Please, at the very least, recommend this diary - every Kossack should read this.
On December 6th, 2005, I wrote a diary about FEMA kicking people out, and a new grassroots relief operation called Emergency Communities. This is sort of an update, but more a PLEA FOR HELP. As I said then, only NOW are people returning to their shattered homes - most have been living in subsidized housing which is ending daily. Please read below the fold.
Did you enjoy Christmas? Many didn't:
The first and most important point everybody in America needs to understand is that Hurricane relief is only just beginning. Do not let the media create our frames for our discussion. What I love about DailyKos is how we can focus our energies on topics that the MSM chooses to ignore - yet we are ignoring one of the greatest American tragedies in history.
Okay, enough with the berrating. I also want to say that last time I posted about a new relief kitchen that was just opening, Kossacks were so warm and supportive that it really made a lot of our volunteers happy. So I thank you.
On to the real stuff: Emergency Communities is a new, non-politcal, non-religious, non-bureaucratic form of disaster relief. We formed after Katrina when many of us found it near impossible to volunteer with the "traditional" relief operations. We wanted to create something where anyone and everyone was welcome to come help. If you want to stay for three hours, you can, or three months, you can.
We also wanted to create relief that wasn't handouts (like other org's with their trucks driving around, passing out styrofoam containers of preprocessed food); we wanted fresh, delicious food served in a warm, safe space where residents could gather and talk - in effect, an emergency community center.
And you know what? WE DID.
With the sheer willpower of some of the most amazing people I've ever met in my life, Emergency Communities created the St. Bernard Parish Kitchen, right outside the hard-hit Ninth Ward of New Orleans. We now serve over 1,000 meals per day, and we are known around as some of the best food around. Our lines get longer every day:
Volunteers are now turning away from the other organizations to turn to our grassroots efforts:
Ginny was pleased with how immediately their help was utilized. "That was the ideal thing with this group," she said. "Because with the Red Cross, even after you sign up [before going down] you have to process for two days. This was a place that we could dive in and start volunteering." When the Kendalls first signed up with Emergency Communities, they were told they would be expected to work eight hours a day. In fact, they, like many other volunteers, worked from dusk to dawn.
Sorry if this is a little long winded. Let me get to the point:
WE NEED YOUR HELP!
We need to sustain this operation. So far we have been so lucky to find donors that can help us. But with the New Year beginning, right when more and more families are returning and its getting colder and colder, it's getting harder to get donations.
Please, if you have anything you can do to help, please donate or volunteer.
Also, add some ideas about what you'd like to see in a new disaster relief organization below. Thank you kossacks!