on Montrose Ave. Weeks felt like years in lockdown as we learned to navigate our new reality. Organizations like ours, which rely on a physical presence, faced a dilemma: how do we build community and worker power if we can’t meet like we used to?
On May 25, the World witnessed the police murder of George Floyd. Protests erupted around the world out of the festering indignation of centuries of state violence against Black bodies and communities. By May 30, ex-mayor Lightfoot lifted the bridges in The Loop as the uprising for Black Lives hit Chicago. While hundreds were arrested, comrades from across the city, including Brave Space Alliance (BSA), mobilized to provide jail support in the face of government repression.
One night, I accompanied Rossana and Vero to drop off jail support supplies at BSA’s Hyde Park office. Clearly, they were running out of space, so we offered 33WF’s office as a storage and distribution hub. Bottled water, first aid kits, masks, hand sanitizers, and more began filling up our office until the only way to move around was through a path we created among the donations.
At first, the donations were only intended for jail support. But as neighbors walked by our storefront and saw the donations, they began to ask, “Are you giving those out?” At first, we explained these were intended for jail support. But as the economic crisis deepened by the continued pandemic, and the need in the neighborhood grew, we couldn’t say no anymore.
33WF members who volunteered to work from the office while helping with distribution, began to meet neighbors and handed out what could be spared. A few informal exchanges, giving some extra masks and snack bars to neighbors got the word out pretty quickly to even more people. Shortly after we transitioned to mutual aid at about the same time as other BSA supply sites.
The food pantry was never part of a grand plan. It grew from people showing up—for help, for each other, for the work and love of community. At first, it operated until we ran out of donations every day. Need outpaced supply constantly so eventually we moved to two days a week and regular hours and ensured to meet almost everyone’s needs. There were no flyers, no big campaigns—just word of mouth and trust.
Hoy para tí, mañana para mi y siempre por todxs
Everyone wanted to help: members of 33WF, neighbors, and even people who first arrived asking for help and later returned as volunteers. One volunteer, Citlali, regularly came back with her entire Zumba group to help! She was one of our neighbors who moved themselves to action after brief conversations with myself and other Spanish-speaking members. “Hoy para ti, mañana para mi y siempre por todos” became a phrase I used when talking with neighbors while they waited in line for groceries, diapers, and other essentials. The folk who then became volunteers were people who understood that their well-being depended on the well-being of others.
Inside the office, we centered joy: music, laughter, and simultaneously serving the community as it re-imagined itself. At its peak, our pantry served 200 families daily, with most coming from our immediate surroundings but many traveling from as far as the suburbs.
By late 2021, as workplaces reopened and donations slowed, the pantry began to wind down. The final phase included transitioning resources and referrals to nearby food pantries and service nonprofits. Yet, the impact remained—and so did the lessons.
From electoral work to mutual aid and back – lessons
The pantry taught us that solidarity doesn’t require a program or a strategy. Sometimes, you just show up. And in doing so, you can help build the foundation for deeper organizing.
It taught us to respond directly to material needs—not by guessing or theorizing, but by listening. Our neighbors told us what they needed, and we met them where they were at, without judgment or condition.
We learned the power of being honest about what we were doing and why—inviting people into the work with transparency, not pressure. People aren’t moved by abstract ideology alone—they’re moved when they feel seen, supported, and part of something that matters to them and our communities.
We saw that recruiting people works best when it’s tied to specific, visionary projects rooted in community hopes and needs. Building real political power requires building a culture of camaraderie, discipline, and mutual support. At the core, we are social beings that depend on community to survive, whether we recognize this or not.
The crisis sparked the work—but it was the relationships and the trust we built that carried it forward. Although not everyone who was involved in the pantry went on to become a member of 33WF, many continued to engage, and those who didn’t are still our neighbors and keep these memories. In many ways, this effort embedded our organization deeper into the fabric of our ward and our city. That matters. People remember what we did.
For a year, 33WF provided direct material benefits to our neighborhoods. That’s no small thing. And it wouldn’t have happened if we hadn’t dared to run Rosanna as a candidate and win in 2019, causing us to rent that office. If she hadn’t continued to commit to growing our political project once in office, and to building with other activists.
It didn’t start with a theory. It started with need. With people on the streets demanding justice. With jail support. With people knocking on the window and asking for help.
And with us saying yes.
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We hope you'll join us on Thursday, May 1, 6-10pm, at Rockwell On The River (3057 N Rockwell St) for our 10 Year Anniversary fundraiser with United Neighbors of the 35th Ward!
Tickets: https://bit.ly/peoplepower10
